East Carson River - Backcountry Early Aug 2019

The long hike into the East Carson backcountry early in morning was not bad, but man it nearly killed me on the way back in the heat! I like the fishing back there, but it is just too much to head back there all too often. 

There is a nice trail from Hangman's bridge near Markleeville which you can take to get back in there. Last year I hiked down from the airport and wouldn't try that again as there isn't much if any trail and you can get lost. I fished with my good friend Todd (Flow from YouTube) and was on the trail around 630 am. 

It was about a 3 to 3.5 mile hike and I ended up about a mile or half a mile below where you would end up if you took the airport "trail" down to the river. The river was in perfect shape at about 300 cfs and the water temps were just right--guess about 60 degrees. There was a huge snowpack in 2018/2019 and it took a while for the river to come down.

Fishing was ok. Fish on average are on the smaller side, about 9-11". Fish populations seem low and they also seem to be concentrated in and around deep holes which this river seems to have every couple hundred yards or so. It is best to skip the shallower water and to focus on these holes.

Found one money run which was loaded with fish but nothing large though. Would like to one of these days, hike even further downstream. We didn't go as far down as we liked because there was a group that was doing a float/camping trip and we didn't want to go below them. We had hiked pretty far in anyway. Looking on the may there does look like some awesome runs and pools a little further down. The river though after a few miles below and to the NV border, doesn't look too good and has a lot of frog water (based off of google map's satellite images).