Heaven Is Hat Creek   By: Cal Kellogg August 28, 2006 More Articles by Cal

It started when I was a teenager. I'd been fly fishing small creeks for a couple years and bait fishing for many years before that. Owing to the fact that I could fool feisty little trout with dry flies in babbling little streams I felt like I was cock of the walk when it came to trout fishing.Boy did I have a lot to learn!

Anyway, Dad and I always enjoyed fishing Battle Creek, Deer Creek and other streams on the Highway 36/32 corridor. We'd always heard about the great trout fishing Hat Creek offered, so one day we made the trip through Lassen National Park into the Hat Creek drainage.

Presently we found ourselves surveying the creek from the truck as it swirled and pulsed beside Highway 89. Finally we pulled into a parking area near a bridge west of Old Station and split up. Dad headed over the bridge to the north bank while I made my way through the brush toward the south bank.

When I got to the stream I was struck by its power and speed. Right below the slab of lava on which I stood, there was a swirling eddy about 6 feet deep. While contemplating what type of fly to tie on, I spotted a pair of husky trout finning directly below me. I tied on a big woolly worm, added four split shot to the leader and dropped it in the eddy.

Young eyes are a blessing and I was able to follow the fly's progress against the bottom. As it neared the trout, they got excited! Suddenly the larger of the pair shot forward, grabbed the fly and I had my first Hat Creek trout on the hook.

By the time I scooped the 14 inch brookie into the net I was hooked. For the next decade, I spent many weekends stalking the banks of the Hat Creek refining my skill and learning its secrets.

As time went by college and then career concerns kept me from making the long hall up to Hat Creek. For the past several years I've wanted to revisit the creek and tap into the nostalgia of fishing a stream I fell in love with as a teen.

On July 27, I was scheduled to join up with Justin Wolff of Angler West Television and Gary Miralles of the Shasta Tackle Company to film a television show on Whiskeytown Reservoir. Since I'd be in the area, I decided to stay overnight and spend Friday fly fishing Hat Creek. When Justin heard about my plans, he confided that he was slated to shoot a commercial for High Country Real Estate in Burney. He suggested that we team up and film a Hat Creek segment for an episode to air in the near future, once he got his footage for the commercial.

Justin and I arrived at Vaughn's Sporting Goods in Burney around 10 o'clock Friday morning. After getting the latest Hat Creek report and some flies from Steve Vaughn, we headed next door to the real estate office for directions to the house Justin was going to film. Upper Hat Creek ran through the house's backyard and that's where we hoped to begin fishing.

A short time later we pulled our trucks in front of the house and I started rigging my rod as Justin filmed. The stretch of the stream behind the house was classic Hat Creek, boasting ample white water punctuated by deep runs and pools complete with undercut banks and plenty of streamside willows.

I started out working a "fishy" looking pool with a weighted muddler minnow. After fishing the pool for several minutes without a hit, I switched to a No. 10 black stonefly nymph.

On the third drift the nymph was swept into an eddy. Pumping the rod slightly, I allowed the nymph to swirl back toward the bank behind a boulder and felt a solid strike. The wild brown wasn't large, but made up for its lack of size with indescribable beauty.

After releasing the trout, I fished the pool for a while longer with only one more strike, so we decided to head downstream. We hadn't traveled far when I spotted an undercut bank that just had to hold trout. On the first drift I quickly snagged, so I tied on another stonefly nymph and flipped it into the current. This time the fly didn't get a chance to snag before a feisty wild rainbow nailed it.

As we continued downstream we encountered a lot pockets that would have been perfect for spinning gear, but the thick willows made using a fly rod impossible. We were just about to turn back when we came upon a fabulous looking pool.

A fast current that came out from under a shady canopy of trees fed the pool. The bank was deeply undercut below my feet and a huge tangle of fallen trees plunged into the pool just downstream. It's the type of place that has everything a big fish needs and is difficult to fish effectively. I started working a seam in the current that veered off toward the undercut.

Almost immediately the fly was intercepted by a hard fighting trout that shot under the bank at the sting of the hook. The trout hung up, so I jumped into the water and reached back into the shade to free it. The trout didn't like my hand and bolted back out into the current. Seconds later I had the trout in subdued and was pleased to see that it was a beautiful 12 inch brookie. What a thrill! I'd caught all three species of Hat Creek trout on successive hookups, what are the chances of that?

My intrusion into the water spooked the other trout in the pool, so we started working our way back upstream. Typically the afternoon offers the best fishing at Hat Creek and when I started back, I found that the trout had really turned on. Before long Justin had all the footage he needed for the show. I could tell Justin wished he could stay and fish, but since he had a bunch of editing to do back in Redding he opted to head back.

After Justin left I drove up to Old Station for lunch and then started working my way down toward the Cassel area where I planned to spend the evening dry fly fishing. I stopped at a number of different spots and caught trout from all of them. Some were planted rainbows, while others were wild browns.

A hatch never developed at Cassel, so there wasn't much dry fly action to be had. Nevertheless, I still managed to pick up a half dozen trout on nymphs and streamers, pushing my total for the day to about 25. None of them were huge, but they'd all put up a spirited fight and were released unharmed. As I stood beside my Ford sipping a soda and watching the sun drop, I knew I'd be back up in Hat Creek country real soon.