San Gabriel below Georgetown
Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2019 12:31 pm
Thought I'd post up a quick report on our trip to the San Gabriel River on Saturday.
I couldn't locate a shuttle in the area, so my wife and I decided to put in at the old county road crossing below Hwy 29, a few miles East of Georgetown. We put in about 10:30 and headed upstream. There were a few guys under the bridge with flyrods - I think they had been up earlier that morning and were finished for the day. Unloading and parking was easy at that hour of the day even on a Saturday. We put in on the West side of the old CR crossing. There's even a handy concrete step there to get into your kayak without having to step into the muddy bank. My wife really appreciated that.
There is a pool above that crossing roughly 1/2 mi. long, and we paddled straight up through that to get away from the road noise. At the head of that pool, there is a nice little gravel bar with some faster water around the East bank. I fished it before we portaged that small island, and caught a nice spotted bass in the faster water, and a few sunfish immediately above the island. They were easy to see in the shallows and easily fell to my flyrod with a small popper.
From there we paddled and fished our way up through the 2nd pool - also about 1/2 mile in length - and weren't catching that much. It was mid-day after all, so we weren't expecting to catch that many fish anyway. I broke out my flyrod again and easily caught 4-5 sunfish on the way up.
At the head of that second pool was a real surprise - a very large run of whitewater that we could hear the entire length of that pool. It made for a nice background to our paddling and fishing. Portaging those falls was a little tough, but not too bad. We carried the kayaks up approximately 50 yards or so. The size and arrangement of the rocks gave us the most trouble, but we managed okay.
Above those rapids, the river was shallow and wide with a large rock slab bottom until we got to the "slide" about 1/4 mile above where the first houses were on the left bank (heading upstream). We could paddle most of it, but ended up walking the kayaks up a few hundred yards into that next pool.
The final pool for us began at the houses and went up about 3/4 mi. above them. That pool was the deepest and there were only 2-3 houses at the lower end. Within a few hundred yards, we left the houses behind and it was peaceful with plenty of solitude above that. We paddled and fished until the head of that pool, where the best fishing water was found. A good long swift area of water held several spotted bass that we pulled out using spinning rods and our favorite stream lures - fire tiger floating Rapalas. The best fish was about 12-13" and fought plenty hard.
Above that gravel bar was a long riffle pool and more rapids/gravel bars as far as I could see upstream. That area would be fun to paddle down, but we weren't willing to go upstream through it. It would have been way too much work for the benefit.
From there we leisurely paddled down and fished a bit on the way. We could paddle down most of the riffles and smaller rapids, but we chose to walk the boats down the large set of rapids and I'm glad we did. I contemplated shooting those but after scouting carefully, it just didn't seem worth it to me. Someone more adventurous (or more willing to swim) could probably have had a ball going down that run.
All in all, we were on the water for 5 hours (in the hottest part of the day) but still had a great time. Despite somewhat slow fishing, it was a great paddle. Excellent scenery, very little trash, not many houses and we actually didn't see a single person after leaving the hwy 29 bridge, which was a pleasant surprise especially for a Saturday in the summertime.
I couldn't locate a shuttle in the area, so my wife and I decided to put in at the old county road crossing below Hwy 29, a few miles East of Georgetown. We put in about 10:30 and headed upstream. There were a few guys under the bridge with flyrods - I think they had been up earlier that morning and were finished for the day. Unloading and parking was easy at that hour of the day even on a Saturday. We put in on the West side of the old CR crossing. There's even a handy concrete step there to get into your kayak without having to step into the muddy bank. My wife really appreciated that.
There is a pool above that crossing roughly 1/2 mi. long, and we paddled straight up through that to get away from the road noise. At the head of that pool, there is a nice little gravel bar with some faster water around the East bank. I fished it before we portaged that small island, and caught a nice spotted bass in the faster water, and a few sunfish immediately above the island. They were easy to see in the shallows and easily fell to my flyrod with a small popper.
From there we paddled and fished our way up through the 2nd pool - also about 1/2 mile in length - and weren't catching that much. It was mid-day after all, so we weren't expecting to catch that many fish anyway. I broke out my flyrod again and easily caught 4-5 sunfish on the way up.
At the head of that second pool was a real surprise - a very large run of whitewater that we could hear the entire length of that pool. It made for a nice background to our paddling and fishing. Portaging those falls was a little tough, but not too bad. We carried the kayaks up approximately 50 yards or so. The size and arrangement of the rocks gave us the most trouble, but we managed okay.
Above those rapids, the river was shallow and wide with a large rock slab bottom until we got to the "slide" about 1/4 mile above where the first houses were on the left bank (heading upstream). We could paddle most of it, but ended up walking the kayaks up a few hundred yards into that next pool.
The final pool for us began at the houses and went up about 3/4 mi. above them. That pool was the deepest and there were only 2-3 houses at the lower end. Within a few hundred yards, we left the houses behind and it was peaceful with plenty of solitude above that. We paddled and fished until the head of that pool, where the best fishing water was found. A good long swift area of water held several spotted bass that we pulled out using spinning rods and our favorite stream lures - fire tiger floating Rapalas. The best fish was about 12-13" and fought plenty hard.
Above that gravel bar was a long riffle pool and more rapids/gravel bars as far as I could see upstream. That area would be fun to paddle down, but we weren't willing to go upstream through it. It would have been way too much work for the benefit.
From there we leisurely paddled down and fished a bit on the way. We could paddle down most of the riffles and smaller rapids, but we chose to walk the boats down the large set of rapids and I'm glad we did. I contemplated shooting those but after scouting carefully, it just didn't seem worth it to me. Someone more adventurous (or more willing to swim) could probably have had a ball going down that run.
All in all, we were on the water for 5 hours (in the hottest part of the day) but still had a great time. Despite somewhat slow fishing, it was a great paddle. Excellent scenery, very little trash, not many houses and we actually didn't see a single person after leaving the hwy 29 bridge, which was a pleasant surprise especially for a Saturday in the summertime.