Last week I was sent to the O’Neil Basin in search of spotted frogs, the O’Neil Basin is a remote area of north eastern Nevada.  South of the basin all of the streams are within the Humboldt River Basin, which winds its way across northern Nevada until it returns to the earth in the Humboldt Sink.  The creeks in the O’Neil Basin and all those from the same latitude northward all drain north to various rivers that feed the Snake River in Idaho. Historically, all of the streams in the Humboldt drainage held Lahontan cutthroat trout, while the northern streams like the Bruneau, Owyhee, Jarbidge and Salmon Falls rivers and their tributaries held redbands in all, bull trout in some and salmon and steelhead in many.  Sadly, this is no longer the case.  The only species that was able to hold on through the onslaught of dams, diversions and non-native species are the redbands.  The Jarbidge system still holds a few bull trout and a few of the Humboldt’s tribs have LCTs, but sadly none of the rivers in Nevada have any salmon or steelhead any longer.  Historical accounts tell of thousands of salmon and steelhead washing into irrigated hay fields along the Owyhee, and the Salmon Falls does indeed have falls that once saw countless salmon each year.  Numerous dams and diversions on these rivers and the Snake ended all that years ago.  There is a movement to bring salmon and steelhead back to Nevada, but in my mind their efforts are pointless because the dams will never come down.  I did find a few frogs lurking in the spring-fed stockponds of the O’Neil basin but they were the wrong kind, chorus instead of spotted.  Along the way I had the chance to fish one stream in the Humboldt drainage, and one in the Salmon Falls’.  Neither of these streams holds its native trout, instead they are home to browns and rainbows. I camped along the first stream on Monday night and caught a few of its rainbows, including some surprisingly big ones for such a diminutive creek.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tent site was a great one, as I fell asleep that night I could hear fingerling trout rising to a heavy caddis hatch.  The trout I caught took a Parachute Adams without any hesitation though most of the fish, like the one below, were small and ranged from 4-6”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However I did catch a couple of nice ones, the first was a nice twelve incher that came over to the Adams and stared at it for a few seconds before gulping it down.  The second fish measured 13.75” and put up a nice long fight with several jumps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day I brought my rod along as I slogged up the North Fork  of the Salmon Falls River in search of frogs.  I didn’t see any frogs, but I did see lots of trout.  Most of the trout I saw were streaking ahead of me in search of a rock to hind under, but I was able to cast to a few in some deeper water that were too preoccupied with their feeding to notice me.  Two of those fish took a size 18 Flashback PT, but I was only able to land one; a nice 14” rainbow that lurched out of my hand as I attempted to photograph it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both of these little creeks held some surprisingly large fish, I spooked a fat 16” brown in the NFSF, but I wish they could have been natives.  Over the weekend I hit Lamoille Creek in the Ruby Mountains south of Elko for its healthy population of small rainbows and brookies.  This is a small, rocky stream that comes tumbling down out of the Rubies, heading in a pretty alpine lake which also is home to a huge population of small brook trout. Once again the Parachute Adams was the fly of the day, I tried a few other patterns without any success before going with the most reliable dry fly in the world.  I missed a ton of fish, but I landed lots too.  The biggest was a six inch brookie, and the smallest was a two inch rainbow.  They were all beautifully colored and very feisty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later in the day I fished some beaver ponds further up the canyon in hopes of some bigger fish, but I actually caught smaller ones.  These ponds are within sight of the road and get hammered all summer long, so all of the bigger fish have probably all been cleaned out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before I wrote this tonight I cleaned out all of my stuff from the travel trailer I’ve lived in all summer and packed it into my Pathfinder.  Tuesday and Wednesday I’ll be on the Jarbidge River looking for YOY (young of the year) bull trout and then I am done.  I fly out of Reno Thursday afternoon to Houston, then Amy and I will start the long drive back to Reno on Friday.  Her internship with Exxon this summer was a successful one, and she’s landed a job with an oil field services company...in Denver.  That’s right we’re moving to Colorado.  We’re very excited about the move, great ski resorts and awesome rivers are all over the place.  I guess the name “High Sierra Trout” will no longer make sense so I’ll have to come up with a new one, any suggestions?