EASTERN SIERRA REPORT

Summer arrives and Eastern Sierra lakes are primed for the Fourth of July holiday weekend BY RICH HOLLAND/WON Staff WriterPublished: Jul 01, 2009

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Massive Alpers plants put in Bishop Creek lakes BISHOP — Summer’s arrival in the Eastern Sierra, which had been delayed by cool weather and thunderstorms that spanned most of June, coincided with high water levels, dropping rivers and good action on both holdovers and recently planted trout. Temperatures topped 100 degrees in the Owen’s Valley this past weekend, but the hottest deal going was that Southern California Edison stocked Sabrina, South and North lakes with 1,800 pounds each of Alpers rainbows. “The put Alpers in all the lakes up the valley, so the reports have been good from up there,” said Dave Smith at Culver’s in Bishop on Sunday. “Tasmanian Devils, Gulp! eggs and and nightcrawlers have been the baits we’ve been getting good reports on. It was 101 degrees here in town today, so as you can imagine the Owens River has only been good really early in the morning. I heard some tubers did well early during a caddis hatch.” Smith’s assessment of the fishing on the Bishop Creek impoundments was right on according to sources at the lakes themselves. “The trout have been biting pretty much all day, we got 1,800 pounds of Alpers three days ago,” said Roy Glenn at Parcher’s Resort on South Lake. “I heard of a 6 pounder taken. Those of us who work here have been using the Power Worms , Sierra Slammer tubes, Thomas Buoyants and Kastmasters. I’ve been broken off a few times on Buoyants and Kastmasters the last couple days. The golds have been best lately, but sometimes they like the silver better.” Rick Apted up at Sabrina Lake said the allotment of Alpers was made up of 2-pound trout on the average, with some bigger fish in the mix, but “nothing huge.” “They’ve been picking up quite a few of them, 1800 pounds is quite a lot of fish and we’ve been getting DFG stocks once a week, too,” said Apted. “Bait fishing has been best around the inlet with nightcrawlers, PowerBait and pink Power Worms. Trollers are using a flasher and a nightcrawler or going straight-tied to a Woolly Bugger.” Donna Scira at the Creekside RV Park said fishing in Bishop Creek itself has been good, with the  grasshopper (green head brown tail) Stinger tube baits a good choice as well as small white tubes. “Chunky Cheese PowerBait has gotten really hot again and of course worms have been working well,” she added. Jumping up the line to another high elevation chain of lakes, Carolyn Webb at Virginia Lakes Resort said the hot weather brought the biggest crowd since they opened on May 21. “I could have sworn it was already the 4th,” said Webb, who noted big Alpers accounted for the whopper catches last week. She said Blake Rupert of Santa Ana caught a 4-1 Alpers on PowerBait, Jeff Paggi of Monrovia caught a nice 3-8 Alpers on a lure and Michael Losorelli of Corona caught a 3-15 Alpers on PowerBait. “Baits getting hits are Natural Cheese PowerBait, Chunky Cheese yellow, ’crawlers, and salmon eggs,” Webb said. “The best lures are still the red/gold Buoyant, Lil’ Jake gold/red dots, large rainbow Kastmaster, and gold Hot Shots. Flies working were red throated Matuka’s in No. 8, brown hackle peacock No. 14-16, Griffith’s Gnat, Adams No. 16, Light Cahill and small olive scuds.” She noted the warm weather turned on the bite in the backcountry lakes accessible out of the Virginia Lake’s Basin. “The backcountry is on fire with small dark midges — Griffith’s Gnat, Grey Hackle Peacock No. 16-18 — and No. 18 mosquitoes the best,” said Webb, who noted both choices definitely matched the hatch. “Bring plenty of bug juice or keep your head in netting or you will be eating the gnats and mosquitoes by the thousands.” Rick Gieser at Ken’s Sporting Goods in Bridgeport said he was also getting reports of steady action from the Virginia Lakes on PowerBait, nightcrawlers and Trout Teaser tube jigs. “Bridgeport Reservoir has been good from the boats, with most of the fish about 11⁄2 to 3⁄4s of a pound and nothing big to speak of,” said Gieser. “They’re starting to let water out of the reservoir and the East Walker River is up a bit at 237 CFS (cubic feet per second), but it’s fishing well still, with some action on the dry flies in the evening and sporadically during the day, but otherwise it’s been mostly nymphing. The West Walker looked like it was starting to mellow, but it was back up after the rain showers we had with some thunderstorms at mid-week, but it shouldn’t be too much longer.” Nick Glynos at Bridgeport Reservoir said