THE IRIDEUS - AUGUST 2020
a july idyll at hot creek ranch By Dave Garfin
W
e all have our favorite fishing spots, our “Home Waters”, as it were. That for me is Hot Creek Ranch in the Eastern Sierra a short way south of the town of Mammoth Lakes. The Eastern Sierra has a special allure to my family. I cut my eye teeth fly fishing on the old Arcularius Ranch at the headwaters of the Owens River, an incredible fishery that my in-laws discovered in the late 1940s. There is no need to extol the grandeur of “The Arc” here, because the public can no longer fish there. Once the Arcularius Ranch became totally privatized in the 1990s, we moved down the road about 15miles to Hot Creek Ranch and have been going there for a week every July and again in September for the past few decades. I’ve heard quite a few club members say that they’ve heard great things about Hot Creek Ranch but don’t know much about it, so I’m here to tell you about it. This isn’t an advertisement or endorsement, just the ramblings of a fan of the ranch. I’m sure to have made mistakes and my description of the fishing is not definitive. It’s just what I do. Decisions, Decisions, Decisions As our early July reservation at Hot Creek Ranch (HCR) approached, my
wife and I did a great deal of thinking and rationalization to convince ourselves to go there. After all, we are in one of the highrisk groups for SARS-Cov-2 infection, due to our ages. We realized, though, that we could safely sequester ourselves on HCR and not run into anyone but fly fishers, and they tend to stay away from others (there is still fishing etiquette in some places). At the last minute, we decided to make the trip. We packed all the food we would need for a week, crossed our fingers and set out. The reliable 2002 Subaru Outback got us over the Sonora Pass and to HCR on one tank of gas – no gas station interactions. And back home, too. There was no need to go into town, except to drive through it for a look without getting out of the car. A drawback to not going into town was that we couldn’t visit the fine restaurants in the area. Most were closed, anyway. A Bit About the Eastern Sierra If you are not familiar with the Eastern Sierra, do yourself a favor and Google it, especially the town of Mammoth Lakes. There are a great many outdoor activities available, both summer and winter. Most people know it as a ski town and a playground for Southern Californians, maybe because it’s so hard to get
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