Trip to Silver King Creek

[Grizzly Wulff]

This last Sunday, 12 members of High Sierra Fly Casters of Gardnerville, NV met at Little Antelope Pack Station west of Coleville California for a day trip into Long Valley on Silver King Creek. For most of us on this trip, this will be the last opportunity to fish Silver King in our lifetime, not because of our ages but because of Federal and State Wildlife policies. The end of August of this year, the 11 miles of Silver King creek from Lewellyn Falls to the East Fork of the Carson River will be poisoned to eradicate a healthy population of wild rainbow trout. The intent is to sterilize this creek and then introduce Paiute Cutthroat trout. (See the posting titled “SAVE THE PAIUTE CUTTHROAT!!” elsewhere on this site.)

This isn’t the first time Silver King has been poisoned, in 1963 the creek above Lewellyn Falls was poisoned and Paiute’s were introduced. Except for two very short periods, one of 6 months and one of 3 months, since 1963 this section of Silver King has been closed to all angling. Closed that is to everyone except a few US Wildlife and California Department Fish and Game people who treat it as their own private preserve; last summer two US Wildlife personnel were caught poaching in the area by the Alpine County Game Warden, and the California DFG maintains a cabin in the area where they host “invitation only” fishing forays.

It will be several years before Paiute’s are introduced into the stream, and then a minimum of four years after that before they grow to maturity, and begin reproducing in sufficient numbers to even begin to approach the numbers of wild rainbows that will be destroyed. Based on the previous management polices in place for upper Silver King, the consensus is that this new area will never be open to the public again.

One last comment before I step-down from my soap box. Silver King is a major tributary to the East Carson River. While the Wildlife and Fish and Game folks all promise that the poisoning of Silver King won’t affect the East Carson, there are many who have a healthy skepticism about the long term effects on the resident rainbow and brown trout population.

Long Valley is 4.5 miles from the pack station so it’s not a place where you just drive up, park and start fishing. The pack station is at an altitude of 8200’, the valley is at 7800’, and the high point on the trail is 8800’. Someone in reasonably good condition can do the hike in about 2 ½ hours on the way in, and 3 to 3 ½ on the way out. The trip out can be brutal as it entails a long up hill climb on an exposed, west facing slope with no shade. We choose to use the services of the pack station.


Lined out along the trail

Below Lewellyn Falls, the creek passes through a series of mountain meadows and narrow, plunge pool rich gorges. The meadow sections are a series of serpentine bends where the stream often winds up doubling back on itself. Undercut banks, riffles, and small pools each hold an abundance of small, willing fish whose appetites include anything that passes by. A big fish in this area is 8 inches.


Long Valley


Silver King Creek in Long Valley Meadow


Silver King Creek in Long Valley Meadow


Silver King Creek in Long Valley Meadow


Starting down the gorge

The plunge pool filled gorges hold the largest fish, up to 12 inches or so and as you work your way up each pool holds trout. This is a great place to boost your ego, as the trout willingly take anything offered. The small size of the fish in the creek is due to 2 factors, a relatively short growing season and a lack of deep holding pools for wintering over.

The fish in both areas tend to be easily spooked and very quick to take and then spit out your offering; you only get one chance with these fish, miss a strike or spook one and its move on time. A lot more fish were missed than were caught and released by our party, but no one was complaining.


A resident rainbow

We left Long Valley about 5:15 and were back at the pack station a little after 7. A quick, unscientific survey of the participants indicated several things; there were a lot of very sore backsides, no one was anxious to climb back on a horse, and everyone would do it again if the opportunity presented itself.

[Mostyn]

Hey GW,

Absolutely Gorgeous photos; and what a beautiful area, well worth the effort to get there. You'll have everyone drooling over their key-boards with envy! - Brilliant.

[jmp]

Amazing! I can tell that you know how lucky you are to fish there.

[greendrake]

What a beautiful stream in a gorgeous setting! Sometimes man just refuses to let well enough alone. :thumbdown: Undoubtably the Paiutes dissapeared and the rainbows got established by humans interferring in the first place. It's a shame!

Will

[Danny S]

Excellent report and photos. Looks like a beautiful place to get away from it all. I've only dreamed of such a trip; going in on horse back and fishing rarely fished areas.

But, am I confused or am I not seeing the forest for the trees? I read the documentation posted as part of the SAVE THE PAIUTES thread and according to the first document, the Paiutes were native only to the section below the falls, which acted as a natural barrier preventing them from going upstream to spawn. Yet, the Paiutes were introduced above the falls several years ago and that section was closed to fishing except for a select few "special" folks. It would seem to me they should attempt a balancing act with the Paiute population and have them only in their native area (below the falls), or leave things as they are. After all, there is apparently already a healthy population above the falls.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for conservation and saving endangered/threatened species, but it seems they are extending the range of a sub-species rather than saving it. All that said, I have no knowledge of the area, what may have been native in other sections of the watershed, how much of a barrier the falls creates (does it somehow preclude downstream movement of a fish?), is the Paiute population above the falls larger than what would exist below the falls, etc. Just had questions pop into my head regarding the whole project and wanted to share them and maybe get better educated on their intent for this project.

[Brooktrout]

beautiful pics. sorry to hear about some of the politics of that stream.