Willy Wonka Dark Chocolate River

[flyboy]

The Upper Kern is dark chocolate from Lake Isabella to up above the JDB because of T-storms draining large amounts of soot and ash into the Upper Kern. I couldn't see even a foot into the river and fishing is lousy. I think it will last weeks as this is really fine soot and ash and a very dark color. I hope a monster rain hits soon to wash it all out but that probably won't happen until November or later. Too bad the fishing was great the last month and I was hoping it would be great for at least another month. I see more T-storms on the radar as I type :-( This reall stinks!
Are they stocking the Lower Kern? Not much action there and the river is pretty high still.

[admin]

Appreciate the post and notice, Flyboy. Might help some who were planning on hitting the upper this week. We hadn't heard anything about the water condition until early this morning, but expected it eventually due to the numerous upper elevation thunderstorms. They referred to it as the consistency and color of a chocolate malt. Yes, this will effect upper Kern action. I know they canceled stocking 500 trophy trout Wednesday because of the water shape and they hope to try again by Monday, conditions permitting. They are estimating the river will clear around the 18th but the lake may take one or two days longer to absorb the soot. The way the river looks they might be a mite overly optimistic. The lower Kern has been mentioned around town lately but I can't say it's a high chance until we get some take confirmations. Might be a good time to try below though since it's the lesser of the evils right now. Pray for a quick clearing. If we validate the lower action we'll post here. Sorry it's not better news. Bob, you might want to postpone Chimise if possible.

[flyboy]

Mike, thanks for the update and may be many more will be spared the disappointment of spending a tank of gas or two to arrive at a very muddy river.

I read with disbelief the Fishing Report in the Bakersfield Californian today that says, "“KERN RIVER: Upper Kern River flows continue to drop (less than 600 cfs this week), but the water muddied up some after the thunderstorms over the weekend, but the water was mostly clear by mid-week. The action on trout has been good to excellent with a lot of quality 2- to 4-pound rainbows on crickets, salmon eggs and nightcrawlers. Fly anglers are seeing very good action in the Johnsondale bridge and Brush Creek regions.

Mostly clear???????? Who are "they" that are passing along this misinformation? This is very troublesome.

[admin]

Partly true, Flyboy. I don't know what the Californian uses for sources, but they could just be using different readings or time periods. The inflow data has been in the mid to upper 600 CFS range. It did dip Wednesday to 568 CFS. However, the different gauge readings, taken by the Corps at Riverside Park the last six days, shows flows between 478 and 555 CFS
( http://www.kernvalley.com/news/weather.htm )

Our "official" daily river/lake information comes to us from the Corps of Engineers between 5 AM and as late as 9 AM. To be honest, the Corps readings are taken in the early a.m. but the official readings they send us are yesterday's highs and lows up till midnight. Because of that, we like to show the previous six days readings so our readers can see trends. The temps they send are taken at the dam and they're usually a 4 to 8 degree difference between there and Kernville. Unfortunately, they don't take water temps or report water conditions which would be really nice for our fishing readers. The initial river quality report came to us from the fish hatchery stocking crew. The optimistic estimated clear date of the 18th was their opinion...not a fact.

Through the years we've found that the best, and most accurate, source of information comes from forum members like you. With extremely rare exceptions, they've been honest and consistent. Willy and Bear, that we mentioned in other posts, were just two of the long-time recognized "authorities" and others have stepped up. All this to say, we're very proud of our posting members and greatly appreciate their contributions benefiting our readers.

We hope to locate a die-hard daily fishing volunteer with spare time to revamp our weekly fishing report page. In a sport that changes hourly, that page has only been generically correct for far too long. Best to all.

[flyboy]

Any improvement on the Upperk Kern conditions? This evening Tuesday 9/20 I saw storms on the radar and Upper Kern flows shot up above 700 cfs again. That suggests more difficult fishing conditions again. Also SoCal Edison flow phone reports no diversion at Fairview Dam so I guess still too much sediment in the river to allow for power generation? I was hoping we would get back to the 120 cfs flows on the low flow section like we had when the fishing was great before 9/14. Thanks for any new information .

[flyboy]

Fished Upper Kern today 9.23.11 River has 3' - 4' visability. Trout hard to find between JDB and Kernville. Pretty obvious no stocking this week. We had success but didn't see others catching at all bait or spinners. Flows below Fairview Dam very wadeable just slick as there is a coating of ash on the river bottom. If you kick it up you can't see didly downstream of you.

[admin]

Sorry I couldn't get up river to check status. I was just told that the hatchery crew's estimated time for clearing was way off because we are still getting upper elevation thunderstorms and showers causing the water contamination. I'm looking at some sick looking black clouds right now so I dare not predict any improvement soon. Thanks to Flyboy for posting his observations it means a lot to our readers.