Posted ByMatt on July 06, 2004 at 17:57:26:
We were up for the big weekend, and decided to give Reese her first taste of fishing on Friday. It was not as crowded as I had expected, but the water was decidedly murky. Not clear as some previous posts had indicated. There was thunderstorm activity on Thursday night, and the runoff from the storms put a lot of silt into the water. Weather was warm, high 80's, and fairly humid, with thundercells building in to the southe and east. Visibilty was about a foot, maybe a foot and a half. Very disappointed, we fished a nice spot above Goldledge. I had Reese strapped to my chest, and fished for about a half an hour with no takers. After that 1/2 hour, a family moved onto the "beach" where we were fishing and set up camp. They proceeded to throw rocks, splash, and swim right in front of us. Oh well, I diddn't really expect much anyway. I hit another spot downriver with the spinning rod, and had 3 fish hooked (briefly) and one nice 12" landed in about 20 minutes while Karen was attending to Reese. On Saturday, we decided to avoid the river, as it was much more crowded. The water looked as if it had cleared of a little. We wanted to take a hike, and headed to the Needles. This would be Reese's first big hike. We've been there many times before, and is always a spectacular hike. Reese just bobbed along, sleeping most of the way, and even accompanied me up to the Lookout. For those that haven't been or heard of them, the Needles is a series of granite spires, shooting to over 8,000 ft, overlooking the Kern river valley. There is a fire lookout on top of one of the spires, accessed by a rickety staircase. The views from the lookout cannot be described, 360 degrees, probably a hundred miles in all directions. If you have a couple of hours, it is absolutely spectacular. Matt