By Derek Flor

Guest Contributor

I was on San Antonio Creek this morning after a podiatry appointment for a sore heel, and this is what I hauled out of the creek from the washed out bridge down to the Fire Station interpretive area.

I take a little bat bag for carrying an extra flyrod and for carrying trash out. Water temps were 57.2 degrees when I got there; air temp was 65 degrees and the water was flowing very well. Sure, it’s all “dammed up” by the weekend crowd, but actually it was cleaner than I expected. I did not haul out a big cardboard box, nor the 15 empty Modelo’s. I just didn’t have room for them in the bat bag.

I carried my Rocky Mountain Tenkara “Chico” rod and fished a wet fly upstream with no results for the area most heavily trafficked and affected by the weekenders, and had no results fishing, even in the fishiest of spots.

Up above the bridge, there is a spot I have caught fish before, but in much skinnier water when we were still drought affected, and when I caught the little 5-inch trout there. I wasn’t surprised. Once I caught a trout, I stopped. It told me as much as I needed to know.

Trout are still in there. I saw no evidence of dead trout in any of the areas you’d expect them, trapped by debris. The water was clear, and there was no fire debris in this lower area.

I decided to stay down from the Baldy Village area given the earlier concerns about fire. Everything goes downstream and I thought I’d learn all I needed down where I was. I was on the water for just shy of two hours and covered about a third of a mile of water. as the crow flies, maybe a little bit more. Lots of raspberries, but I left them for the birds and other wildlife, meaning perhaps, the weekenders.

I neglected to take my phone with me so the little guy didn’t get to pose for photos. I don’t like to keep them out of the water much anyway.