Mammoth/June report 8/1-8/8

[Toad Patrol]

Left the beach&bass for the lakes&trout on Monday, and it was Purty Damn Nice. Started down in Agnew Meadows near the Devil's Postpile in Mammoth. No tourist/RV/Disneyland crowds like at Mary,Twin, or George lakes. Under beautiful sunny Sierra skies, fished secluded Starkweather and Sotcher lakes for some average stockers, not wide open, but enough for a tasty campfire dinner for us.  Kayak trolled 4 lb. test line with gold Thomas Bouyants, pink Tasmanian Devils, Gulp trout worms and salmon eggs on #12 gold trebles. They bit only at early morning 7 am or evening 7pm, and swam around giving us the finger the rest of the day. Not Very Nice...
Wednesday pulled out and got a great campsite at Gull lake in June area. It's extemely competitive amongst the trouter/Rv'rs for the 5 lakeside spots, and perfect timing&pure luck is required. You have a great wooded lakeshore launch at the edge of your camp and can safely leave your kayak on your own bit of shore in the reeds. Possibly the sweetest kayak campsite in the Sierras, with some great tackle/market/cafe/bars nearby. Gull lake also has a great diving cliff and rope swing, and when it's as hot as it was, getting a cool swim and the trout slime off you is a real bonus. A coupla cute girls in wet bikini's can sure get your mind off the crappy fishing, too. Xtra Nice...
The bummer? My sonar was getting lots of big trout all over the lake, groups of 4-6 big fish right under my yak, but no takers. Arggg! How frustrating to meter all these fish and nobody catching anything. I had to turn off the FF, I couldn't take it any longer. Not So Nice....
Drove up to Lee Vining, fished the creek near the power plant for 6 nice rainbows and had a great elk chili and blackerry pie al a mode lunch at the Tioga Pass Restaurant, cruised down into Yosemite, climbed some granite domes, basked in some natural splendor, stopped at a very remote hot springs for a extremely soothing soak in the georgous sunset light. No tourists for miles,(except for us, of course.) Had another great campfire trout dinner and major ZZZZ's. Very Nice.....
Next day hit Gull early for more Trout Rejection. Again, metered lots of fish but didn't see anyone land a trout. A guy camping next to us was raving about the "solunar tables" upsetting the trout feeding this time of month. He said,"it's the only thing that's half true in the "Western Liars News" fishing paper.
Ha! Sounds right to me!
We kinda lost our trout jazz at that point. We drove, camped, kayaked, fished, "s'mored" and snored. Time to hit the dusty trail back to LA.
More importantly,my son's got some hot party to get to back in Malibu. To hell with those stuck-up trout!They weren't so nice to us this time, (but really tasty!)
TL
-Scott



 

[danal]

Greetings Toadpatrol,
Thanks for the Sierra report.  We just returned from  the same sort of trip.  We stayed at Convict Lake and metered many fish and caught very few.  We did have enough for dinners.  We hiked the San Juaquin for some small natives on the fly.  THe kayaks did not get much use because with 4 boys between 6-11 years old and only two (just me really) adults tying hooks, unhooking snags, and breaking up fights there was little fish time.  The highlight was my 11 year old got pretty self-sufficient and was doing his Thomas Bouyant thing and I hear from 30 yards away "I got a big one!!!!!"  I paddled over with my 6 year old in my lap (complete with tangle) to net a nice 2lber!  Pretty cool when they graduate and succeed on their own.  We ate, campfired, snuck into the jaccuzzi at Snow creek, and shot the 22 at the shooting range and had a great time inspite of the less than stellar fishing and HUGE crowds.   Thanks also for the skatepark tip.  They loved it and had 2 great sessions.  The bowl was pretty deep for our you group but a couple of them gave it a whirl!  Nobody broke a bone.
Danal