With the water situation the way it is in the area currently (and looking at how long it may end up being that way) I think I've finally decided on heading up to Birch Creek for my son's birthday camping trip. The only problem I'm having is deciding where to go!
I definitely want all the kids to catch something, at least one, and multiple fish would be great. They all enjoy eating the fish we've been able to keep, so I think at least one meal should be an eat what you catch meal. Is the fishing about the same anywhere you put a line in on the creek, or are there some areas that would be better than others? I know of the BLM campground south of Lonepine - [url "http://www.blm.gov/id/st/en/fo/upper_snake/recreation_sites_/Birch_Creek_Campground.html"]http://www.blm.gov/...reek_Campground.html[/url] -[url "http://www.blm.gov/id/st/en/fo/upper_snake/recreation_sites_/Birch_Creek_Campground.html%29,"][/url] and at this point I think it's where we're going to end up, but I know there are a couple other "campgrounds" in the area. Pretty sure there's one just a few miles past Lonepine.
Anyway...help is definitely appreciated if you're familiar with the area. I just want the little ones to be able to pull a few fish in =). I can be skunked and deal with it, the kids get skunked and decide they don't like fishing so much =/. Thanks guys.
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I mostly flyfish birch creek. I know a lot of people do well with bait in the hole right in the campground. I usually go up to the styles and fish with Renegades like others have said.
Windriver
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Since it is a popular family fishery, most of the folks gather around the lower stretch and campground below Lone Pine. Like Windriver, I like to fish upstream above Lone Pine. If you want to venture upstream from Kaufmann Rest Area above Lone Pine, you can have a lot of fun with the wild Brook Trout along with some Rainbows. Not very big fish, but, I would rather skip the crowds of people.
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Do you think there will be a lot of people up there the week before Memorial Day Weekend? I know I'm getting the itch to get out and I'm sure others are, but I'm not expecting a huge crowd. If I should I'll get in the state of mind to be expecting one, lol.
I'm pretty interested in catching brookies - are they around below Kaufmann, or is it mostly rainbows? I'm leaning toward the large BLM site mainly for toilets for the kids, but they're no strangers to attending to business in the woods. We've been camping at undeveloped sites mainly for years and we're used to bringing everything we need with us. Should I be looking into setting up camp at the Kaufmann site to avoid the froo-froo campers, or will Kaufmann be packed too?
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I think there will still be a fair amount of folks up that way the week before Memorial Day weekend. But, still, not as many as on the Holiday when it is like an outdoor zoo.
Personally, I preferred the area above Kaufmann's. Not the greatest camping (no shade), but, they do have outside toilets.
Pretty much stocked Rainbows is all I have ever seen below Kaufmann's. The farther up you walk the creek, the more you will see the Brookie population.
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I wouldn't recommend camping at kaufman, its toooo open unless you have a trailer. The lower campground is good but the farther you get away from it the better the fishing is. Also plan on taking some wood with you, the last few times I have been up that way I have noticed there isn't squat to be had once you get there.
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Thanks for the info guys, I greatly appreciate it. I'll load the old burb full of wood (maybe borrow the in-laws Datsun bed trailer for the task) and probably end up at the lower campground, gonna be getting up there mid-afternoon and I'm not sure which spots will be open. If I do end up at the lower, we'll have to take a day trip up the creek on Saturday. Stocked rainbows are cool, but the kids want to eat as many different types of fish as they can, LOL. Animals.
And yeah, we're tent campers. I can deal with a certain amount of open, but I definitely understand TOO open. If I can get the suburban parked right and the tent set up to give us a bit of privacy it may work out. We'll scope it out.
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Some good spots for that setup. There are lots of brookies down in the camp ground too, I usually catch one for one down there actually when I have fished it.
Good way to eat those little brookies, fry up a half pound of bacon, and just fry up the cleaned headless brookies in the grease.... tasty IMO.
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Went up a week early just to scope it out, I think the BLM campground should do us fine...some decent little spots there. Not a ton of bites, but when I put it in the right spot I would usually get bit pretty quick.
My daughter finally caught a fish. A sculpin, but she was stoked. I managed to get a little sculpin too. Blake, a friend of mine that hadn't caught any fish this year over the course of probably 8 trips finally pulled two in, and I've got a pic of him attached. My 3 year old son pulled in a tiny little brook trout in the 5 minutes he was patient enough to fish, lol. The pic makes it look as if he's just showing another fish (see one, see them all). My wife caught two brookies about as long as my pinky finger (thinking about it, I didn't see any brookies larger than that), didn't get pics of those, spaced it. I managed to bring in three rainbows that were decently sized and pull them in...decided the best way to show them off would be as Marcus Fish Fingers.
Overall it was a successful trip and if weather decides to agree next weekend there'll be another update here and hopefully a lot more pics.
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nice job and good on you for getting the fam out and fishin!
Cool to see the sculpin, never caught them out there but Ive never fished anything other than flys out there either.
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I have to say, I have never seen a sculpin caught. All the times I have left a worm on bottom where I know they live I have never pulled one in. Thats a first for me seeing that.
Good you got out and have a place to go and camp and have some fun.
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Just got back from camping at the BLM campground on Birch Creek (
http://www.blm.gov/id/st/en/fo/upper_sna...round.html). We had a blast. Brought the kids' bikes and they rode them most of the time. The dirt roads there were great for them. My daughter and little son weren't interested in fishing, but my 8 year old (the one having a birthday) was. He pulled in a little sculpin in our first few minutes there. The next day he was testing out some lures he got for his birthday and managed to catch one on a spinner with a red tail. I was really proud for him...took me 25 years to catch my first fish on a lure, lol, and that was on Wednesday.
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My wife ended up pulling in 5, only got pics of 2. She was preoccupied with other things most of the trip though, so she didn't do as much fishing as she really would have liked to. Wish she would have told me, I'd have taken over for a little bit.
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I threw aside the worms this trip, excited about the prospect of catching fish on lures, and tried out a couple panther martins I picked up on Friday. Actually, that's a bit of a lie...I threw out about 5 worms and all of them got eaten off the hook in pretty short order so I went back to the lure fishing...hard to hook the little buggers when you have bait on the line, must not have been using the right hook size. I ended up catching 15 over the two days and a morning we were there. The black one I got wasn't getting me any bites, so I switched to a holographic blue / pink / green one and fish started hitting it immediately. I think I worked over the three or four spots we hit with it because they stopped hitting it as much as they were, but I'd pull one out every now and again. First hole it started working on I pulled out 5 in a row. Only caught one brookie the whole time (out of all of us, only two brookies).
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Overall, I had a blast. It's a fun place to camp, pretty safe for the kids, and definitely close enough to hit a handful of times a year. Thanks for the suggestions guys!
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It's just hard not to fish with worms at times, especially this time of year.
Hope your next trip is as good as this one was for you.
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