So here it goes......
I hit the road at 2:25am with my car all packed and ready to go the night before (or a few hours ago) headed to Pleasant Valley Reservoir (PVR) to slay some trout. I arrive at the Power Plant at 6:30am and unloaded all of my gear. Hit the Port-A-Potty to take care of some business and hauled my gear past the gate. As I pass the gate I hear music to my ears, the sound of running water from down below. Oooooohhhh, now the goose bumps start forming. I look ahead for an accessible launch site but didn't see anything close to being easy. But found a path down a graded decent that looked better than anyplace else so I took that route. There was a huge boulder down on the bottom that looked perfect to use as a chair as I put on my fins and prepare to kick off. Now again, I did say slight decent but that slight decent is coupled with loose gravel and rocks. So yes, I pretty much slid down that grade. I geared up and kicked off to the slow flowing waters of the Eastern Sierras with hopes of fun and sun but there were some hurdles to cross.
The slow moving flow made drifting easy as I come to a small body of water that looked fishable so I threw out my first cast and I get my first bump. Ooohhh. I’m happy because there's activity going on at this spot. After a few more casts I get my first skunk buster which is a Brown! Whoo hoo I’m stoked. After working that area for a few more minutes I pulled 4 fish out of that spot with 2 Browns and 2 Bows. Nothing much of size but still got that itch off and that's all caught on a mini-jig on 2 lb. test. I started working my way downstream and this is where the "fun" begins. Well, the slow moving current quickly became white capped high flow rapids. Oh yeah, this wasn't what I expected. I'm going to say this only once so listen up. Our float tubes are NOT made for white water rafting!
I say NOT! Oh yes, I thought it was game over at one point because my FC4 was bouncing, slamming and spinning where ever the water flow wanted to take me. My Force Fins were useless other than protecting my feet from getting all cut up. At one point I nearly capsized but thankfully my gear was strapped down. After sections and sections and sections of this. I finally came to a calmer pool of water that just gave me enough time to gather my thoughts and say to myself. .."What the heck was that!?"
Now, the mayhem was over and I’m finally approaching the calmness of the reservoir. It's calm because I wasn't moving. I was literally sitting on the floor. That's how low the water level was. When people talk about the water level being low in the Eastern Sierras, they aren’t kidding. The sight was quite disheartening.
Stories from the board
a recount from PVR
By; Yellowrock