that while they are taking water out of the lake now, the lake is full up to the runway and holding steady thanks to the runoff still coming in. “The bite has been really hot on the small fish, with nightcrawlers and PowerBait fished right off the bottom working best,” said Glynos. “Rainbow Point, Rocky Point and just outside the marine have been the best spots for bait fishing. The trolling is just about done now what with all the weeds, but some guys are still managing to catch a few fish on Needlefish.” “The lake is nearly full and you can get into Buckeye (Bay), but they fly guys who do go back there are not doing much,” said Glynos. On the other hand, he said some fly anglers fished the blood and tiger midges off Rainbow Point and “slayed it.” WON Eastern Sierra correspondent Martin Strelneck said he fished Bridgeport on his annual trip with Malcom Jackson (who is now 91) and they scored limts of rainbows to 2 pounds on PowerBait. Strelneck noted that Lundy Lake just north of his hometown of Lee Vining is now completely filled up. The Twin Lakes out of Bridgeport kicked out decent fishing for mostly small fish, with one notable exception at Lower Twin Lake. “We had a guy come in with a 7.5-pound rainbow he caught on a Wedding Ring, but he was in a hurry and we didn’t get his name,” said Steve Marti at Twin Lakes Resort. “Otherwise it’s been mostly fish up to 14 inches both on bait and trolling. It’s not that the fishing is getting better so much as the weather. We’ve had real nice days and the folks are really starting to show up. The wind hasn’t been blowing so they’ve been able to get out on the boats. “The trolling finally picked up. Obviously the Wedding Ring got the big one, but Needlefish in the brown trout and frog patterns have been the best bet most of the time,” added Marti. “Some guys are getting fish on Woolly Buggers trolling early and late. It has been getting really warm during the middle of the day with a lot of sunshine. PowerBait, Sierra Gold and nightcrawlers have been the best baits. Robinson Creek where it comes out of the lakes has been getting pounded, but it’s good for a few days after a plant.” Tom Fazzone at Mono Village said Upper Twin has had a lot of fish biting, with the biggest a 5.25-pound rainbow by Eugene Rostovski on rainbow glitter PowerBait. “There are a lot of people trolling, but nothing of any size has been caught that way,” said Fazzone. “All the big fish have come off the bottom and PowerBait has been best. The trollers are catching a few kokanee, but not much.” Heading down to the June Lake Loop, Jeremy Ross at Ernie’s in June Lake said it didn’t take long for Loop lakes to get into a summer pattern. “It’s starting to warm up, so early and late has been the best time to fish,” said Ross. The trollers are still doing good mid-day. Fish June Lake with 7 to 8 colors of leadcore. At Gull it’s been 6 to 7 colors, but you have to be careful of hanging up on the edges. Silver Lake is still at 5 colors, but it has colder water going through it (from the runoff from Rush Creek). Grant Lake is coming up real quick and has a lot of water in it again.” Ross said Tasmanian Devils, Jake’s Spin O Lure and “always” Needlefish are the top choices for trollers, while trollers pulling crawlers have also had decent success. He said best baits were those of the Gulp! and PowerBait varieties, with the Orange and Chunky Chartreuse Gulp! hot, but not as popular as two PowerBait flavors. “I can’t keep the new Garlic and Salmon Peach in stock,” noted Ross. “Garlic is like Salmon Peach was a couple years ago.” Mike Pascetti at Big Rock Landing on June Lake said trouters “were catching fish but not knocking them dead, the weather’s great though. A nightcrawler behind a dodger is a good way to get bit now and you might have a shot at a bigger fish.” Dan Dine at June Lake Marina agreed that fishing was “not too bad, but a little on the slow side” with the hot weather, but bait did pick up a couple big fish. Lorrie Glad of Camarillo got a 5-pound rainbow on a worm, while Kate Dawn of Murrieta used Chunky Cheese PowerBait for a 4-pound rainbow. Sarah Parks at Gull Lake Landing said trolling was slow, but anglers fishing long leaders connected with trout on bait. “The weeds are really high, so you have to fish a 6-foot leader to float your bait above them,” said Parks. “The best action has been 20 to 30 feet offshore in the normal spots. The Sacramento perch fishing has been good. They are pretty little ones, but folks have been bringing in a lot of them.” Betty Hall said the heat wave had the fish a bit sluggish at Silver Lake, but the hatch was on and the big seller at the