For the first post, I thought that I would do something a little different than you normally would expect and post about private waters. Yes, these are places that you pay to fish and... no...the guy that runs this is not my good buddy or my brother in law. I was just cruising the net looking for fishing stuff one day when I came across the web site for Sugar Creek Ranch. At first I thought: "this is a fish farm like the one my dad would take me to in Half Moon Bay." But I kept looking at the site and frankly, the thing that really got me going on it was the fact that I had never been in this particular part of California, although it was around the Trinity area which I thought that I knew fairly well.
Sugar Creek Ranch is about 12 miles south of the town of Etna. I had never heard of Etna. As I browsed the web about the town, I began to feel like I wanted to see this area and what better excuse than to plan a fishing trip? So I got my buddy interested (always best to split the cost of a trip) and we headed on out from the Bay Area on a Thursday night in early November. We wanted to get a head start on our fishing day of Friday and figured that we could get dinner and spend the night in Mt. Shasta, which we did. We had dinner at Piedmont restaurant and stayed the night at the Econo Inn. Unfortunately, the Piedmont did not really impress me and my fishing buddy was nice enough not to give me a bunch of guff because he had wanted to eat at the Mexican restaurant. The Econo Inn was cheap and quiet, although I'm not sure that there is anything but "quiet" in the town of Mt. Shasta on a Thursday night in November.
Early the next day, we headed out of Mt. Shasta City and just before we got to the freeway my buddy said, "hey, there is a Denny's (or something like that) let's stop and get some coffee and breakfast". Well, although I was glad he did not complain to me about the dinner the night before, I was not glad enough to stop at some "chain" breakfast place. So as I drove by and onto the freeway, I told him, "don't worry, we can get coffee and food in Callahan". I sped up as fast as I could on the freeway, so that he knew that if he wrings my neck, the high speed would put him at risk as well. So off we went, taking the scenic route to Etna and Sugar Creek Ranch.
We got off the freeway and went to the town of Gazelle (yea, you know, Gazelle) and turned left at the "Scott Valley-Callahan-27 miles" sign. Boy did I feel good knowing that Callahan, and that big 'ole country breakfast, was only 27 miles away. So we drove and climbed and drove and climbed until my buddy said, "looks like there is a salt on the side of the road". To which I said, "yea and it's on the embankments next to the road as well...must be some kind of alkaline". To which my buddy said "Is your truck losing traction?" To which I replied, "oh $#@&". I guess that in November in the mountains, one might expect a little ice. I knew it all along.
So over the pass we go and as we got down into a beautiful valley, I knew that the thriving town of Callahan and that great country breakfast were close at hand. And then we saw it! The sign said "Callahan". We drove about a minute or two, when my buddy said “I think you just passed it". I said: "No way, all I saw was a few abandoned buildings". As he lunged toward me, I sped up...well you know the drill.
Finally, we got to Etna, and low and behold we found Bob’s Ranch House and it was all that I expected. Great county breakfast with all the locals. After we had our fill, we headed to Sugar Creek Ranch.
When we got there, we followed the directions that had been given to us and went directly to one of the south ponds. The first ponds we fished were not very big. I watched from my truck as my buddy walked down to one of the ponds and chucked out his dry fly. As it hit the water, a “jaws” type wake headed off from the other side of the pond toward his fly. “BANG”!! The fish hit his fly like a rocket but did not get hooked. I thought “wow this is like the fish farm”. But it wasn’t. We fished the ponds and found it challenging and yet we had just the right amount of action to make it interesting. The trout are great fighters and really hit the fly hard. After we had been fishing an hour or so, Mike, the owner drove on down and introduced himself. Seemed like a good guy and willing to spend time with you, but at the same time, not suffocating you with fishing lore about his place.
We stayed in the main house, which is a large and very nice house with several bedrooms. The main house is a bed and breakfast type of arraignment with individual bedrooms. Guests share the kitchen, living room and fly tying room. We lucked out in that there was nobody else staying there that weekend so for two nights, we cooked up some great food and partook in some beverages and had the run of the place.
On Saturday, we awoke to a snow covered landscape but by the time we had breakfast and got out fishing, the snow had stopped and it was an absolutely lovely day. The ponds to the north are much bigger than the ponds by the house. Mike told us that the ponds were man made, created in some dredging operation (gold, silver, minerals? I forget). But as I fished the second day surrounded by the snow covered peaks, I thought that this was a really great place.
We did not have very good luck on Saturday, until around 3 pm when we finally figured out some good patterns to use. Then the fishing really took off. It was a lot of fun.
On Sunday we got out early and fished for a few hours before heading back. It was foggy and very cold, but it was great. The fog shrouded ponds reminded me of duck hunting in my youth (one of my favorite times). You could barely see across the ponds, but it was breathtaking. The fishing was not bad either. But it was cold and you had to stick your pole in the water between casts to get the ice off it.
All and all, I recommend the place. I think it would be a great place to take your kids because it is not difficult fishing, but has enough challenge and enough very strong fighting fish to keep it interesting and better yet, a lot of fun. Check out the photos.
Saturday morning. Note the snow on the truck. I'm on the left and Mark is the other guy
One of the north ponds
The tying room in the main house
Mark frying up some dinner
Sugar Creek Ranch
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