Making the Most of a Smokey Situation

They just had a fire rip through Kernville, so the upper Kern River was pretty scorched, even road signs had been torched. Kind of a bummer. I brought a couple fish to hand, smaller rainbows, and lost a couple others as I went with super light tippets and barbless hooks, hoping not to do any more damage up there. (And let's not beat around the bush here, I was also pretty rusty having not been out on the water in a few weeks).

The river was down, so the riffles and runs were ideal for fly fishing, but I think that stretch has been hit pretty hard of late by man, and mother nature. Lots of garbage on the water, river's edge.

Makes me want to go up to the high, high Sierra next time around.

In the above shot, you can see the plumes of ash/smoke/dust still whipping up after the fire. They were also control burning out there, so it was just kind of eerie.

Reminded me of what can happen when we don't take care of our fisheries and their surroundings. At the same time, it was awesome to get up there.

I needed it, even if it was only for a couple days and a couple fish!