Fishing The Kern River

JJ and I met up in Kernville for a fishing weekend this fall. I had heard about fishing this river from fly-shop owner Guy Jeans ( http://www.kernriverflyfishing.com/ ). He had spoken to SouthWest Fly-Fishers Club a few months back. Knowing that Kearnville was not to far away and hearing that the fishing was pretty decent, we planned a three day weekend. The first night was spent at a hotel as we did not really have our bearings yet. The second night we also wound up in a hotel because the first nights hotel was right next to the Kern River Brewery http://www.kernriverbrewingcompany.com/ . Really good beer. JJ owns a brewery as well so once he gets talking with the owners and brewers its really easy to get in to beer "tasting" mode. When tasting with full pints it's really easy to not want to drive to find a campsite.


The river was high from that seasons run off and we had very little luck during our first day of fishing. We fished along the main back road in to Kernville that was heavily fished and used by rafters. It was really slow and a little discouraging. We caught a few but nothing worth bragging about.

First day= a few small (really small) fish.

Good sign! We were on the tail end of a yearly Stone Fly hatch!

On our second day after having stopped by the fly-shop we learned (or were reminded in my case) that about 25 minutes north of town there is quality water. This is a section maybe 4 miles long that is designated as single barbless hook/no bait/you can only keep I think it was, 2 fish over 16 inches a day. This allows the fish to grow to decent sizes and keeps casual plunkers from depleting the fish stock.

We hiked in and WoW! The first day was fairly productive. We used emergers and a few small nymph droppers and caught a decent number of fish but day two we pegged it!



At the end of our drift we discovered that allowing the nymph to rise to the surface and then slowly pulling it up stream for a short distance was what they were looking for. It wasn't the most fish we had caught in a day but it was close. Most of the viable looking holes were producing really nice trout.


All of this while the river was really considered to high to have a good fishing day. Brilliant!
Kernville= Good Beer/Good Fishing/Friendly Locals/2 hour or so drive.

We will be back. Oh yes we will.