Fishing Yosemite in the winter?

[Chaz]

Anyone ever fished in Yosemite during the winter? If so I'd like to hear about it.

 

[redietz]

The season closes in the Sierra District on November 15.

 

[Chaz]

Too bad, this year there hasn't even been any rain. There should be salmon and steelhead around though, shouldn't there?

 

[shortrod2]

Hot Creek and the Truckee River are special regs areas open thru the winter. I have not fished the Truckee. I have not fish either in the winter.

 

[CLSports]

I went to Yosemite in March one year and there was 10-12 feet of accumulated snow in the mountain pass. The park roads were not plowed and there was no road access.

 

[Chaz]

There were patches of snow here and there, but there really is a long term drought. If a fire staarted it would burn a very long time. I've already been up to the valley this trip and will go back, but I am watching the weather, there is no precip. forecast.

 

[dryflyguy]

They were having bad drought out there when I visited it in august 2012. Driving back and forth from there to frisco, every reservoir that we passed was down to 50% capacity or less.
Sorry to hear that things haven't improved

 

[barbless]

I don't think there are any salmon or steelhead in the Yosemite region. The regular trout fishing isn't even particularly good there, by California standards (much less Pa. standards, which are higher overall in my opinion).

The American River has a decent run of steelhead and salmon. That's about the closest winter fishing for salmonids to Yosemite, which is in Merced County, about 3 hours away of the American River. The Lower American River flows between Sacramento and Folsom.

Best place to find info on Northern California fly fishing is http://www.kiene.com/forums/

I fished the East Fork of the Carson River in October. South and a little bit east of South Lake Tahoe, about 30 miles away. The wind was torturous. 50mph gusts. Maybe the worst fishing outing I've ever had. And I wasn't even skunked- I caught one 12" rainbow, a sterile put and take plant. Miserable looking. It was all but impossible to fish, even by letting the line out into the wind. The wind was so bad that it pushed the leader along like a sailboat sail, towing the fly beneath it. When I could get the fly to land on the water, that is.

I had scouted the river the week before. Since I couldn't find the sign indicating the route to the river (it's pretty obscure, and not at all where you'd think it should be), I just parked the car and headed up the hill due East, knowing that it had to be on the other side. That turned into a little project. Finally got there

Then I had to get back over the ridge before sundown. Another project

Eventually made it to the crest of the ridgeline.

Around 700 vertical feet up and 900 feet down, according to the topo map I found on-line.

The next time, when I brought my fishing gear, I found the trail. That was easier, but still no carefree stroll. Took about an hour and a half to go 1 1/2 miles. Felt like a lot longer.

Pretty enough place. But I was expecting a wild trout excursion, and I had thought the stockies were confined to the other fork of the river. I also underestimated the wind. I'll never return to that place if there's more than the hint of a breeze.

 

[Chaz]

I'm pretty far south of the American R. There's no water anyway, they only received 3 inches of rain last year, and it hasn't rained yet this year. But I have seen the largest trees on Earth. 36'6" in diameter, and 108 feet in circumference.
The lower branches if you can call them that are bigger than most of the trees in PA. Just incredible.

 

[dryflyguy]

Chaz wrote:
I'm pretty far south of the American R. There's no water anyway, they only received 3 inches of rain last year, and it hasn't rained yet this year. But I have seen the largest trees on Earth. 36'6" in diameter, and 108 feet in circumference.
The lower branches if you can call them that are bigger than most of the trees in PA. Just incredible.

I don't know if you made it to Sequoia National Park - it's not very far from Yosemite.
But they have a giant sequoia there called the General Sherman Tree - that's supposed to be the oldest living thing in the world

 

[Chaz]

Sequoia NP is pretty special, I went there as well as Kings Canyon 2 weeks ago. Gen. Sherman is not the oldest tree, but it is supposed to be the biggest, 279 ft tall, 106.5 feet circumference, 36.5 ft. diameter, volume 52,508 cubic ft. According to the data provided by NPS there are taller trees in the parks.

I went up the trail that goes 3/4 of the way around it, and it took a half mile of walking to get to half the distance to the top. At that height there were no branches yet. But the biggest branch is 6 ft. diameter, biggest than most trees in PA.

wiki "The record-holders for individual, non-clonal trees may be the Great Basin bristlecone pine trees from California and Nevada, in the United States. Through tree-ring cross-referencing, they have been shown to be more than 5,000 years old." But there may be older trees, that are clonal, which means they spread by sending out runners. It's pretty difficult to determine how old these trees are because taking core samples is difficultwithout damaging the trees.

I suggest anyone within a easy day drive to Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia NP's go there, it's very impressive.

Here's a little known fact, from 1864 until the National Park Service was formed the US Cavalry protected these places from spring through the snow season.

Giant Forest

 

[dryflyguy]

When we visited Yosemite , all of the lodging was booked up. So we ended up staying in a small town on the east side of the park called Lee Vining. It's located on the shore of a rather large, very salty body of water called Mono Lake. And we spent a day there. Pretty neat place. It's also referred to as the Dead Sea of California, and when you swim in it - you float like a cork. It has a lot of strange looking pillar like formations called tufa, which are quite interesting to see.
It was definitely one of the highlights of our trip to California

 

[Chaz]

dryflyguy wrote:
When we visited Yosemite , all of the lodging was booked up. So we ended up staying in a small town on the east side of the park called Lee Vining. It's located on the shore of a rather large, very salty body of water called Mono Lake. And we spent a day there. Pretty neat place. It's also referred to as the Dead Sea of California, and when you swim in it - you float like a cork. It has a lot of strange looking pillar like formations called tufa, which are quite interesting to see.
It was definitely one of the highlights of our trip to California

I've always wanted to visit Mono Lake, but it's pretty far from Fresno, many of the mountain roads are closed. There's no snow but they are closed.
On the positive side I caught my first trout of the year today, in the San Joquin R. a first ever, big wild rainbow. No pic though there was an issue with the operator,

 

[CLSports]

I visited Mono Lake when Yosemite was closed due to all of the snow. Very cool place. I was told that the lake level had dropped significantly over the years and that was why those tufas were exposed over the top of the water surface. They were formed underwater. Very unique place. I agree it was the highlight of my trip to that area too. Especially since I was not able to see Yosemite.

 

[JackM]

 

[CLSports]

Precisely Jack.

 

[dryflyguy]

CLSports wrote:
I visited Mono Lake when Yosemite was closed due to all of the snow. Very cool place. I was told that the lake level had dropped significantly over the years and that was why those tufas were exposed over the top of the water surface. They were formed underwater. Very unique place. I agree it was the highlight of my trip to that area too. Especially since I was not able to see Yosemite.

The reason the lake level dropped so much, is because of water diversion from the feeder streams for drinking water.
Those issues have been addressed however, and the lake's level has been slowly rising again.
When it gets back to it's historically correct level, those tufas won't be visible anymore.
Glad I got to visit it when I did