Dreaming of Sonoma trout

Every time I see our local creeks flow with fresh, clear water on the days following a rainstorm, it recalls a recurring dream I’ve had for decades.
In that dream, it’s the middle of a nice spring day and I’m fly-fishing along a shaded section of Sonoma Creek, somewhere south of the Ig Vella Bridge that connects West Napa Street to Riverside Drive.
The trees are so high and large that their branches shade almost all of the water that still is flowing from pool to pool, riffle to riffle, even though most of the seasonal storms are long gone.
I cast my fly upstream into the tailout of a large pool and a beautiful rainbow rises to engulf it.  The fish is bright, colorful and full of fight.  After several minutes I bring him close. Without lifting him out of the water, I shake the fly loose and he swims back to his spot in the pool.
I stroll along the creek bed, wading through riffles when I have to, catching and releasing more trout.  None of them are very big, perhaps 9 to 12 inches.  But they are all healthy and will, when next fall’s rains come, swim downstream to the bay and then the Pacific, spend a year or two eating, growing and becoming ever so much stronger.
Then, when their biological clock tells them its time, they return as steelhead (sea-run rainbow trout) to their home stream to spawn and carry on their species.
I’m not kidding. I really have that dream, or variations of it, several times a year, usually in the spring.
It is partly a memory of the days when I was a boy and did in fact catch rainbow trout in Sonoma Creek, Nathanson Creek and other creeks that are in our Valley’s watershed.
I remember that there was more water flowing later into the summer that there has been in recent decades.  There was enough, at least, in shaded, spring-fed pools for trout to survive the long hot summer and continue their unique, anadromous cycle of life.
As I was walking my Lab, Annie, this week, I saw quiet a bit of water flowing in Nathanson Creek and wondered if there was any way to keep it flowing that way into our drier months. How marvelous that would be.
If price were no object, a guy could buy up a large portion of the headwaters area, get permission to put in some holding dams, and work with the Fish and Wildlife Service on ways to provide summer holding pools in as many valley canyon creeks as possible.  There are still trout in those streams at some times of the year, not as many as there used to be, but some.
Unfortunately most of our creeks will stop flowing in another month or two, and by July, the creek beds will be dry.  The trout, if they went downstream before the water was too low, might make it to the sea.  Most will not.
It is the hard part of waking up from my dream.

I never knew I needed it

Casting demos are big part of the show

(This column was previously published in the Sonoma Index-Tribune.  It has been edited and updated for this republishing in my blog)
By Bill Lynch


I spent part of last Sunday (Feb. 23) at the Fly Fishing Show (flyfishingshow.com) in Pleasanton wandering from booth to booth, outfitter to outfitter, talking fly fishing.
I found stuff there that I didn’t know I needed. For example, the Tenkara USA company was showing off its latest rod versions of a two-centuries old Japanese fishing method – tenkara, which translated means “from heaven.”
Tenkara USA (tenkarausa.com) was founded in 2009 by Daniel Galhardo, of San Francisco, who became enamored with tenkara fly-fishing while visiting Japan in 2008. He brought his discovery and enthusiasm back to his home town and Tenkara USA was born.  Daniel has converted many diehard flyfishers to the tenkara method, including some well-known fishing writers and outdoor equipment celebreties like Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia.
Daniel sent me a link to a very nice video clip on the sport. You can find it at http://www.tenkarausa.com/aboutusa.php.
A tenkara rod is nothing more than a long pole with a piece of line tied to its tip and a leader and fly on the other end. There is no reel. You fish with it by simply flipping the fly into the water.
Today’s telescoping tenkara rods are incredibly lightweight and compact. They collapse, one section inside the other down to a back-packable 20-inch cylinder. When fully extended, the rods run from about 11 to 14 feet. They are very slender, with a significant whip action.
You can carry the line, leader and a few flies in your shirt pocket and that’s all you need.
The prices for a complete rod-line-package runs from around $100 up. Orvis has a Tenkara USA rod, line, leader and fly set for $215.
I need another fly rod like I need another hole in my head, but I want one.
There are always new products or new versions of old ones at the show.
Chota Outdoor Gear company (chotaoutdoorgear.com) out of Belvidere, Tenn., displayed a super, light-weight, adjustable stocking-foot “Hippie” that is perfect when you are drift fishing and don’t need to wade deep, but want to keep your feet dry. They work in three different positions – knee height, above the knee and hip high. They seal tightly in the knee high position so water won’t get in even if you wade too deep.
I couldn’t resist, bought a pair for $125.
And speaking of waders. there was a guy at the show selling the EK Outdoors Stay Clean Boot Puller and Storage Shelf (staycleanbootpuller.com). This product, priced at about $19.95, is something you can stand on to put your waders and boots on, has slots to help you get them off, and can be mounted on the wall to hang your waders for drying out.
Fishing resorts, outfitters and guide services were plentiful at the show and I checked out several, including a slide show and presentation by Cecilia Kleinkauf, owner of Women’s Flyfishing Alaska (womensflyfishing.net). Cecilia leads about a dozen different Alaska fly-fishing adventures every year designed to appeal to women, but spouses are allowed to join in some of them.
I thought this might be something I could persuade Dottie to try (and let me tag along). It sounded very interesting until Cecilia mentioned how many grizzly bears they see on the trips. All she carries for protection is a can of bear spray. I had this visual of me standing knee deep in an Alaskan river with a grizzly peering down on me and Cecilia bravely stepping in with little more than a can of bug spray to ward off the growling monster. Yet, nobody on her trips has ever been attacked by a bear, so how about it Dottie?
An American horse veterinarian turned lodge owner/operator was touting his Puma Fishing resort (pumafishing.com) in Chilean Patagonia. To tease anglers into considering it, he showed a photo of himself holding a 35-pound rainbow trout caught on a fly in his waters, which include some rivers and a large lake.
Closer to Sonoma, Morrison’s Rogue River Lodge (morrisonslodge.com), a show regular, has been on my list because of its fall “half-pounder” steelhead fishing combined with stays at their historic lodge in southern Oregon. Maybe this fall we’ll make it.
The Fly Fishing Show is the ultimate place to create your bucket list for years to come. I’ve run out of space already and barely scratched the surface.