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[rhyang]

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[rhyang]

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[giantbrookie]

Nice report. You get all over the state to hiking and fishing areas less frequented! I've been to the Yolla Bolly area to look at the geology and always wondered about the fishing. There is a retired USGS geologist who did his PhD thesis up in that area in the 1960s and he said he subsisted on trout as his main course the entire time (fishing the streams I believe) he was doing field work (weeks on end for multiple summers). He had a really interesting observation about the trout populations in the streams during the time he fished there. He said early on the streams he fished had a lot of the brookies, which of course had been introduced. There was apparently a really big winter one of those years and afterwards he did not encounter another brookie in those streams and the same streams then repopulated with native rainbows that moved up the stream. It sounded a bit like "nature's native trout program". Anyhow I've never fished up there myself but have always been curious about it, especially those few lakes, so your report is very interesting indeed.

[rhyang]

Wow, that is wild. I get the impression the stream fishing is better at lower elevations where there is more flow, but I think I'd go in early season. That said, most of the Middle Eel drainage is closed to fishing to protect steelhead. There are some exceptions, for which I had to look carefully in the DFG regulations. The Thomes Creek drainage is apparently in an entirely different region than the Middle Eel, and so regular trout season applies. I have a feeling the lack of well-maintained trails and long unpaved approach roads keep the hordes away. Fine with me