We had heard that one of our favorite fishing spots to visit for the day, was no longer going to be stocked with rainbow trout. The stock fish were eating up the fish eggs of the native cutthroat trout in the West Fork of the San Gabriel River, so land management wanted to give this natural fishery a chance to bounce back. We had not been there for a minute, and thought we’d spend the day to see how the cutthroat trout population was faring. So on a sunny, cool day last weekend, we packed the truck with our 
pre-inspected, oiled and pumped bikes, loaded up a couple of canteens of water and plenty of tiny flies. I packed my baby rod, a six footer that I like to use when fishing under trees in a not-too-wide river. Since the fish in this river are usually on the short side, using such a light rod makes these native beauties feel like steel head on the line! We made sure to stop at the 
liquor store on the way, before heading up the mountain out of Azusa, to purchase our new wilderness pass which would allow us to park in the day use area lot. After parking the truck, we rode our bikes to the entrance, rolled them through the turnstile and headed to a nice pool close by. We took out our standard, which is a modified prince nymph tied above a black zebra midge, weighted below. The Cutthroats usually love the midge when 
the caterpillars in the leaves of the linden trees, hatch and start falling into the currents. You’ll sometimes see them hanging on a silvery, silken thread from the trees. When the fish are not interested in the zebra midge, they love the prince nymph. But on this day we found them to be hungry little critters, going after both with equal vigor! We each had double hookups that day, catching around 40 each. We would ride up the road to the next run or pool, stopping to fish under the big oaks. Boulders, smooth from running water, made perfect perches and seats, as a background of bird calls and babbling currents, created soothing music in the fresh air. We 
had fun releasing all the 7 to 10 inchers back home to have a chance of growing into healthy, fat spawners. Walking the water’s edge, we saw that schools of tiny trout fry were active and abundant. We left feeling hopeful that this favorite trout fishery of old, would grow to be as legendary as it once was!
The day was fun and it felt great to get outside and practice keeping up our catch ratio. We’ll have to go back in the fall and say hello again to the trout that entertained us and see how they’ve grown. With the weather warming up, the wilds keep calling us to get up off our fannies and Live Better Outdoors!
