Fishing/Camping July 31-Aug 2

[kernriverlover]

Well we made it home safe once again. What a trip this was, i have to say one of the best roughing it trips in a year. We camped...and make sure you catch this fisherman/women. 4.6 miles below McNalleys. There are alot of areas there that are unfishable unless you walk through alot of weeds/rocks. BUT it is fishable for those of us that are willing happily to do that. We were able to get up there around 8am from Fresno on the main river and found a good spot that no one could camp around so we were very secluded. It was wonderful considering on the way to McNalleys Sat morning to get a few things, there were 43 cars at Rincon and 21 cars at ant canyon which was walking distance to our camp.

Oh...before i forget, the water was running under 300cfs which was perfect for swimming. We walked up stream, forgot our tubes but never go there without lifevests. Nice when your kids ask for them before we even walk down to the river. We floated on our backs, feet first about 35yds to our beach and daddy was in the middle of the river waiting to catch the little ones. Im so mad we still arent there! ERRRRRRRRRRRRR

The five of us caught and released appx 10-15 fish a day. That area as i said is hardly fished so always fish behind the big rocks or on the other side of the river in slow edies. We kept 2-3 fish a day so that the kids could enjoy what a REAL fresh fish tastes like and holy cow did they devour those. My 15yr old caught a beauty...appx 16in but it was so fat and we brought that one home and holy cow was it yummy. The fat on it kept us from eating or getting any bones in our mouth...wish we knew how to filet a trout. My 11yr old lost more fish hooks from egg fishing than i can count and me (mommy) got so tired of putting new ones on every 10 min that i finally talked him into a lure (my fav fishing). I put on a yellow rooster tail (which he lost...lol) but before he did he hooked a fish so big i couldnt believe it...another thing we had to teach him when he was crying (there is a story son called "the one that got away"). All the darn way up to the shore, spit it out and then had an 11yr old crying. Its okay, we went back for more. This poor boy tried SO hard for two days and just kept getting short strikes...come on, he is just learning...lol. The last night we were there, i told mark im taking him up stream. He finally caught one but it had to go back but as you will see on his smile, he didnt care, he was just happy to catch a fish himself. My daughter on the other hand just held everyone fish and enjoyed the camping. Our 15yr old caught the big one of the weekend which ill post and was happy cause it was bigger than dad's who caught fish pretty much all day. Actually my 15yr old did the same but only kept two that were big enough. I pretty much fished and let them reel in anything i hooked.

Years ago you couldnt get my pole out of my hands but ya know what...watching your kids camp and say "mom, dad, one day im looking forward to bringing my kids here". Watching that and seeing the fun and smiles is as much fun or more than fishing ever was. Okay...its close but all in all, we caught fish everyday, had a blast and cant wait to spend thanksgiving there for 4 fun filled days.

Where are all the fishing reports anyway. I miss them, we dont have alot of posts anymore...what happened?

Take care, tight lines and be safe.

Wish me luck on posting pics...haha. Hope i dont bore you too much. Darn it, files are too big...let me scan them and hopefully i can come back and add them to this file.

[hookin]

Great report think I might have seen you up there. Hope everyone is just out hookin and will post soon. Maybe the webmaster was right about the old forum being better and easy to join in. To bad a few ruined it for us.

Im having a great time on the upper this year. Been worth every cent of the thousands of pennys in gas from LA the last 4 trips. I think Im hookin the ones I released last trip. Maybe I should tag em. Kern River you rock. Hookem Daniel.

[kernriverlover]

Well if you go to where we were you could probably get about $30 in lures that we lost...hahahaha. Thats fishing right? My poor 11yr old son Joshua would feel SO bad when he lost a lure and i kept telling him "thats fishing"...this kid has such a wonderful heart, wanted to pay daddy back for all the lost tackle. Was so cute. Okay, lets try to get these pics up. Im getting frustrated.[attachment=1]Johnny's fish2.jpg[/attachment][attachment=1]Johnny's fish2.jpg[/attachment]

[kernriverlover]

One more picture now that i finally figured it out. Way cool, now we can post pics of our camping trips.[attachment=0]kids dinner snack.jpg[/attachment]

[kernriverlover]

By the way...im born and raised in LA...im talking LA so know how awesome it is to get out of that pile of ...city and get to the river. We went twice a month before kids and in 03 decided to move out of there, give up our great paying jobs and get these kids some decent schools up here in Clovis. I think we are exactly half way as you are. We go up through Ducor which is a 3hr trip to the main river but what a beautiful drive...except for the three car sick kids. They slept til we got to the main river thur morning since we left at 5am and were awake and sick the entire drive down sat night. Yuck. Anyway, enjoy, dont miss LA but i can tell ya, if you dont live on the outskirts of Fresno like we do, it isnt any different than LA.

[Gary C.]

KRL, great report and thanks' for the pictures. It looks and sounds you guys had a blast, the kind that the kids will remember forever. i have not made it up to the kern for way too long but hope to change that this weekend.
Gary C.

[Sparky75]

Good Old Kern River,
I used to camp with my Mom and Dad where is now the middle of the lake before they built the Dams. I went to Antalope Valley Highschool in the late 40's...graduated in 51.still a Dummie. Lived in Palmdale, population 1500, Lancaster had a population of 5000 then, we thought that was a big City. Oh for the good-ole-daze.........

[THansen]

Glad to hear you and the family had a good time.
Glad to hear you are able to give up the rod and let the kids retrieve them. This will turn them into live long anglers.
This smile on the kids faces are far more rewarding than landing the fish yourself