Brandon and Pop

Valles Caldera
East Fork

September 12, 2009

Brandon and I have been looking forward to going on our trip to the Valles Caldera to fish the East Fork up to its headwaters. While driving on the road to the staging area we crossed the East Fork and we stopped for a look at the water conditions. The fishing access is from the stream crossing to the headwaters is about 6 and one half miles upstream. About one third of the way Jaramillo Creek converges with the East Fork.

After our orientation at the staging area we chose to hike along the fence line to the East Fork just below the confluence of the two streams. Fishing is the best from the fence-line to the headwaters. My friend Noah Parker from LOE Guides told me a few days earlier that the water was very low. Fortunately, it rained every day for a few days and the water had started moving again and was clear.

The East Fork is a little more challenging than the Rio San Antonio but not by much. The fish here are more skittish, if that is possible. Basically, if you can see the water the fish can see you even if you are fishing upstream.

We started with a yellow Joe’s hopper pattern for Brandon and I tied on a black hopper pattern. We quickly realized there would be no standing today. We both fished on our knees making 30 foot casts and we still spooked the fish. Next lesson: Lower profile and longer casts. This was one-cast water today. Brandon got a class on how to keep his line in the air until he was ready to land his fly gently on the water. It took awhile but he made some improvement along the way. The fish just were not taking our lead.

I know orange is a good color so I tied on an orange stimulator to my tippet and Brandon’s. I hobbled on my knees, trying not to lose my balance, to a long narrow stretch of water with high grass over-hanging on both sides and gently lowered my fly to the water and within a foot of drift a resounding splash occurred and a 13 inch wild fat rainbow swiftly came to hand. “Now we know what to do Brandon, I proclaimed.” Brandon agreed.

I found another spot a short pace ahead and same technique different fish; another nice rainbow to hand. We continued upstream for a mile or so and fishing was getting better. The further we went the better the fishing.

We both were so busy stalking and fishing our lunch time was passing so we found a soft piece of ground to set our table for lunch. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with shoe-string potatoes and cool water and topped that off with a beef stick each and some nutter butter cookies for desert…it doesn’t get much better than that. While eating our lunch we saw a thunderstorm brewing to the northeast. We had planned to fish to the headwaters and were only a couple of miles of stream away but decided it would be in our best interest to start the trek back to the staging area fishing along the way. The lightning storms in the part of the state can be electrifying. Pardon the pun.

Fishing continued to be good and fruitful, as they say. Do you know what you have when you set the hook in a fish too quickly and a very small fish smacks you in the face?

It took us about an hour and a half to get back to the fence-line fishing most of the way. Brandon gave me quite a compliment on our way back while we were hiking up a hill beyond the fence line and half way up the hill Brandon asked, “Grandpa, can we stop for a minute to catch our breath?” My response was, “You just made an old guy feel good,” and we continued to the top of the hill for an extra breath for Brandon. In no time we were back to the truck, braking down our rods and packing our reels away getting ready to go home.

The storm was still brewing and getting closer. We drove to the entrance to the preserve and I took several pictures of the landscape and the coming storm and started for home. We stopped at the T-Freeze in San Ysidro for an ice cream cone before continuing on with our last leg of our trip home.

By the way, the answer to the question is a happy young boy enjoying a wonderful experience.

…tight lines…Phil