Crowley, Rock Creek, Gull, Owens Tue-Sun

[NulodPBall]

Well, I was hoping to fish with some of you guys, but it didn't work out this trip...I had some other guys I was supposed to go to Montana with, that I originally took this past week off for, that wanted to fish with me.

Got a late start on Tuesday...friend that was going to go with me for the first few days couldn't make it. Gpt to Crowley Lake about 5p, setup camp and fished for a bit in my tube, in the creek/bay right next to my tent (pics didn't turn out)...had lots of fish jump around me, only had one hit, and landed it.

Got up Wed, and drove to McGee bay, and paddled out about 150 yards...didn't realize that "suspended at 12 ft" didn't mean drop an anchor in 12 ft of water, it meant that you needed to paddle out further and use a 12 foot leader for Chironomids. Had some nice old guy give me a purple wooleybugger that he was catching a few fish on...I didn't even get one hit. Ended the day at Crowley with basically nothing. Went up to Rock Creek Lake at about 7p to see if I could catch fish up near the inlet and the surface was still iced over about 80%, and snow blocked the upper pack station road. The flow in the creek was horrendous. Went back to camp and stared at the mirror perfect water and flipped off the fish that were taunting me by jumping, knowing that they were safe 'cause I wouldn't be able to see them anymore in a few minutes.

Woke up Thursday and drove to Sandy Point, and fished the more open side...tried a two nymph techique and got a hit on it, but I was on my way over the the other side of the point, where everyone else was. I recognized a couple there that I knew, that was leaving (I recognized the casting style...I knew he had a boat, but I've always seen him in a float tube) and 3 minutes after I occupied his spot and switched to what he recommended, I landed a fish and it was a trout....then for over an hour, I was landing fat perch every five minutes or less...I lost count after 10 perch, but a friend called me back and asked me for some fish so I kept 7 decent sized ones...after I had already lost count...I'm used to brown perch, and these Sacramento Perch were green in color and look just like bass from the right angle (check out the first two pics of perch...they look just like LMB). They were really FAT in the belly, and some of them probably weighed in at close to two pounds. I landed another trout, then when things slowed down, I switched to a fat, green wooleybugger that I tied up 'cause another guy was getting hits on his, and I got hooked up fairly quickly and constantly until the wind kicked up and I had to leave: I've never paddled so hard in my life...I stayed longer than I should have, and I started my last run, to head back to where I parked at about 3p...granted I did catch some fish on the way in, but at 4:30 I realized that I couldn't make it back around the point, so I beached my tube, walked back to my car, and drove over to where my tube was. The trout were fat little footballs that averaged about 12-14 inches, but they fought really hard, they jumped every chance they could get, but at Sandy Point, they also had a tendencey to charge you after they're hooked, or after their first jump, so I learned to keep paddling hard when I hooked one because there way no way I could strip in line fast enough when they made a beeline for me, and then I'd either lose them on one of the jumps, or they'd swim right under me, and the change in hook angle would unbutton them. I kept a really nice, fat 19 incher (female, rainbow) for a friend. I guy near me landed a really nice brown...I think he said it was 22 inches, but I'm not sure...it was funny to hear the wonderment in his voice when he realized it was a brown. Went home a happy camper. It felt close to 80 degrees that day...people were going without shirts...see what the temp was on Saturday

Look at one of the pics I took that looks like I set my rod down on a picture of the mountains, and there's a reflection of the rod to the left and below it...that's actually two rods, but it looks really cool. When I'm catching trout, I tend to be really focused, so sorry no pics of them.

