Where all the Rainbows came from

- The beginning - 

Four years ago, I was asked to relocate to San Francisco in the United States by the company I work for. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity, but as a passionate fly angler, and guide on my beloved Lough Corrib, I was somewhat worried that my fly fishing would take a back seat. How wrong I was!

I did a lot of research before leaving Erin’s shores, however I was not prepared for the vastness of California, the wilderness and the multitude of waters to chose from. The only downside was that I would have to spend many hours on the road to get to the fish. My first move was to join the famous Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club, where I quickly heard ‘The McCloud’ mentioned in a somewhat mythical manner....more research was in order. It turned out that a trip to the McCloud River is to Californian anglers, what Lourdes is to Irish catholics! a pilgrimage, and rightly so. It’s a beautiful, very remote river with a wonderful history, and spectacular fish. Native American Indians inhabited the banks of this river and harvested the once abundant pacific salmon species that swam in it. In the 1880’s pioneers tried to transport salmon great distances overseas but they did not survive, however the powerful Rainbow trout stood up to the challenge of ocean voyages, and were shipped to New Zealand, South America and Europe where populations flourish to this day.

Going it alone was not an option, so I signed up for a club trip with 4 others and I was off! To fish the famous, and most productive section of this river, you have to camp in a very remote wilderness area, that is not the easiest to access. Home to bear, mountain lion, rattlesnakes and poison oak, to say I wasn’t apprehensive would be a lie. A wrong move on this river and it could very easily be your last. There is a maximum of 10 anglers at any one time on the conservancy water, so once you start fishing you may not see your friends or another angler for the entire day. At times my only reference point was the faint smell of cigar smoke from my good friend Bob as he stood mid river throwing a dry October caddis under the elephant ears on the far bank.

Upon arrival, the river simply took my breath away, with its beautiful aquamarine color, and a setting that would put any Hollywood movie production to shame. It has a varied flow structure, and you can find plenty of water to fish any method you like here. The vast majority of US anglers either fish nymphs under an indicator or streamers on the McCloud, and on that first trip, I watched in horror as an angler roll cast a rig that would have no trouble in taming a tarpon, and subsequently scatter every fish in the pool half way to Oregon. What the hell have I let myself in for I thought!

As I stood thinking about this I decided this was too sacred a place for such methods and I chose to try and tempt these fish into taking dries, as there were caddis, small blue winged olives and the very large October caddis in the air. I selected my water carefully, and had good success with small caddis patterns and BWO’s in slower water. The large October caddis however was another story and I later learned and proved the point on subsequent trips, that this fly is not actually eaten in any great quantity by the trout until early November.

A duo rig with a larger caddis pattern like Jonathan Barnes’s lifejacket caddis coupled with a PTN or flashback caddis worked extremely well in faster water, and this is the method I would advise any visiting angler to use as a starting point until the day reveals itself. I say this as I like the visual element and the chance of takes both on and below the surface. However, if it's numbers you are after then high sticking or euro nymphing is the way to go. I had decided before I landed in the US that I would use patterns from Ireland and the UK as much as possible while in this fantastic country to prove a little point to myself, and that is a dozen core patterns would suffice for my fishing here. So far so good on that one, with the exception of some of the much larger insects, like Salmon flies, Golden Stones, and October Caddis, that need to be imitated in this part of the world.

Later on that first day as I stood mid river day dreaming and feeling blessed to be in such a pristine habitat, I turned and was somewhat taken b y surprise to see a deer drinking behind me. She didn’t seem to pay too much attention to me, I guess she had bigger issues to worry about with the large cats in the area. That night was magical around the camp fire, and some of the lads I got to know on that trip became very good friends, and it was they, who actually gave me that warm Irish welcome, which remains very special to me. A walk to my tent after several drops of the amber nectar was like being in the middle of a zoo, with deer, ring tails and fox running around everywhere. We were very careful to store everything away in bear canisters just in case we had visitors in the night, in fact I was tempted to squeeze into one myself!, however it was the following morning when I realized just how wild this area is. I got chatting with the conservancy warden just before throwing a line and to my surprise he pulled out a laptop. He said “take a look at this Gavan, I captured it on my trail cam last night” He proceeded to show me a recording of a very large Mountain Lion which triggered the camera the night before. I asked him where the camera was mounted and he said “about fifty yards down the trail” at which point I looked around to see if there was an AED handy...or a toilet.

I have returned many times since and have had some amazing fishing, but nothing compares to the awe and the magical atmosphere that surrounded that first trip. I am an instructor now at the great Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club and lead trips to this wonderful place, and I must say it gives me great pleasure to see the reactions of people on their first pilgrimage. Will it ever replace Lough Corrib? ....No, some things are too engrained in my heart, but it’s a fine substitute for now.