My next fly fishing stop was Hat Creek, a spring creek flowing between two lakes. We awoke early and arrived at Hat Creek Park by 8:30 a.m. and it was already getting hot. The park is in the middle of the 3-mile trout fishing section of the river known for finicky trout and lots of small bugs.
I
managed to find fish rising just up from the 299 bridge. Of course there
were multiple insects on the water but I soon figured out they wanted Pale
Morning Duns and tied on a #18 PMD and began catching fish. The hatch
didn't last too long and by 10:30 it was pretty much over so I went back to the
park and met up with Catherine and we walked through the meadow to the next
parking area on the creek. Here is the water where I was
catching trout:
We took
off from Hat Creek Park and followed Hat Creek down Hwy 89 as it turned into a
small freestone river then a smaller freestone creek. We finally entered
Lassen National Park, got a campsite and took off for Hat Lake, a small beaver
pond where Hat Creek flows from.
Having some time we hiked up the trail from Hat Lake to Paradise Meadow which was the source of Hat Creek. It was hard to believe that in the morning I was wading in a mid-sized river waist deep and in the late afternoon was standing in the meadow where you could step over the creek and watch it form from snowmelt at the head of the meadow:
Catherine found a pretty good resting spot on the way back down the trail.
Back on the road to camp, Mt. Lassen from this side looked pretty intimidating, all snowfields and rock:
This is the Devastation Area where rubble from the last eruption ended:
