Eastern Sierra Report 6/19-6/20

[stankhole]

Here's my first report on Bloodydecks:

Left Sunday night at midnight, got to Bishop around 5AM. Had breakfast and headed up to Crowley, since the waitress said the big ones were biting there. Got to Crowley and it looked like the wind was already starting blow at 5:45, so we decided to head up north to see if we could find something a little more calm.

We get to the June lake Loop, and thought we'd give Silver Lake a shot. I hooked a small brown right off the bat on a gold castmaster. Wind wasn't too bad in the morning, but increased steadily as the day went on. Caught one 12" rainbow on a black roostertail, and noticed my buddy was nailing them pretty good on the fly and bubble combo. He was using the small bubble with about 5 feet of leader and an olive matuka. He got lots of bites and amanaged to haul in 7 rainbows up to 16". I switched over to the fly/bubble combo with a purple and then green wooly bugger. Managed 4 more rainbows to make my total 5 for the day. Wind really picked up and we decided it was time to crash out in the truck since we were(or me mostly) were up driving all night. Caught one more rainbow after the short nap, and called it off due to wind at around 3 PM. The folks on the shore were picking at them at around the same pace, and I'm guessing that if we were soaking bait all day we could have done a lot better. The key was to get your lure/bait out past the ledge, and into deeper water, especially as the day got later and the water warmed up. Guys trolling matukas was nailing them pretty good, as were the morning float tubers.

Rush Creek was flowing like a madman from the run-off, as were the rest of the streams in the area.

The rest of the loop looked pretty blown out, so we decided to make our way back towards Bishop.


Total for Silver Lake: Me -- 1 brown, 5 rainbows.
My bro -- 7 rainbows


We stopped at Mammoth Lakes, and fished Mary and Twin Lakes for the rest of the afternoon/early evening. Mary still has some snow around it and the water was up pretty high. A few biters on the fly/bubble combo, but couldnt actually hook anything. No biters on lures, including roostertails, Thomas Bouyants, Rapalas.

Moved to Twin Lakes and was about the same story on the hardware. I did manage to hook one nice fish on a gold/red Thomas Buoyant spoon, but farmed it. Got cold once the sun disappeared over the mountains, so we headed back down to Bishop.

Next morning we hit up Lake Sabrina in Bishop Canyon. Rented a boat and were out fishing by 7. Tons of fishing feeding on the surface and juping out of the water. Tons of fish seen near the surface as we trolled by. Two troll fish cam on a silver castmaster and a silver #0 Mepps spinner. Got tired of trolling after about an hour and a half and found a nice spot near the upper end of the lake to drop the anchor. Went to the darkside and threw some Power Bait at them for instant hookups. The yellow stuff fish about 18 inches abover a small splitshot seemed to work the best. I got a couple on my flyrod after i put a piece of power worm on my nymph. We got tired of this spot after about 11 or 12 fish apiece, and moved up to where the stream dumps into the lake.

We anchored up in the current from the stream, and it was non-stop for the rest of the day. Nothing of any size, with the largest fish being about a 12 or 13" inch holder, but man was it fun. My buddy and i were pretty much neck and neck on the fish count until i decided to try some lures. Nothing on spinners, nothing on spoons, but dude was reeling them in one right after the other. I finally breakdown and ask him what's up and he says "Look at this", as he throws a couple of salmon eggs into the water. Fish are coming up to the boat to eat those things, and hit them instantly when flylined or splitshotted into the current. I breakdown, because his fishcount is double mine by this time, and i don't want to be totally outfished. We had sick action on the eggs until we ran out (they were even eating the crusty hard eggs that we picked up off the bottom of the boat). When we ran out of eggs, my count was around 40 and dude was well into the 50's. After the crack rocks (salmon eggs) ran out, we went back to the power bait, flies and power worms. Got a few on the wooly buggers, and killed em on the power worm with a piece of green power bait on top of it(worm with a party hat). The key to wide open action seemed be having the bait in the current.

Very light wind in the afternoon, but otherwise a beautiful, take your shirt off, summer day. Water was hand numbing cold, and the water level is way down due to work being done on the damn, so look out for prop eaters when driving a boat around(we only hit one... good thing it's not our boat. haha).

Total count for Sabrina: Me -- 59 rainbows
My bro -- 78 rainbows

Here's #50. Sorry it's a little blurry around the fish, I borrowed the camera from a buddy. Nice little fish and fun as hell on a #2 rig. Was too busy catching fish to take more pictures.



Overall a very fun trip, wish it could have been longer, but someone had to be home today. I hope this helps out anyone taking a trip up there in the bear future. If you can get a day without the wind, I would try Crowley or June Lake area for the bigger fish. If you just want shear numbers and dont care how they come in, then Bishop Canyon is a good bet. Beautiful summer weather up there right now. Hotter than hell in Bishop, but perfect up in the higher elevations. Lots of snow on the peaks, and on the ground in the Mammoth area. I'd wait a while for any backcountry trips.

All passes were open off of 395( including Tioga), but the road was still closed to Devil's Postpile.

All streams looked to be running pretty high everywhere we went.

Good fishing to everyone makes the trip.

Stan

[feedme63]

Lots of fun all the C&R now we need to go get the bass in my 14 foot alum sub Death_To_ or off shore fishing on the sportygunz