Fishy stuff in Vegas proper |
Rural Southern Nevada |
Utah streams |
Northern Arizona:
Lees Ferry
Flagstaff area |
Further Afield:
Southern California, salt and fresh;
Premium tailwaters (Green, San Juan) |
General Las Vegas links |
Digest of this guide
If you have the time, and you can't take Vegas any longer, consider the alternatives on your way to somewhere else.
Plenty of people would not think of greater Los Angeles as a desirable destination, not even as an improvement on Vegas. But there are various fly fishing resources in Southern California. Two dozen member clubs of the FFF Southwest Council are there, most within 100 miles of Los Angeles. I'm partial to the Long Beach Casting Club: good people, good programs, and a neat old clubhouse and casting pool in a park just down the street from Cal State Long Beach, where I used to teach political science.
The finest fly shop I've ever encountered, Bob Marriott's, is on Orangethorpe near Magnolia in Fullerton, not too far from Disneyland and the I-5 freeway. It's a fly fisher's candy store, with a huge inventory and very helpful staff. Prices are for the most part list, both in the shop and the catalog, but the closeouts and bargain tables have been very good to me over the years. The shop also sponsors a big "fly fair" every fall, with assorted big-name anglers and tyers leading seminars and demonstrations, with displays and sales tables with outfitters and manufacturers. It has effectively absorbed the old FFF Southwest Council conclave.
What about actually fishing? When I lived in Long Beach in the late 1980s, with the entire Pacific nearby and "the word" talking up Bear Creek and Deep Creek in the San Gabriel mountains for trout and King's Harbor at Redondo Beach for major saltwater action, I always went 100 or so miles north, where I had a free couch to sleep on for a weekend. This was even more true when I'd make the long drive west from Vegas and felt no need to enter the LA Basin. So I can't give a full picture of the urban fishing opportunities there. Check the "FF@" listserv's archives or the SWCFFF member club webpages for a well-rounded "Southland" itinerary.
My favorite California fishing is on the beaches around the city of Ventura: the Pacific surf from Oxnard's Mandalay Beach north to the landslide-impaired community of La Conchita (called "Punta" on some topos), notably including Ventura Harbor, the mouth of of the Ventura River at the fairgrounds, and the now-removed oil piers at Seacliff. Long ago, before access got difficult (and I'd figured out more about flyfishing the surf) I enjoyed chasing trout in Sespe Creek above Ojai.
Pierpont Park on the north side of Ventura just looks like it should have fish along and behind the breakwaters and jetties. But the only memorable fish I ever caught there was an undersized halibut. When Bob Johns still had his shop in Ventura, though, I heard tales and saw pictures of big halibut taken there, and along the beach south from the county fairgrounds. (The fairgrounds are near the Great Pacific Iron Works/Patagonia headquarters store (which no longer has a fishing section), not far from the junction of the 101 and 33 freeways. Real Cheap Sports, the Patagonia outlet (though independent since 1998), is a couple blocks away on Santa Clara, on the edge of the historical mission district downtown.)
Immediately north of the Ventura fairgrounds, the area at the mouth of the river offers an interesting mix of sand and cobble bottom, with kelp to make things interesting. Oddly enough, expert opinions are divided as to whether one should fish on the high tide or the low. I think it is easier to fish high water, because structure is submerged, drop-offs more numerous, and the river actually empties into the sea, but I'm not sure it's more effective; low water makes it easier to pick out the holes and rips (and to observe the urchins and little crabs among the bowling-ball rocks there). At any rate, tides don't seem to follow the typical six-hour cadence I usually expect of the salt, so it's worthwhile to get a tide table from a local shop or newspaper or online.
Paid parking at the fairgrounds is accessible off California or Figueroa Streets. The lot is popular with surfers, a class with which I confess I don't have cordial relations (though if only because surfing requires skill, they rank several notches above jet-skiers); park at the lot nearest the river and start fishing the surf across the beach from the road wash-out. Free parking is available on Main Street between the Rt 33 overpass and the Ventura River bridge, on the bike trail that connect Ojai and the sea. The free lot and trail are popular during the day, but I'm not brave enough to park there for an evening's outing.
Mandalay Beach in Oxnard doesn't have the manmade structure that Ventura does. There's just the Santa Barbara Channel extending out to the Channel Islands National Park. But it has classic bar-and-trough bottom contour that is great for surf perch (especially in the winter) and corbina in the summer.
