Wanted to go since I was a kid. Lived in CA for 15 years and last week made a last spur of the moment decision to finally pack up the truck and go!
My friend J.R. does not fish much but LOVES to camp. He jumped at the chance to get out of the office and into the wilderness. Did a little research on the internet and made a few calls to put a plan in place. We were going to leave work early on Friday, fish all weekend and return Sunday night. We left around 1pm and had a fairly uneventful drive up. Lots of wind going through the high desert. We had picked out Iris Meadow campground on Rock Creek since it has campsites right on the water, only has 14 sites and does not take reservations.
We stopped in Bishop on the way up for a few last min supplies and made it to the campground with just enough light to set up camp and get a fire going. After a few beers and a good night sleep we took a few pics and headed out to see what we could find.
Here is the campsite.
Here is a pic of the creek from the campsite. Standing in the same spot as the previous pic, just turning 180 degrees.
I have not fished a creek for trout since I was a kid and that was in Missouri. I had no Idea what to expect but I figured I looked the part so... what the heck!
We hiked up the creek a ways and saw a few fish. J.R. and I started off throwing brown and olive wooly boogers respectively. The scenery was wonderful and there were lots of fish in the creek.
After about an hour we split and I hiked along the creek from Iris Meadow to Big Meadow. I saw a lot of fish, was even able to identify some brown trout in the water but I couldn't get any thing to bite. I threw everything in the book at them: a dozen different fly patterns, salmon eggs, night crawlers, kastmasters, panther martins. I couldn't get anything to bite. On the bright side I did not see a single soul. It was everything I was hoping for except the lack of cooperation from the fish.
I made it back to the campsite about 2:30 and found J.R. standing on a rock in the middle of the creek patiently drifting the same lure I had left him with. Out of politeness I asked him how his luck was.
(You have to understand, my friend is not a fisherman. He does not own a fishing rod and I had to teach him how to cast the spinning rod I brought for him. He had never used and "open face" reel before.)
He says "I caught and released four." I immediately threw up the bullshit flag and thoroughly interrogated him. It seems that he just kept drifting the same brown wooly booger, in the same spot, over and over and the fish eventually turned on. I re-tied on an olive wooly booger and started drifting in the same spots I had before and within ten min I had my first fish for the day. All the fish were small, 6" to 8" but at least we were catching something. Best I can figure it just took some time for the water to get to a temperature where the fish were ready to feed. The temperature had dropped down into the high twenties/low thirties the night before and the fish just needed a little sunshine to warm them up and get things going.
Once we had the pattern down and the fish were cooperating it was game on. I don't know how many small ones we ended up releasing. We only kept the ones that got hooked too deep and did not look like they had a good chance for survival. Then I spotted him, a big fat Alpers sitting in an eddy about two feet in front of a fallen log!!! It took a few tries but I finally got the perfect presentation and after a vicious fight he was in the net.
Here is where the controversy starts. I was sure this fish was an Alpers trout. I've caught them before at Cuyamaca and the lack of tail damage and pink meat all fit the description. However, when I picked him up he spooged everywhere. I went to clean him we was loaded with baby batter. I am a big fan of what the Alpers family has done for trout fishing and somewhere in my reading I learned that their secret to growing such big fish was that by exposing fertilized eggs to warmer than normal water in the hatchery the spawn was effectively sterilized. By having dead reproductive organs the fish to not spawn and all of the energy normally put into reproduction grows a bigger trout in a shorter period of time. My question is: Was this a wild fish? I cant think of any other explanation. I've never heard of hatchery fish growing fins back.
Any way, we had a great dinner of "wild" trout, more beer by the camp fire, suited up with four layers of clothes to protect from the freezing night time temperatures. We woke early the next morning, had breakfast and coffee by the campfire, broke down camp and headed upstream to Rock Creek Lake. We drove around the lake to the inlet. Here is a pic of the stream going into the lake in the foreground and the lake in the background.
We started fishing around 10:30 and it was the same story. Nothing until about 2:30 then it was on! For me at least. J.R. got skunked for the day! I ended up keeping four fish for dinner and released two others between 2:30 and 4:00 PM. I did manage to get one on a night crawler and got a few raises on a dry fly but for the most part is was an olive wooly booger or they wouldn't even look at it.
Another question: I hiked way up the creek and caught these fish,
The fish on top is obviously about a 12in Rainbow. The fish on the bottom however had some strange markings. I've caught immature rainbows before but this fish looked different, the picture doesn't show it well but it was a brighter golden color and the bars along the sides were much more prominent than a normal small rainbow. Do any of you think this was a rainbow/golden hybrid? Again, does the lack of fin damage and (this time) the small size indicate a wild fish?
I would be totally stoked to learn I caught a wild fish. I don't think I've caught one since I was about eleven or twelve.
Here are a few more pics:
While hiking along the creek we saw a tree that a bear felt like using for a scratching post.
Here is J.R. holding one of the smaller sized trout we caught.
All in all it was a great trip and I'm hooked. I'm sure I'll be going back again this year. I cant wait to hear feedback and learn more about Sierra trout fishing.
Cowboy foreplay; GET IN THE TRUCK BITCH! 
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