Click’s Creek Trip Report
Aaron, Morgan, Nathan, and I left for the Golden Trout Wilderness at 5 am from the Bay Area. Following the advice from Tim Huckaby, we got to Click’s Creek Trailhead (1) around 10:30 and immediately set off to catch goldens in Click’s Creek. Unfortunately, it seems we were a little too late in the year and much of Click’s Creek had already dried up or become stagnant. The first “good” fishing opportunity we had was this small pool near where the trail crosses Click’s Creek once you get into the official Golden Trout Wilderness.
small fishing hole in click’s creek 
small water concourse
Morgan caught the first and second Golden Trout of the trip at this pool. One on his new tenkara rod and one on a small gold spinner.
Aaron and Morgan were convinced that there would be better fishing in the lower areas of Click’s Creek and the Little Kern River so we left the fishing hole and hiked roughly 4-5 miles in to the Little Kern River.
Morgan caught a bunch of fish that he initially thought were rainbows, but were later identified by Avery as Golden Trout. He kept only the biggest one (thinking it was a rainbow- we weren’t intending to eat any golden trout) and brought it back for dinner time.
On his way back to camp, Morgan ran into Avery who had been getting strikes, but no hook sets on her tenkara rod. He took her to his honey hole where he had caught all his fish. She finally caught a 6 inch golden trout on his spinning rod, but it got away before she could take a picture of it. Avery cried on the inside.
Aaron and Nathan had no luck on the Little Kern. They made dinner and then played star realms with Avery.
We thought that the fishing would improve when the bugs come out at night, but there were none (or very few at least). No mosquitoes! We didn’t see any fish rising to take flies :/
The next day, they all went to Morgan’s honey hole, but saw no fish there- even though there had been a lot the day before! On the way back they found a bunch of fish in a large pool, but they were all holding to the bottom and refused all of our spinners, flies, and swim bait. In the end, we concluded that the big ones might have actually been sucker fish and not trout.
We decided to hike out by following Click’s Creek up until we met the trail. There were a lot of small goldens in the pools that spooked easily. Morgan caught another 6 inch golden, but Avery and Aaron were skunked.
It was a long up hill hike back up to the car. Morgan, tired from catching all the fish, brought up the rear. He refused to put away his fishing rod, carrying it 95% of the way back, thinking he might be able to catch yet another beautiful golden trout.
End totals
Golden trout caught
| Aaron | 0 |
| Avery | 0 |
| Nathan | 0 |
| Morgan | too many to count (more than 10) |
I love your blog! You ruined 30 minutes of my productivity at work…. 😊 I love your writing style.
Water temperature…. Well, I’m pretty sure that was the issue at the little kern. I was at the forks. The main fork of the kern is a lot bigger than the little kern. I measured 57 degrees in the morning…which is good for trout….not perfect, but good. By eod it was 72. Not good for for trout. It’s melted snow so after 30 miles in the sun, with the big rocks also heating up it just gets warm.
But…. I know so little about clicks. it’s a special place, but i have only been once. You have taught me… and I’m not surprised it was a trickle. I wonder if all the trout move downriver to the little kern? Of if they just die off in a low water year like this.
I crossed the little kern on the forks trail yesterday and it was warm and 6 inches deep. It must have been tiny up where you were. In a low water year like this one aug to oct are going to be tough for fishing. I get it makes sense that it gets skinny in low water years.
Bugs…. That does not make sense. It must also have to do with water temp and flows. I did not see any hatches of significance this weekend and I expected too. I fished size four huck hoppers the entire time. Battleship sized huck hoppers. And the action never stopped. At night I fished a caddis emerger behind a huck hopper right in front of camp and did well. I noticed random caddis throughout the day, but no hatches of significance. My buddy saw a ton of hatches on the kern just two weeks earlier.
Next time fish with me and we’ll catch twice as many as morgan…. 😊