Friday, my 2nd friend finally arrived and we grabbed a flat bottomed boat that I had already reserved and we headed back to Sandy Point and setup where I remembered I was (my fish finder gave up Thursday afternoon), and we fished the same ledge I fished the day before. The wind kicked up early but we landed quite a few fish beween us before the wind got too bad, then we headed back to be closer to the marina in case the wind got worse. We saw a couple of guide boats over in Hilton, so we setup near them (stupid fish finder!) and we caught a few fish, but not many, but the guided groups were getting a fairly steady pick. We kept breaking free and swinging around, dragging one of our anchors because of the wind gusts. We finally moved to a different spot, and got hooked up immediately. We stayed there until 4:56 and we had to have the boat back in the marina by 5p...because we were catching fish slowly, but steadily...and these fish were just as fat as the ones by Sandy Point, but they were LARGER! and instead of running towards us, they ran away from us so we were happy. The largest we brought next to our boat we guesstimated to be about 26 inches and we're usually pretty accurate. It was still pretty hot when it came in and we didn't get a net (has the tape measure built into the netting) on it when the hook pulled out as we were trying to keep it steady. That was a truely nice fish. We stuck with a 12 foot leader and it was working for us, whatever our depth was

Despite the advice of the marina crew (Hi Bonnie), we took a boat out again on Saturday morning...the good thing about camping at the marina is that you can beat the crowd at the gate. It was truely a cold, windy morning and after about an hour with really no fish, we decided to abandon Crowley lake and head up higher to get warm (they had to close the lake the Sunday before I was there, due to high winds...the guy at the marina told us to put on our life vests if the wind kicks up, and head for home).

We went up to Gull Lake on the June Lake Loop. I fished the area I usually fish when on this lake and got nada, trolling a streamer. Jr, my friend, went over to where he could midge, and caught a few fish, switched to wooleybuggers and caught about 7 or 8 that way, working a ledge line. I paddled over, and he switched back to midging, but he kept the 12 foot leader. Another guy that paddled out at the same time I did, was somewhere behind us, right on the shoreline and I finally got tired of hearing him talk about all the large fish swiming behind me, so I backed up and proceeded to catch fish Occasionally you could see these huge cruisers, but couldn't get them to bite. Jr figured out the formula for the cruisers and we discovered that they were either Cutthroat, or Cutbows, but they were very pretty, and did I say large? We did not hook some of the truely huge ones, but the largest we hooked was an honest 19 incher. The fish would swim around us and I think eventually they got spooked so I switched to paddling a streamer around and caught a few more fish. I landed about 15 rainbows, and 3 nice cutthroat. I was in 7th heaven when one of the cruisers swam right by my midge (you can see everything plain as day), I lifted my rod to cast in front of where the fish will be, and the fish flipped a quick 180, and hit my fly...HARD! And this happened twice to Jr. He landed more fish than I did, and certainly more of the cutthroat fish. He also managed one small perch

(addenda: I had to start setting the hook with only one hand with such a short length of line out...I stopped pulling the fly out of the fish's mouth after that)

We were happy, but it was cold up there (ice was on Jr's rod tip earlier) and we eventually had to call it quits when the wind switched direction on us and started to get too strong (whitecaps). Periodically while we were fishing, it'd snow on us, so I'll have to get a copy of the pic that my friend took, of it snowing on me with the sun shining bright. On our way back down to Crowley, my car temp gauge dipped down below 30 I believe...I think it went down to 23 at one point, but most of the time it hovered around 32 or so...and it wasn't night yet It snowed lightly on us just before we got to the marina gate...in the pics of my tent, if you look in the crease on the rainfly, you'll see the snow

Sunday morning, it was cold, but not windy when we left and we stopped by a few creeks, and some spots on the Lower Owens. The Owens was crappy. Water wasn't high, but it was dark, and I couldn't handle all the swirls and eddys. Had fun in the small creeks...thought about sneaking into one of the hatcheries....

Enjoy the pics...one of them I tooke because I was amused that you could pump gas and eat at Carl's Jr, all at the same building. In the one picture with the shiny spot on the skyline, that's the planet Mercurey I believe. The cheapest gas in the area was at Piute Palace, just on the outskirts of Bishop.

