Trip Report by Nick Feller
This year I had an adventure of a lifetime. I set out to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada. While I only ended up hiking half of the trail, I spent 100 days out, and the sections through the Sierra will forever live in my memories as heaven on Earth. You can follow the adventure on my NorCalTenkara YouTube channel, but here I wanted to share four of my journal entries from my favorite, fishiest days!
Day 63
Mile: 834.1 – 850.4
Today was a big day.
We woke up and had our usual coffee and cocoa, but today I had a Hostess fruit pie also. I’ve never been a huge fan of them, but I just realized back in Bishop that they have over 400 calories. I’ll take that for a quick and easy breakfast.
After that we pretty much just beat feet up Muir Pass. We ran into a few old friends, and met some new ones along the way. Sandals, we hadn’t seen since our pizza party almost a month ago. Unfiltered, it had been since Independence. Then we met KaBoom, who likes my fishy FarOut comments, and Mio, who has a custom pink backpack. We met countless others whose names I’ve forgotten, along with a whole bunch of JMT (John Muir Trail) hikers who are going SOBO (southbound).
I wouldn’t call Muir Pass spectacular, but Muir Hut on top was very cool. Not climbing Mount Whitney, I missed seeing Whitney Hut, so I’m glad I got to see this one. You could even go inside! It basically just was a small, round, stone room. Probably a warming hut, or just somewhere to shelter in bad weather.
Coming down the other side of the pass, we entered Evolution Valley. The whole place was like a real life painting. The lakes were crystal clear and had a beautiful almost teal hue.
I found a small creek spilling into a wide section where I could see loads of trout. Surprisingly big trout. It was here that I caught my new personal best golden trout! I didn’t have a way to measure it, but I’d say at least 16″ and thicc. I caught a few more here, all around 12″ or so. Maddie even tried, but lost a nice one after a decent little fight!
From here we carried on to the inlet to Evolution Lake. Maddie filtered water and hung out with Mio while I fished. I met a few other hikers who were all interested, but they didn’t want to give it a go. Everyone seems scared they’ll break the rod or something. I fished around for a bit and caught 6 or 8 more golden trout, most around 6″.
We had a quick lunch and decided we really needed to get to it to make the miles we wanted to today. Thankfully it was all downhill. We cruised on another 10 miles or so to where we made camp. I think we actually even made pretty good time! I still had time to fish around a little at Evolution Creek next to our campsite!
I caught another half dozen or so out of Evolution Creek right next to our campsite. They were all over an olive sakasa kebari! It wasn’t long before the mosquitoes got too bad to bear and I went to hide in the tent though.
For our longest day in the Sierra, I was rewarded with a trophy made of gold. Needless to say, I’m VERY tired and VERY satisfied!
Day 64
Mile: 850.4 – 868.2
I got my Sierra slam!!
After our usual morning routine, our first stop for the day was Evolution Creek. This time, not to fish, but to ford it. Thankfully, it was only calf deep when we crossed at 7:30 am. Unfortunately, it was also very cold at that time. Maddie forgot her sun gloves on the other side, but luckily some other hikers were over there and brought them across for her.
Our next intended stop was the South Fork San Joaquin River. I had heard there were brown trout in this watershed, and that’s the last I needed for a Sierra slam (a rainbow trout, brown trout, brook trout, and golden trout). While looking for Muir Rock, we missed the last good spot to access the river though. So instead, we pushed on to Piute Creek.
We stopped at the bridge over Piute Creek, less than a mile from where it spills into the SF San Joaquin. First cast under that bridge and a rather large trout exploded out of the water to hit my fly. I almost thought it had missed, but when I lifted my rod, the hook set into a brute! It made two runs for the fast current, but I was able to steer it out and to my feet. Scooping it up in my net, I was pleasantly surprised to see a brown trout! A nice one too! Probably 15 or 16 inches.
A fun fight on the Yari rod with 6x tippet! I was ecstatic to have my Sierra slam done! I continued to fish for a few more minutes and landed a nice rainbow and a goldbow that had a bite taken out of it. Yikes!
From there we began our climb up Selden Pass. I stopped at Senger Creek on the way up and caught a few small goldens there. I had been excited to fish Sallie Keyes Lakes a bit further up, but when we arrived it looked like another thunderstorm may be rolling in, so we high tailed it over the pass. It was definitely hard to walk by all those big ol’ goldens!
Atop the pass, we were rewarded with a spectacular view of Marie Lake. We cruised down to have dinner there along the shoreline. When we got there, the mosquitos were horrendous so Maddie made a quick dinner while I just did a little fishing. I had heard this lake held trophy sized goldens, but I only caught a single brook trout. It was a beast of a brook though! With that one, I actually had gotten the Sierra slam all in one day!!
We had originally planned to camp at Marie Lake, but we were feeling so good we just kept going. We ended up doing our longest day in the Sierra of 17.8 miles, but my phone says I did over 20 miles with my extra walking! I’m pooped, but I feel great! Today was amazing, and I look forward to what tomorrow holds!
Day 79
Mile: 1058.6 – 1080.3
Another big day, but this time with some fishing! Including a new species!
