virginia lakes 10-9-09

wanted to go somewhere new and far away. flipped through some magazines and decided on virginia lakes. convinced one of my friends to come with camped out in an area of national forest sites designated 139. 2minutes drive from lakes was free camping no faucets but was right on virginia creek I guided my friend timmy in the ways of stealth creek fishing and he had a nice rainbow in the first 15minutes of our arrival within a stones throw from our camp site. I didnt put the yak on the water because I didnt want to ditch my friend on shore so we spent the days we were there hiking to fishing spots. we didnt really spend much time on either of the virginia lakes maybe 45 minutes. but we spent most of one day shore fishing one of the upper lakes if you hike a little. we both caught some wild brookies.  Which I find more satisfying that stocked bows. so I was happy bout that. caught my best fish on the 3wt fly rod too which was cool because I totally spotted him in a tree shadow and tricked him into biting. as I hid halfway in a bush!
(probably one of two actually succesful stalks that day-couldnt keep my flies out of the trees!)
weather was freezing -literally- all water was partially frozen every morning, snow on the ground from a couple days earlier. awesome atmosphere. during hikes it was fun  to try guessing the animal tracks in the snow.
did not see any bears but still hung food in the trees and washed all dishes dilligently.

looking forward to going back again to try dragging a big brown out of one of the virginias on the yak

cannot stress how beautiful this spot was

Thanks for the report and picture of the beautiful fish!

Really pretty fish. I wonder how they get those colors?

Jedmo

Gorgeous brook trout! In terms of beauty those are one of my favorite fish. A friend of mine used to live in Carson City and when I would visit we would take our 3wt rods up into the random little creeks in the Sierras south of Markleeville (near the Leviathan mine) and catch lots of those little guys. There's something about stalking little creeks with small fly rods that I just love 

sounds like you had a great weekend, i truly love fishing brookie streams with my 0wt and 1wts, gotta love the spawning colors of a brookie, cameron

I love fishing and exploring the Virginia Lakes area. Created many fond memories fishing w/my grandpa up there. Thanks for the reminder--gotta get up there w/my yak next spring!

yeah I actually went weekdays tuesday to friday to try to beat the crowds, definately want to go back and get some browns brookies are pretty but Im fond of browns too. Haven't caught a brown in a while.
  My friend caught one  that had no red on his belly, (fins yeah) but his belly was pearly white.
In Tahoe I have caught them with yellow bellies too
here are some more pics first from a creek that flows into donner
then the next two are cascade creek in tahoe

they all look a little different