The Caribou Wilderness is located just north of the small mountain community of Chester, east of Red Bluff. It is a high, remote, forested volcanic plateau that has numerous crystalline still waters with eager, wild trout. This area ranges in elevation from 6,400 to 8,374 feet.
The Wilderness Act of 1964 set aside this 20,546-acre wilderness preserve. Before 1964, the land was part of the 1929 Caribou Primitive Area. The wilderness is adjacent to the Lassen National Volcanic Park, which borders Caribou on the west side. There is no planting of fish, no hunting, and there are no roads, just a trail system that spans almost thirty-five miles. This area is lightly used and for visitors represents a step back in time.
When I was a kid, my dad, my brother, Lincoln, and I would backpack into the area. We made many trips to different lakes over the years. The best trip when I was a kid was one of our hikes to Beauty Lake from the Indian Meadows Trailhead. It was late August, and the summer in Chico that year was superhot. We made our way to Chester in the morning, bought supplies, and were at the trailhead around noon. We packed our backpacks, double-checked our gear, and off we went up the trail. Halfway to Beauty, the rain gods decided to show us a little love, and we ran right into a thunderstorm. The wind blew, and there was thunder and lightning and rain, then it hailed something fierce. Just as fast as it started, it was over. We were about a mile or so from the lake, so we pushed on. We didn’t have a tent — we slept on tarps, one underneath you and one covering you. When we reached Beauty, the lake was just on fire with trout rising everywhere. It looked as if the hail was still coming down, but there was nothing falling from the heavens.
We set up camp and rigged our rods and started fishing. Back in those days, when we hiked to a lake, we carried fly rods with CastaFly reels, rather than a standard fly reel. These reels were loaded with monofilament, and we would lob clear torpedo bobbers rigged with 6-to7-foot leaders. After casting, we let the fly or flies sit for a few minutes and then started to reel in slowly (Jay Fair slowly, which is really, really slow). Man, did we catch fish on that setup. That evening at Beauty, Lincoln and I got a little greedy. Instead of one fly, we tied on two flies — always dry flies: Mosquitoes, Adams Parachutes, and so on. We doubled all evening long. The fish were not huge — six to nine inches long, all of them — but there was a bunch of them, and we had a big fish fry later that night.
During the first night we were there, the rain started again, the temperature plummeted, and sometime early in the morning, the rain turned to snow. It was just plain cold. We got a roaring fire going and sat around it, trying to get warm and to figure out if we were packing up or staying. We turned to the lake, and we all saw the same thing: it was on fire again — fish feeding everywhere. We stayed and fished. The snow melted, and for the next two days, the fishing was fantastic and the weather was great. Not to mention the hot fried trout every night.
My Tactics
Many people don’t want to carry heavy, bulky float tubes, fins, waders, and booties five or so miles, one way. I sure don’t. I limit my Caribou fishing gear to just a rod, reel (loaded with a floating line), a 10-foot Type II sinking leader, 9-foot leaders tapered to 5X tippet, 5X tippet material, indicators, floatant, a small assortment of nontoxic weights, and a box of assorted flies. I fish from the shore, a log, or a rock, and I use roll casts to get the longest presentations I can. If you don’t have a sinking leader for subsurface presentations, a floating line with a slow-sink tip will also work well. A nice thing about a line that sits on top of the water is that it can be easier to roll cast than a line that’s beneath the surface.
In my fly box are an assortment of terrestrials, dry f lies, midges, small nymphs, damselfly imitations, and Woolly Buggers — only top-producing flies, and no extras. For terrestrials, I carry a simple foam beetle, size 12, and my Lance’s Carpenter Ant, size 10 (editor’s note: feel free to substitute your favorite similar patterns). For dry flies, I carry Adams Parachutes in size 14 to 18 and Lance’s Yuba River Caddis in olive, size 16. For the midges, I like a small variety of Tiger Midges in black and in red, size 16 to 20, Zebra Midges in black and in red, size 16 to 20, and WD-40s in black and in gray, size 18. For small nymphs, I carry a small selection of Lance’s X-May in olive, brown, and black, size 16 to 18, black AP Nymphs in size 14, and a water boatman pattern, size 14. For a damselfly nymph, I carry two colors, olive and brown. The pattern is Randall Kauffman’s Marabou Damsel in size 12. I also carry Woolly Buggers in olive and in black, size 10 to 12. That’s, it. With this selection of flies, I can fish any of the lakes in the Caribou Wilderness.
I use the Type II sinking leader (brand names include PolyLeader and VersiLeader) to fish with my buggers and damselfly patterns. To the sinking leader I’ll add a 9-foot tapered leader, which connects with the fly. Sometimes I rig two flies — a small nymph or a black AP behind the lead fly.
I also fish nymphs and midges underneath an indicator. I usually fish my Lance’s Indicator Leader rig, which is a piece of 15-pound-test fluorocarbon about 8 feet long. On each end, I tie a barrel swivel. In the middle of the leader, there is an indicator, surrounded on each side with three bobber stops. I can move the indicator up or down very easily to match the depth at which I want to fish. One barrel swivel is attached to a small cheater butt section, and on the bottom barrel swivel, I attach 5X tippet material. I usually fish two flies on this rig, and I tie the flies 18 inches apart, bend to eye.
For dry flies I just loop-to-loop the 9-foot tapered leader to 5X tippet material and tie on my dry fly. If I fish two dry flies, I space them 18 inches apart, as well.
