Bittersweet times in California

Sorry the posts have been few and far in between of late – which for us trout bums is code for “the posts are slow because the fishing’s anything but.”

Like on the Kern River a couple weeks back, when I took two friends from work fishing just above the fly shop in Kernville, Calif., and caught and released healthy rainbows all day long.

One of the guys I brought up hadn’t fished since he was a kid and caught the fish of the day on his fifth cast.

There isn’t a better way to spend your summer than fishing a blue-ribbon trout fishery like the North Fork of the Kern.

But on a sad note, the Lake Isabella area – like most of the smoky Golden State – has since been hit by another nasty wildfire. As of this post, the Piute Fire has already consumed more than 30,000 acres and is less than 30 percent contained.

And wildfires continue to tear through Goleta and Big Sur, putting an end to a pair of backpacking/fishing trips I had planned for this month. I can’t imagine what the people who live around those blazes are going through and how grueling it must be for the firefighters battling the flames in triple-digit conditions.

Here’s hoping the California firefighters can get these fires under control before too much damage is done.

Kern River photo by Brian Milne