While they are easier to catch, especially when schooled up in holes and rips, I never got into seriously going after the perch; I'd take a few palm-sized ones incidentally, which were overmatched by my then-standard surf rig: a 7- or 9-wt rod with a high-speed, high-density sinking shooting head rated two steps above the rod. Lately a school has developed that uses lighter, floating lines, and very long leaders. (SoCal surf fly guys have become much more technical since the early 1990s, when I worked those waters most frequently.) Since fishing troughs in clear water can be a lot like freshwater nymphing, throwing a WF6F makes a lot of sense; it feels better at the end of the day, too.
Corbina, on the other hand, run several pounds, and they feed right on the edge of the troughs and in the rips of bars. It's frequently sight fishing, mixing a couple different genres: I'd wade up the trough against the current, casting either weighted ram's wool sand (mole) crabs or MOE bonefish flies, neither more than about an inch long. Corbina look like the drum species of the Atlantic, to which they are related. The corbina season corresponds to the beach season, so you have to watch your backcasts. (On the other hand, watching your back cast is a plausible excuse for sneaking peeks at the Baywatch wannababes.)
There's a lot of coastline to explore to the north, toward Santa Barbara. Highway 101 runs on a rip-rap berm right along the beach, which (points aside) tends to have much broader, sandy flats than in Oxnard. At many points, segments of the old 101 provide additional access, if you can get through the clustered motor homes.
A section of the 101 at La Conchita is not officially freeway -- which doesn't make a lot of difference to traffic zipping by at 70 -- so it is legal to park on the long shoulder and clamber over the barrier and down the boulders to the beach. (It was seldom safe and is no longer legal to make U-turns there: use the next exit in the freeway stretch to turn around.)Access to Seacliff is more protected, though it takes a bit of navigating through the community to get to the freeway underpass. There had once been wooden piers to oil wells there but they were removed some time around the turn of the millennium; some maps still show them. (Tidbit: a scene in the dreadful Chinatown sequel, The Two Jakes, took place on one of them.) The removal of structure and habitat from the beach strikes me as a mixed blessing, but this is California, after all.
The best online source for general, seasonal advice about surf fishing in the area is Gary Bulla's "SoCal Fishing Conditions", by a local guide. Gary archives his "surfcast" reports and offers favorite fly recipes and an online bulletin board. While we've never fished together, he has been very helpful and forthcoming when I've been in touch with him over the years. He also does marvelous woodworking.
I remember when Ventura had three fly shops, and then had none. Fortunately, there's now a good selection of fly gear and tying supplies at Eric's Tackle ((805/648-5665 ph.; formerly Moore's) on E. Thompson Blvd. in downtown Ventura. The folks there seem pretty forthcoming with reports and advice, and the memorabilia lining the walls are amusing. A few dozen miles closer to LA, in Thousand Oaks, California has a license requirement for saltwater fishing, with assorted stamps required as well, depending on where and for what you're fishing. The usual chain sporting goods stores and *-marts sell them. You must wear the license while fishing.
The Sespe Creek in the Los Padres National Forest above Ojai deserves its wild-and-protected river status, even for the parts that don't flow through the refuge set up for the California condor restoration project. A user-fee system, the "Adventure Pass," for stopping in the national forest, is tremendously controversial there and frequently flouted.
I like the Sespe near Lower Lion campground, a few miles from where Rt. 33 passes through Rose Valley. The stream is a bit bigger than the Nevada streams and most of the Utah ones I've mentioned. There have been lots of rainbows, though none big -- and some nice size sunfish in slower stretches -- when I've fished it. The fishing aside, the road there passes through simply lovely country. (the region around Ojai stood in for Shangri-La in the original movie of Lost Horizon.)
Formerly, from the Lower Lions campground I'd hike up the jeep trail that parallels the stream, then wade back, fishing upstream, but in 1999 this vehicular access to the area was restricted because of an endangered amphibian species, adding most of a mile to the walk.
