Trout Gone Wild

Wow two obscure trout treks in So. Cal. in one week. This time in December, years ago, I did an amazing hike in the Santa Monica mountains on an equally sunny day with a great friend who later died too young. I dedicate this day to Jacqui. This midweek trek ( Dec. 10 ) was not in the Santa Monica mountains but close as hell to Los Angeles. Like the "Pearl Harbor Day" trek on Dec. 7, this trip brought some weird surprises. Recent rains must have stimulated some movement from some very eager trout. One normally doesn't associate migratory behavior in So. Cal. with early December but a voice inside from my trout-o-meter said: GO GO GO! I was accompanied by Rob who took this photo for me.

I have some fun footage of him that I'll try and add to this post soon. Now in addition to the fact that the fishing wasn't half bad, what was weirder was the presence of stockers mixed-in with the natives. I am not a fan of planted trout but as Rob pointed out, ya gotta respect them for trying to go wild. This is a very odd occurrence. They really had to travel FAR and there is no convenient spot for a DFG truck to purge any surplus brood stock. Here's one of the better specimens taken on a dead-drifted #8 conehead muddler.