I woke up this morning to severe smoke. I was thankful to have service, and was able to look up that it was still from the fire in Yosemite. I hope they made some good progress on it today. The first lake we reached today, I was excited to fish… but upon arriving, it didn’t have a good vibe. I could see small fry around the shore, so I figured anything decent was deep in the middle waiting for the evening to feed.
We knew we had some big miles coming today, so we just carried on. Climbing up and over Carson Pass, we were rewarded with some nice 360° views. A few snow patches, but nothing sketchy. The “hard” passes are officially over, at least until Washington.
On the far side of the pass, we stopped for dinner at Frog Lake. This was a very small lake, but I heard it held big rainbows. While waiting for my dinner to rehydrate, I went to scope it out. I first set up the Yari with 10.5′ of level line, a few feet of 6x tippet, and a dry fly. After 5 minutes without any action, I returned to stir my meal. While there, I swapped to a 13′ level line, a few more feet of tippet, and a pheasant tail nymph. Before my dinner could finish, I caught a nice 12 or 14 inch rainbow trout. Light in color, but vivid parr marks for its size. After dinner I caught 2 more similar looking rainbows in the 8-10″ range. It had been a few days since catching a fish, and even longer since catching one on trail, so this felt good!
Pushing on, we actually met up with the Tahoe Rim Trail and made it to familiar territory! We were here 2 years ago, but came from a different direction. The spot we had intended to camp was full… but it worked out, because we found a great spot next to the Upper Truckee River all to ourselves.
With limited daylight, I went out fishing fast! The Upper Truckee is a small stream winding through a meadow here but it’s also wide open, so I set up with the Yari rod. I tied on my 10.5′ line but this time with a wire wrapped sakasa kebari. I missed my first bite, and moved upstream. First cast into a new pool, FISH ON! After a quick fight, I found myself holding my first ever cutthroat trout! A native Lahontan cutthroat, and a spectacular specimen! I had never ever seen a cutthroat in person, let alone caught one! I got an awful picture, and returned it to the water. Next cast I caught another tiny 3″ one.
I ran back to camp to tell Maddie about it all! I was just too excited! With just a little light left, I decided to try just one more hole up. I found another beautiful 8″ or so Lahontan on my first cast. This time I was able to capture a proper photo, both for the California Heritage Trout Challenge but also for my personal records. I want to remember that one forever.
As it got dark, I retired to the tent and I crawled into my quilt. Tomorrow should be an easy 10 miles into Tahoe. I might even do a little more fishing in the morning, we’ll see…
Day 86
Mile: 1179.8 – 1195.4
Made it to Sierra City!
Today we were on a mission! We had to get to town by 5pm to make sure we could get at least something to eat from the general store. I guess we must have really turned on the jets, because we ended up making it just before 2pm!
The first thing we had to do was find somewhere to stay… This ended up being more difficult than we had anticipated though. Everywhere in town was booked up full. The magic of the trail presented itself though and the owner of the Buttes Resort let us rent out his attic for a couple nights. It was actually very reasonably priced, and nicer than half of the places that we’ve stayed on trail.
By now we were really getting hungry, almost “hangry”, so we rushed over to the store. They had a grill inside with a limited menu, but it had all the basics. I had a hot pastrami sandwich that I would definitely order again! Maddie had a burger, and we split an order of fries. It was a great lunch stop.
I had been intending to meet up with my friend Martin (@sagehearttenkara on Instagram) tomorrow, but since we got into town so early he offered to come up today. Of course I said yes, so he came and picked me up, and we went 20 minutes or so up the river.
I set up with my Tenkara Rod Co. Yari rod, the usual 10.5′ of level line, a few feet of 6x tippet, and this time a moose hair body sakasa kebari. An oddball one that I tied up over the winter while practicing some new fly tying techniques. Martin was using the riverpeak Kiwami 380 rod with a futsū kebari, but I’m not sure of his line setup.
This place was magical. Riffles and pools as far as the eye could see, around every bend. Martin and I worked our way up a section of river back towards his car and must have caught 50+ rainbow trout between us. I was having very good success swinging my kebari across seams!
After having some fun, catching fishing and catching up, Martin took me back to the hotel. Maddie and I relaxed and called it a night not long after that. Sierra City is amazing and I can’t wait to see more of it tomorrow!
My gear throughout this long hike was the Tenkara Rod Co. Yari and Beartooth rods, a few varying line lengths, 2 spools of tippet, SO MANY KEBARI, and my Ikari L fly box, all kept in my Yonah Simple Pack, strapped to my shoulder.
Nick Feller found tenkara while going down the rabbit hole of ultralight backpacking and fell in love. Follow Nick’s tenkara adventures on Instagram @norcaltenkara.
This article originally appeared in the 2022-23 issue of Tenkara Angler magazine.
Do you have a story to tell? A photo to share? A fly recipe that’s too good to keep secret? If you would like to contribute content to Tenkara Angler, click HERE for more details.
When you buy something using the retail links within our articles or Gear Shop, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Tenkara Angler does not accept money for editorial gear reviews. Read more about our policy.
Discover more from Tenkara Angler
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Nick Feller! Thanks to your beautifuo writing and fabulous photography, this article led me to a good number of Tenkara trips that I will take this summer. I’m 73 and won’t do the epic day-after-day hiking that you did but there are plenty of roads that will take me within striking distance of some of the places you fished. These are all places I would have missed without your excellent travelogue. Much appreciated. I love you, man!