Matilija Creek is a nearby stream that parallels Rt. 33 through Wheeler Canyon between Ojai and the Sespe. I've not fished it, but it looks like a nice pocket-water stream, and the Sespe Flyfishers Club has done outings and workshops on it now and again. The creek enters what's left of the Ventura River, which historically had steelhead runs (as did another tributary, San Antonio Creek, a brook just south of the village of Oak View on Rt 33.) Former Interior Secretary Babbitt announced that the removal of the dam on the Matilija would be one of his showpiece programs, since its breaching might recover some spawning ground for the scarce southern strain of steelhead. When? Years away.
If you're inclined toward lakes -- I'm not -- Casitas Lake is nearby. It has a reputation for producing big largemouth bass, but I know nothing about flyfishing there.
After being closed entirely to outside boats in early 2008 to reduce the likelihood of exotic quagga mussels getting into the reservoir, it now has an inspection/quarantine system in place that appears to apply to kayaks and float tubes as well as power boats. Check with the water district for details and timelines.
If you're really anxious for fine, wadeable, big-water fly fishing, the famous Green River (northeast Utah) and San Juan River (northwest New Mexico, near the Four Corners) tailwaters are within ten hours' one-way drive from Vegas at legal speeds. Because the Conejo Valley Flyfishers, another FFF Southwest Council club, maintain handy, well-linked Green and Juan pages in their lovely club website, I don't have to say much here. Besides, these rivers are standard topics in the glossy magazines and commercial websites.
It's hard to get skunked on the Green's "A" section (the first seven miles below Flaming Gorge Dam), where 90 percent of the anglers fish. Downstream, the fishing is tougher, the browns bigger, and the solitude a relief. I prefer the scenery around the Green to what I've seen along the San Juan or at Lees Ferry.
If you're not camping at the Green (relatively expensive in the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area campgrounds [map], cheaper at local state parks and BLM areas in Brown's Park), try Flaming Gorge Lodge in Dutch John or -- an hour from the river but cheaper and nearer more varied food and supplies -- the Sage Motel in Vernal.
If you're willing to face crowds and traffic in the greater Salt Lake City area, try the storied Provo River. It's not on the best route to the Green from Vegas (going across country through Price, Duchesne, and Vernal is faster, with some lovely streams en route), but you shouldn't miss it if you're in the area: lovely setting, clear water, big fish. Even further north more or less on I-15, the Logan (above the town of Logan) was fun on a sunny April afternoon.
You can stop by Lees Ferry on your way to the San Juan from Vegas. At the Juan, I usually camp in the state park Cottonwood Campground. Abe's Motel and Fly Shop, the historical Ground Zero for Juan flyfishing, is more adapted to anglers who might cook for themselves. Across the street, Float'n' Fish, is my current favorite. Raymond Johnson, the owner, [email: floatnfish@acrnet.com] has been very forthright with river information, his selection of fishing and tying gear is good, and his prices are standard retail rather than inflated by the proximity of the river.
The Juan's premium fly fishing waters are inside state park boundaries [park map], so if you go remember to carry some extra one-dollar bills or your checkbook to feed the user-fee boxes.) the state Game and Fish Department has a pretty good website, with frames of fishing reports, license fees, and a Frequently Asked Question list in lieu of a full-text posting of the regulations.
The two eateries in the central business district of Navajo Dan, NM, are casual places, catering to visiting sports and local working people. I prefer the food at Abe's, though some folks I fish with swear by the Sportman (perhaps because of the bar). The fare in both is what marketers might call "hearty" -- not the stuff to preserve your simple girlish figure. On the whole, I'd rather cook my own, which I generally buy at the nice, large Safeway in the little town of Aztec, about half an hour from the river. I've a fondness for the Aztec Restaurant, though in view of my remarks about the Sportsman, perhaps I'm not consistent.
There are lots of reports and tips for fishing this river in the "FF@" archives -- see especially posts by Henry Kanemoto.
ENCORE: Some other Las Vegas guides on the web |
| "Hack Attack" -- the cabdrivers' view of the area's alleged attractions, including the earthier ones. | LV Convention and Visitors Authority's official, slick view. Includes interesting stats about fools and their money. | "Vegas.Com" -- home of the town's second newspaper, the Sun, its affiliated publications, and assorted entertainment links. The larger, more conservative Review-Journal is part of a similar, more diverse metasite, "LasVegas.com." | "Las Vegas Online" guide -- pretty standard compendium. |
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Explore the Web through my favorite portal: the Librarians' Index to the
Internet from the Library of California.
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