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Saturday was exploration day. I’d heard that there was a Golden Trout lake that you could drive to just out side of Mammoth. The problem was that it was guarded by a “jeep trail” only passable by “high clearance vehicles”. I was determined to discover if this road was truly a jeep trail or just a ploy to prevent sedan laden fisherman like myself from fishing such a lake. Less than half a mile up the trail, my Corolla was greeted by pointy football sized rocks. My wife cringing at my side, I decided to retreat whence I came. On flat land once again, ears ringing, I pointed the car south to Lone Pine. Above Lone Pine lies the eastern portion of the Golden Trout wilderness. The Department of Fish and Game use some of the lakes in this area as a hatchery, from which they seed the Sierras with Golden Trout. The diligent angler can find these lakes scattered across the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. Select trails will bring you to lakes and streams teaming with Golden Trout.
This was a scouting trip. The idea was to get an idea of the actual distances and terrain that I been reading about. Neither Vita nor myself are very strong hikers, we would hike in about an hour and fish whatever lake or stream we come across at that point. Silently, I’d hope that we’d travel far enough in, at least 2 miles in the first hour, to make the 3.5 mile trek up to the lake I had targeted which reportedly had 14 inch golden trout in them. Since I have never caught a Golden over 6 inches, the thought of catching a 12 inch plus Golden really had me going. In truth, we traveled barely a mile but that still put us at a stream with gobs of 4 - 7 inch Goldens. The fishing was fun and challenging. The stream was small, clear and much lower than you’d expect this time of year. The fish could easily see you if you approached wrong and would quickly dart away. Poor presentations were meet with indifference as was poor fly selection. Over the course of the first hour I experimented with several different dry flies. A size 10 Royal Wulff was meet with a good hard look and a half hearted strike. It was really too big for these fish. Anything else but a caddis cripple, similar to an E/C Caddis, would elicit zero response. A size 16 caddis cripple with a good drift always drew a strike. The fish would follow the fly and just as it floated out of reach, suck it in. There were many instances where a fish wasn't fast enough and would miss. A casual cast back up stream and into the proper feeding lane would, on the second or third attempt, garner a solid hook up.
One of the better spots to fish was right at the fallen log on the trail. Pretty typical of this sort of stream, there was a wide pool that became shallow and slowed toward the tail. The larger fish hung out just at the edge of the tail. The first cast to these types of pools has to be such that the fly lands high enough in the pool to attract attention but not so high as to line the fish with your flyline. My solution was to place the cast so that just my leader was in the water. Unfortunately, with my short 7’ leader, I didn’t always get the drift that I wanted. My next cast would then be made with me close enough to high stick my dry and thus better control drag. This always worked if I was fortunate enough to approach undetected. It was sight fishing at it’s finest and I was able to target a specific fish, catch it and move on to the next. The fishing was good and just before we left, I decided to turn the rod over to Vita. After all these years fishing and teaching people to fish, I had never once taken Vita fly fishing! I took her bait fishing once but she didn’t care for it. I don’t care for it either and for some reason I thought her distaste translated to all fishing. She’d been watching me and snapping pictures for hours and for some reason I turned and handed her the rod. She hesitated at first and then mumbled something to the effect that this would be a perfect place to try. I handed the rod to Vita and instructed her to float the fly downstream to a fallen log. She drifted the Caddis downstream and pulled it back just before a fish struck. “Don’t worry about the fly”, I said. “Let it drift back to the log. She let the fly drift toward the log once more. “Keep it going”, just then, a 4 inch Golden snatched the fly. Vita cheered with excitement and told me to release the fish as soon as possible as she did not want to hurt it.
I released the fish and then realized I should have taken a photo. Her first fish on a fly and a golden to boot. There’s something special about that. We proceeded to try to get her into another fish. I pointed her upstream toward a pool which held bigger fish and had her cast upstream. Unfortunately, I’ve never taught Vita how to cast. Getting the line to do anything but fall forward in a clump was a challenge. She did hook one fish but made a midstream release (must run in the family). I was frustrated, you’d think all these years of watching me, being exposed to all my fishing videos and fish talk, the act of casting would come naturally to her. She should have learned by osmosis but she didn’t. I chuckled to myself, realizing that had it been anyone else I wouldn’t have gotten nearly as worked up as I was getting. I would have progressively taught them how to cast and then put them on the water. In short, I wouldn’t have simply handed her the rod and said, “do your thing”. I decided to have her dap the fly instead. This she was able to do with some success. The sun was gong down and we had to leave. I promised to show her how to fish properly and get her a license. She won’t become an avid fly fisher but she enjoyed sight fishing. A true dry fly fisher it seems. Back at the parking lot we meet a ranger who informed us that this area of fishing was not open until July 1st. Opps! This surprised me because I had checked the regs and all seemed ok. The regs state that the Golden Trout Area (Tulare Co.) is open for the standard fishing season. Unfortunately, we were in Inyo County and the regs where listed under the main lake and creek drainage in this area. There was a sign that said fishing in the lakes and tributaries to the lakes was closed but the regulation book adds that the tributaries to a particular creek are closed as well. Since all of the water in this area drains to that creek, everything was closed. I hadn’t planned on fishing those lakes or that creek, so I didn’t look for them in the reg book. The ranger agreed that the regs where confusing and suggested I write Fish and Game about it. This I will do.
(By now you’ve noticed that I have NOT given you the name of these Golden Trout waters. When it comes to Golden Trout, I think half the fun is in the discovery. I’ve given enough clues in this narrative that if you’re really interested, all you need do is pick up a topo map. I found this water and more Golden Trout waters by doing a little research. It took less then a week and a little research goes a long way.)
Next Golden Trout Wilderness Chronicle Chronicle Index
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