Trailheads and Lakes
Three trailheads provide the primary access to the Caribou Wilderness: Caribou Lake on the east side, Hay Meadows on the south, and Cone Lake on the north. You can find a topo map that shows lakes and trailheads online at https://naturalatlas.com/trailheads/caribou-lake-2001424. A useful schematic map for driving to the trailheads is at head-Maps/Caribou.htm. Caribou Lake and nearby Silver Lake, by the way, can offer good fishing for stocked trout (neither lake is in the wilderness area), and both have campgrounds.
Eastside Access
Lakes accessed from the Caribou Lake trailhead include Black Lake, Eleanor Lake, Jewel Lake, Cowboy Lake, Gem Lake, Emerald Lake, Rim Lake, Cypress Lake, North Divide Lake and South Divide Lake. The lakes I love fishing there are Emerald Lake and Gem Lake. While the other lakes do hold trout that are willing to eat flies, Gem and Emerald hold sizable populations of rainbows. Gem is a large lake, about the size of Turnaround Lake to the north. It is a lake where I would love to have a float tube, but it is way too far to carry all the gear. You really don’t need one, anyway. Fishing from shore using a roll cast will get you all the fish that you want. I like using an indicator rig at this lake. There is a huge population of midges, and the fish will usually gobble up a Tiger Midge in black or claret in size 14 to 16. I tie my Tiger Midges on barbless jig hooks. These fish tend to swallow flies deeply, but jig hooks often catch their inner lip on the hook set.
This past June, my friend and fishing buddy Steve and I made the trek to Emerald Lake from the trailhead at Caribou Lake. I was a little concerned about how my hip and leg where going to fare on this trip, because it was the first major hike that I had done in years, and it was after some recent surgeries.
We started up the trailhead in the morning. The air was still cool, and the hike was easy — that is, until we hit the switchbacks. The switchbacks tested my endurance, and I was glad when we got to the top. The trail to Emerald is what I would call easy to moderate until Cowboy Lake, and then from there it is moderate to difficult. The switchbacks go straight up. Once you climb the switchbacks, you walk a saddle that extends for about a quarter of a mile. Then a left-hand turn in the fork of the trail leads you on an incline up to the lake.
Emerald Lake, like many of the lakes in the Caribou Wilderness, is visually stunning. There are three excellent, flat campsites at the lake.
When Steve and I arrived at the lake, we grabbed our Gatorade and hydroed up while watching for fish in the gin-clear water. We starting to point — fish there . . . and over there . . . and over there. It was like looking into an aquarium.
We grabbed our fly rods and headed to the west side. The first cast for both of us caught a fish. On and on we went, with fish coming to our flies. We fished dries, mainly Adams Parachutes, Stimulators, ants, and foam beetles.
The fish weren’t huge, but they were beautiful, and they fought like crazy. After a two-hour fishing party, Steve and I returned to the trail and hiked back to the truck at the Caribou Trailhead. It was a great hike, with good fishing and gorgeous scenery.
Northside Access
The Cone Lake trailhead has a campground and a parking area. The lake itself is a pond that only holds water during the snowmelt period. It dries up quickly.
Accessed from the north side of the wilderness area are Triangle Lake, Turnaround Lake, and Twin Lakes. Triangle Lake is a short 1.2-mile walk from the trailhead. The hike is easy to moderate. This lake, the largest lake in the northern part of the wilderness, typically provides good fishing and has willing rainbows that are hungry and eagerly eat flies. A float tube is a great tool on Triangle.
Turnaround Lake is a medium-sized lake that holds rainbows. The hike to this lake is moderate to extreme, so carrying a float tube would not be recommended unless you are 20 years old and full of energy. The Twin Lakes are just past Triangle Lake and have brook trout. The lakes are small and can be easy fished from shore. The fish there are wary, though. Dry flies with long leaders are mandatory at Twin Lakes.
Southside Access
From the south side of the wilderness area, access is via the trailhead at Indian Meadows. The nearest campground is at Echo Lake, which sits just outside the wilderness area and on a different road than the trailhead. Echo Lake is stocked with brook trout by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. This access point will let you hike to Evelyn Lake, Beauty Lake, Posey Lake, Long Lake, and all of the Hidden Lakes. Hiking is of moderate difficulty in this area.
The lakes that I fish are Beauty and Posey Lakes. Beauty holds brook trout, and Posey has rainbows. Posey Lake rainbows seem to love eating terrestrials. I have found that a foam ant or beetle is the ticket there. I like to make a splash with them when I am casting. A splash will trigger a fish to come and eat. I often fish two flies here — a terrestrial and a small black mayfly nymph such as my X-May, size 18 to 20. If the fish don’t eat the terrestrial pattern on the splash, I let it sit, and they usually eat the nymph. I strip my floating line to add movement to the ant or beetle.
Best Time and Safety Tips
The best time to venture into the Caribou Wilderness is during late spring or early summer. By late spring, all the wildflowers have blossomed, the snow is gone, and the mosquitoes aren’t too terrible. The early summer brings mild days and mild nights. Every now and then, though, there will be a storm, so you need to be prepared.
I bring warm clothes (I remember when it snowed) and rain gear, as well as snacks and liquids to fuel the hike and the fishing. If camping, you’ll need a fire permit, even if only using a stove. (Online fire permits are simple to get from the Plumas or Lassen National Forest). The other tool that I would recommend is some sort of water-purification device, or you can simply boil your water. I like to do both, just to make sure I am safe. You don’t want to fall ill in the backcountry from giardia.
The Caribou Wilderness is just that — a wilderness. It offers great stillwater fishing in a vast and beautiful setting, but it also can be dangerous. Tell somewhere where you will be and when you’ll be returning, then go and have a blast. It is a must for any fly fisher.
