(non-yak) John Muir Wilderness hike and trout slam (pics)

Just got back from 4 days in the John Muir wilderness.  It rained every afternoon, which did wonders for the mid day fishing.  Fished lakes, creeks and the san juoquin river for about 75 trout over the 4 days, almost all C&R.  Ate trout for breakfast and dinner every nite, and left iwth only about half of my food gone!

Man do I live river fishing, even though it eats your tackle.  Nothing like watching a brown tearing across a pool to take your spinner.  I threw small, homemade spinners that I built up myself for 50c a piece so I did not mind when the brush ate them

Got a personal best 16"  brown on a spinner, released because he was too much for me alone to eat.  Most eaten fish were salted and roasted in thier own skins over an open fire- no grill or anything.  Smaller smoked trout are the best of the best when eaten this way!  You get pretty good at reaching into small fires and flipping them without burning yourself!

I also got numerous goldens out of a couple high Mtn Lakes, including a 12"er during a hail/thunderstorm, pulled deeep out of the lake.  I swear those goldens were designed by walt disney, thier colors are wild!!!  See pics below!!

other pics

Beautiful fish. Sounds like you had a great time. Making me think that it is about time for a pack/fish trip  before hunting season roles around.

Bill

the second pic reminds me of man vs wild haha... u trying to be like bear grylls man 

james

Strong work!  would love to get a golden that size. nice brown bag too.
can you show your homemade spinners?

I bought a lifetimes worth of panther martin spinner style parts from luremaking.com. for about $100.  You really do not need all the colors etc.  Like with many things in life, action and size are more important .  How you fish them is also very important.  I first got really into them fishing for Steelhead in while living in Oregon. 

Lures are made to catch the eye of fishmen in the store, so they are overdone IMHO.

I love the panther martin style spinners because they spin well at all speeds and conditions and they do not require clevises.  I usually just go with brass and silver, all in the smaller sizes, especially for small rivers and streams. 

Great report! Nice Golden! I caught my first (and only) at a weekend hike at Kings Canyon. Miss that place! Trying hard to get in shape so I can start making those hikes again