store was mosquito repellant. She said Salmon Peach PowerBait was the top bait, with Garlic a close second. Four-year-old Jackson Lester weighed in his first trout last week, a 9 ouncer caught off the shore at Silver Lake on PowerBait. An 8-3 stringer of trout taken by Gabriel and Cynthia Chavez on PowerBait while fishing from a Silver Lake rental boat was one of the better catches of the week. Big fish was a 3-11 rainbow landed from shore by Carol Herd of Yucca Valley. The Mammoth Lakes basin really got rolling with the onset of warm weather. “The whole basin is fishing well, they’ve bee stocking it a lot,” said Eric Holland at Rick’s Sport Center in Mammoth. “Mary and George have been the standouts, with a lot of Alpers coming out of both lakes. I took some of my buddy’s friends fishing at George yesterday (Saturday) and one of them caught a 4 pounder. It was a little slower than the last time I fished there, but there were fish rising everywhere.” Mary took big fish honors in the basin with a 6-4 rainbow on Gulp! egg clusters by Arial D. on Saturday. Mamie Lake was the scene where a 4-6 rainbow was taken by Robin Franke of Encino. Granite Stanley at the Troutfitter said fly fishing “was just starting to really pick up” although the San Joaquin river is still a little blown out, but will produce some fish in the slow, shallow water for anglers who drift attractors. Hot Creek and the Upper Owens continued to be hot spots, with dry fly action in the picture for those who know hot to match the hatch. “Now that we’ve had year-round fishing on a few streams, the fish are getting smarter,” said Stanley. “For example, Hot Creek has been getting pounded since February. Of course there a ton of fish in there, but they’re not going to jump on just anything. Bring a bunch of bugs, you might be switching between four or five distinct hatches during the day.” He added that Troutfitter guides are required to file a report on area streams they have fished at least once a week on the store’s Web site www.troutfitter.com. Stanley made a side trip out of the Mammoth area last week and found some small, but eager fish. “I just got back from the Tuolumne and Lee Vining Creek,” he said. “I caught a bunch of fish on dries. They weren’t big, but they were a lot of fun.” Just down the road from Mammoth, Crowley Lake continued to pump out lots of big Sacramento perch and also produced some of the best fly fishing in a while. “We finally had beautiful weather 3 days in a row, it’s flat calm out there this afternoon,” reported Lane Garrett at Crowley Lake Fish Camp. “They’re still catching tons of perch, from 30 to 50 fish a day up to 16 inches. “The fly fishing guys are happy because the fish have moved shallow and they don’t have to do the deep water midging anymore,” Garrett added. “They’ve caught trout as shallow as 31⁄2 feet off the mouth of McGee Creek, but 6 to 8 feet has been more normal. You can still catch trout on bait in McGee Bay if you fish with long leaders. The North Arm is good now, too, for both perch and fly fishing, with Green Banks and Leighton Springs the best spots.” Garrett said trollers with the know-how continued to get results. “The trolling is still good, they’re getting cutthroats up to 4 pounds,” he noted. “How deep you troll depends on which part of the lake you fish. Right out in front of the Fish Camp they’re getting browns from 1 to 2 pounds pulling the flam MiraShad at six to seven colors. If you troll around the bathroom in McGee Bay, use three to four colors with a Tasmanian Devil in 30 feet of water.” Garrett said hardcore leadcore angler Mark Rubin had a good day on the water Saturday with his niece Pearl Ann Rubin. “He said she got the biggest fish — a 5-pound rainbow on a Cultiva — trolling right up on top,” Garrett reported. “It was getting pretty hot out there and Mark said he was ready to call it a day, but his niece asked him if she could please catch one more fish. So they stayed out and she caught a 21⁄2-pound rainbow casting a Thomas Buoyant.” Brian Balarsky at Convict Lake said the weather was warm, but there was no way to tell if it had any affect on the fishing, as a steady string of trout plants thanks to the DFG and Mono County (Alpers) provided plenty of targets. Worms were the best bet in the lake and the stream and Brian Harvey of Glendora got at 4-pound rainbow on worm fished off the south shore of Convict Lake. Scott Benedict was fishing off the jetty when he connected with a 3-11 rainbow using a Marvel Fly. The Ken Foor family managed a stringer of 7 fish the day of this report (Sunday), which Balarsky said was a good example of the current fishing on Convict.