Fishing the Sierra's 5/6/04 - 5/8/04 With lots of pictures.

[Gerald]

Rolled into Bishop around 5am Thursday morning to find whats left of a tire on the trailer. Gassed up and headed for Dennys to eat and kill some time waiting for the tire shop to open at 8am. $60.00 later and a tire thats only worth $25.00, and Im off again heading north to Tuff Campground to meet up with Steve and his brother who are already there setting up camp.

Pulling into Tuff Campground:


After unloading the Jeep and setting up camp,


Decided to do some stream fishing with Steve 30' out from the back door of our campsite.


This stream was loaded with trout and we would get hit on almost every cast. Steve put his waders on and really got into the middle of them.



We were flylining orange Lip RipperZ on a #8 Fang hook into the current, and the trout would just hammer the bait!


We ended up fishing this stream all afternoon on Thurs. and also fished here every afternoon of the three day trip until the sun went down.


Then we would sit around the campfire and try to stay warm in the 30deg. air temp.


Friday morning we all headed for Crowley Lake.


I launched my Pontoon Boat to do some trolling.


I was looking forward to using my new Garmin 120 Fish finder that I had just mounted before leaving on the trip.



I didnt monitor alot of fish in the 54deg. water, and I only ended up with four on the troll. I got one on a Rainbow CD5 and three on a Brn. Trout CD5 including one that went 3.8lbs and the rest about 1 1/2lb to 2lbs range. All four were caught out in front of Sandy Point. I did try trout alley from Sandy Point to McGee Bay, but didnt even monitor a fish in that area. I do have to say that these have to be the hardest hitting trout that Ive ever had hit a lure. When the 3.8lber hit on my ultralight 5' pole, I thought it was going to snap it in half. It was literally folded in half and the drag was screaming loud!

Saturday morning I headed up to fish Rock Creek Lake.


The Lake entrance was still closed and covered with snow. There was still alot of snow at this elevation.


Since I couldnt Pontoon the Lake without carrying in my Pontoon, I decided to just fish Rock Creek. Once again the orange Lip RipperZ were the hot ticket, and I caught and releashed about 15 trout.




I headed back to camp around Noon for some lunch and ended up taking a three hour nap. I was pissed off when I woke up and saw it was already 3:00pm. I had planned on going up to Convict Lake after lunch. Oh well, better late then never. I jumped in the Jeep and made a mad dash to Convict.



I had never been to this Lake before, but I have to say that this is one of the most gorgeous lakes I have ever seen. I just couldnt believe how crystal clear the water was. The water was a light Blueish/Green in color and you could probably see down around 20' or deeper. This little lake is 160' deep in the middle, and the water temp was a chilling 45deg. It gave me a weird feeling watching the depth on the Fish Finder and knowing all that was between me and the bottom was a couple of air bladders. I monitored TONS of fish on this lake. Only problem was that they were all suspended at 30' to 60' feet in 75' to 90' of water. I just pulled the Rapala's around and enjoyed the view while watching all the differant bottom structure on the Fish Finder. I didnt catch a thing here, and really didnt even care. I was just happy to be here to enjoy the view.

I was wanting to head up to Mammoth on Sunday, but the Motorhome had a different idea. I had battery problems from the moment I got there (generator not engine), and come Saturday night one of the batteries shorted out and fried some wiring to the coach part of the RV. So I decided to head home on Sun. instead of the planned Mon. trip home. Im hoping to be able to head back up next month to complete my trip.

PS. sorry to all the 56kers for all the pictures! LOL

[Wahoo!]

Awesome pics Gerald! I'll be up there next weekend and I can't wait! Do you remember what elevation is Rock Creek Lake is at? I'm staying at June lake next week and I'm hoping it's not too cold up there. What were the daytime temps while you were there? Thanks for the report.

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by Wahoo!

Awesome pics Gerald! I'll be up there next weekend and I can't wait! Do you remember what elevation is Rock Creek Lake is at? I'm staying at June lake next week and I'm hoping it's not too cold up there. What were the daytime temps while you were there? Thanks for the report.

Thanks Wahoo,
Im not sure what the elevation of Rock Creek Lake is, but Id say its around 2000' higher then Crowley. The daytime temp at Rock Creek was probably in the mid to high 60's but the daytime temp around Crowley was in the upper 70's and got hot at times in the sun. It did get down in the 30's in camp at night. We were camping just across Hyw #395 from Tom's place. Good luck next weekend!

[GlobalFisher]

Awesome gerald, looks like a fun trip! The scenery is beautiful!

[FishSlayer]

Thanks for all the great wallpaper!!! now I'm really in the mood to go next week...and so is my PC

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by rreck

Thanks for all the great wallpaper!!! now I'm really in the mood to go next week...and so is my PC

Glad you liked them.

[SweetGinny]

Never even heard of those lip-ripperz, sounds like a bass thing to me but...treat me like I'm stupid and walk me through it from how to set it up to how to fish it. I'm float tubing with lures and mostly trolling flies on a spinning rod. We gave up bait fishing years ago and are commited to catch-and-release...at least I am , Tom still can't help himself sometimes and has to keep a "keeper". Sometimes when I catch a nice one he resorts to begging and promises to release the next 5 fish he catches if I let him have the big one; "Ah come on Honey, 5 lives for one!", no deal. Spending May 31-June14 at June Lake, we travel all the lakes within a 2 hour drive. My personal favorite is Rock Creek, followed by Lake George in the Mamoths. My husband likes Little Virginia and Convict. We also hike into some little lakes and streams in the surrounding area for some wild trout fishing. I hope you can help me out. I love to have a "secret weapon" so I can blow away my husband! hahahaha him> me>
SweetGinny@aol.com

[DementedFish]

Well, Ginny, you can buy the Trout Ripperz at the site's tackle shop www.hookuptackle.com

Everything you need to know about fishing them is in this article: http://www.hookupsportfishing.com/ar...?articleid=003

[Gerald]

In the lakes just fish them like a mini jig on a 1/32 ballhead jig. In the streams, flyline them with no weight unless you cant get them to sink due to a fast running current. In this case use a VERY small split shot attached right to the nose of the LR. Its always important to use light line when fishing them. I always use 2lb Maxima grn.