Several years ago my friend Darrell Phillips — the former publisher of the Manteca Bulletin —drowned while trying to cross a bridge in high water. Ordinarily the creek he lived on was small and averaged about knee deep in depth. During normal flows the creek ran under the bridge through a galvanized culvert but in high water when the creek level rose, it ran up and over the bridge and if you were careful (or brave) you could wade across the raging creek. Darrell slipped and was washed down stream and drowned. It took about a week of searching to find his body. 

 I relate this tragedy to you to emphasize the astonishing power of moving water. Don’t believe me; just take a look at the Grand Canyon. In almost every high water year, unwary anglers are lost because they under-estimated the power of moving water. As most of have heard by now the past winter brought huge volumes of snow to the Sierra and now the warm spring weather is melting that snow and making many of our favorite trout streams extremely dangerous. 

 There is almost nothing this side of heaven that is as pleasant as standing knee deep in a trout stream casting for trout. Unfortunately, if you aren’t careful and wade out into a swiftly moving stream you might just end up in a watery hell. I recall one spring where we had similar conditions and my wife and I were trying to go backpacking. We had originally planned to hike up the South Fork of the Merced River from its junction with the main Merced. There are essentially no dams on the South Fork and the water was roaring down the canyon. We changed plans and drove north to the junction of Cherry Creek and the Tuolumne River. The raging water was even worse. It literally felt like a constant earthquake because the entire canyon was shaking from the power of the roaring water. 

 As much as I love to fish it isn’t worth dying for. Stay away from the main rivers draining the high country. You can fish the foothill reservoirs or the smaller creeks that have their headwaters at elevations below 5,000 feet. Almost every high water year, a few foolish anglers are washed away to their deaths. To quote the Sergeant from the old cop show Hill Street Blues: “Let’s be careful out there”.  Get out there and enjoy the great outdoors, but make sure you come back alive.

Until Next Week,

Tight Lines