9 Lakes in three days - what a Fall trip to the Sierras

Took the enterprise to the Eastern Sierras for three day of kicking across a grip of lakes.  

Became acquainted with many trout.  Saw the beauty that is the Bishop Creek Drainage in the fall.   Cool mornings and warm nights in Mammoth.   Outstanding food, great hang.

One of my favorite Fall trips ever.  Fishing wasn't on fire like it was about 6 weeks ago when I was there - but still very respectable.

After about 40 years of fishing 2# mono up here, this trip I fished exclusively ultralight braid (8# - diameter of 1#) and 5.2# flouro leader (a wee bit larger diameter than 2# mono - but no stretch and invisible).  

My last trip here a few weeks ago I fished one rig Mono and the other Braid/Flouro - no appreciable difference, so I bit down and went all in with Braid (except for the fly rod, of course.)

Initial thoughts:

* I'm using high-viz yellow braid. Makes twilight fishing much easier, as I always know instantly where my line is

* Braid this small is essentially flat.  Lots and lots of wind knots.   Not happy about that.  Spinning reels also spin line, and I had wind knots every day I had to pull out.  When I could.  I cut off several yards of braid to get past knots I couldn't pull out of this microscopic braid.

* Braid floats more than mono - made some presentations a little challenging - waiting for a 32nd oz jig pull down 30 or 40 feet of braid.

Overall - I love the response.  The castability is also good.  The wind knots are problematic.  

Notes for next time:

Fall fishing is often deep fishing.  And on the tube, I have nothing that will get a 32nd oz jig to 60, 70 or 80 feet.

I need a downrigger for my tube.  Gotta work on a small, FW downrigger.  I was metering big browns crowding bait, and I had no way to get down that deep from the tube.

I've seen kayaks with small downriggers.  I'm going to look into those, and shrink them a bit for the tube.

I love my hard deck! -  Easy in, easy out.  Love it.  Going to bring it a little closer - hauling larger fish over the front of it when its this far out will be sub-optimal.


Super trip.  Vids and Pics below.

Enjoy.   Back in the bays on Monday.

- Ken

VIDEOS











The real reason for a hard deck.
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Guess I'm not fishing Intake II (they're working on it)[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]





Bishop Colors (lake Sabrina and North Lake)
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Brown Crowding bait fish on South Lake, Bishop
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Unreal Colors that are Convict Lake
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Unreal volume of fish that are in Convict.  Way too deep for me to reach.... sadly.
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The loveliness that is lake Mamie in Mammoth
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Glacial Cut Beauty that is Lundy Lake[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Lundy Lake welcoming committee
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How Convict Lake keeps RVs and Trailers out of Green Bank[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Great Pictures!
Thanx for sharing!

SP Dan <"))><

Great pics and I like how you employ the hardtop.

Thanks for sharing.

Man there are some really cool shots there I will try to read through it all later thanks for your report.

Great pictures! Beautiful!

Sent from Topic'it App

I just came back from fishing Mammoth last week. I can say the water in Mary and George was much warmer than normal. The fish seem to be suspended in deeper water. Intake 2 is being dredged and should be up and ready for the opener. Sorry, no pictures I was shore fishing only. The water level for the trout opener is going to be great next year. I would love to arrange a trip with a few to learn the proper float tube technique for the Sierra's

mthaubs wrote:I just came back from fishing Mammoth last week. I can say the water in Mary and George was much warmer than normal. The fish seem to be suspended in deeper water. Intake 2 is being dredged and should be up and ready for the opener. Sorry, no pictures I was shore fishing only. The water level for the trout opener is going to be great next year. I would love to arrange a trip with a few to learn the proper float tube technique for the Sierra's

I've been going to opener for over three decades, and I've been with the same crew (about 40 - 45 of us) since 1998.

You are absolutely invited to join us, buddy. I've only missed two since 1998 - and that was when I moved to Baltimore for 3 years (I flew in for one).... I may be moving to Florida in Feb - but I won't miss another.

If you can, we should head up before November 15 closer. Look at your schedule and PM me.

- Ken

Thanks for the amazing pictures!

My wife and I were up for our anniversary trip 10/10... We "camped" (in our travel trailer) at East Fork in the Rock Creek drainage. Your pictures explain my limited success float tubing Rock Creek Lake!

I do not yet own a fish finder - so I employed intermediate sinking fly line with an assortment of streamers at the inlet. Only got several grabs and 1 to net one day, and 1 grab one to net on the other day. I suspected the fish were much deeper, but I did not bring any full sink line to get my streamers deep.

Ended up playing with the little wild brown trout in the creek by the campground on the Tenkara rod, and enjoying the fall colors with my bride and three dogs!

Next year I'm going to have a fish finder, and some full sink line!!! In my infinite fishing wisdom, I thought the fish would be up higher in the water column stuffing their pie holes in preparation for a big winter...Guess my infinite fishing wisdom isn't so infinite!

Thank you for your report!