Overall, the trip was pretty fun...the beginning wasn't so great, except for the people I met (in one day I met Skillet: he jumped out of his owner's truck cab to come over and beg from me in town; I met Crash, and his lazy cat friend...the crosseyed cat was hiding; and I met a pack of wild dogs that tried to lick me to death)...on the drive back, my friend asked me at one stop if I saw the elk (we were on a dirt road at the time) herd...I said "No, I just saw a bunch of cattle", he said "No dummy, that was several hundred elk, didn't you notice the horns?". What can I say, I have bad eyes I said that I couldn't see one trout that must've weighed in at at least 10 lbs

On the Owens, the irrigation ditches, and the bubblers had bass and HUGE carp running around. The carp spooked easy...I couldn't resist it when I saw a school of about 30 carp, so I hid behind a bush and cast...my line draped over a bush branch and I immediately started tugging at it and a carp hit my fly like it was trying to send it to the moon I snapped off after a few seconds, and the carp didn't even leave the shallow water I couldn't get them to bite again, but I did manage to get the school to drift back twards me. My friend was casting line out in the bubbler pool, so he could sneak up on the carp, and a small bass hit his fly the pool was so clear, we thought there were no fish in there there were also a few smaller carp in there, and i have no idea how they got there (do carp leap up waterfalls like salmon???).

Notice the tan line on my forehead in one of the pictures? I think it's from the sun hitting the water, and coming underneath my hat brim...sunglasses were a must this past week...they also keep the blowing snow flurries out of your eyes They weren't heavy, but it was still snow...with the sun warming the top of my head

[woolybugger]

really nice sierra report those perch look just like midget bass and it sounds like you had a good time with some quality fish

[YakityYak]

Nice read. Glad your weekend turn out to be good and productive. You're right, those perch are marked like bass.

[FishSlayer]

NICE!
sorry we couldnt meet up, we had some issues with the reservations and campsites and ended up staying near Bishop instead of in Mammoth.(Tip: Never go to the Bishop area during "Mule Days" unless you like insane numbers of people!)
It was cold and windy everywhere we went all weekend but fishing was still good, Sean will be posting our report and photos as soon as he can.

[NulodPBall]

Originally Posted by FishSlayer

NICE!
sorry we couldnt meet up, we had some issues with the reservations and campsites and ended up staying near Bishop instead of in Mammoth.(Tip: Never go to the Bishop area during "Mule Days" unless you like insane numbers of people!)
It was cold and windy everywhere we went all weekend but fishing was still good, Sean will be posting our report and photos as soon as he can.

===

Glad you guys were able to find a place...everything was full.

[DementedFish]

Nice report Ray, it's a shame we couldn't meet up with you. I did notice that Carl's Jr./Gas station as well. Pretty cool.

[FishSlayer]

Originally Posted by NulodPBall

===

Glad you guys were able to find a place...everything was full.

We were very lucky!
I just happened to be standing behind a woman at the camp ground managers trailer when she cancelled two spaces that she had reserved. There were lots of open spaces when we arrived Friday morning but they were all reserved and by Saturday morning they were all occupied.
I think that I will have to avoid going up there on Memorial day weekend in years to come just to avoid the crowds.

[NulodPBall]

Originally Posted by FishSlayer

We were very lucky!
I just happened to be standing behind a woman at the camp ground managers trailer when she cancelled two spaces that she had reserved. There were lots of open spaces when we arrived Friday morning but they were all reserved and by Saturday morning they were all occupied.
I think that I will have to avoid going up there on Memorial day weekend in years to come just to avoid the crowds.

===

Very nice!
Yes, there were a few first come, first served places but I didn't want to take that chance. I really didn't run into any crowds except briefly, Saturday morning...we were the first people in the marina office...I went to my car to put ice in my small cooler, and came back and there was a line I figured Bonnie was pulling my reservation card and would have it ready by the time I got back, but she got swamped...quite a few people stayed in the bay that the marina is in, due to the winds and the cold, so we were alone for a bit.

[Wahoo!]

Great report Ray! Glad you guys had a good time. Sounds like you had a colder weekend than we did. Saturday was cold for us and late Sunday there was a small snow flurry as we were finishing up on Convict creek, but other than that, we were able to dodge the weather.

I thought the same thing about the perch looking just like bass when we were catching them. In the water they look exactly like a skinny lmb.

Let me know when you're planning to head back up. I need a couple more trips up there this summer.

[Eric]

Nice report Ray.Sounds like u had a good time. I've heard stories of getting stuck on Crowley in the wind....
Eric

[PlatinumHooks]

Nice Perch Ray! Really nice actually. Great report as always, bro.