Crawler
07-13-2008, 09:43 PM
I dont even know where to begin.
Myself and two friends (we will call them Steve and James) headed back up to the sierras last sunday for our first ever backpacking trip. We headed out of town at about 8am sunday July 6th of our way to the sierras once again. This would be my third sierra trip of the season, Steves second, and James first.
We arrived in mammoth at around 1pm and got our permits from the ranger station. We setup camp in Agnew Meadows and headed up the road to check out Satcher lake. We started catching stocker bows on crawlers right off the bat. After an hour or so with 5 on the stringer, I decided to try out my new Thomas Boyant. I start casting and after about 15 minutes I am staring to accept that I cannot catch a damn thing with lures and should go back to bait like I always have. And then BAM! I get slammed and BENDO! My very first lure trout! I caught one more and the forker broke me off at my hemos and swam back into the drink with my fresh brown trout colored Thomas Boyant. :Embarrassed: Meanwhile James busts out the rainbow colored Boyant and in 2 or 3 casts, has his first lure trout. James then proceeds to miss a strike on the next cast, and catch another fish on the third cast. We headed back into town for some last minute supplies, and a new assortment of Boyants. We got back to camp with some Tecates, and treated ourselves to fresh Trout and Top Ramen. :Envious:
We hit the trail at 930 the next morning headed 5.5 miles in, and 1600 feet up, to our destination at 9600', Garnet lake. This hike in would prove to kick our asses. We got to the turn off to Garnet (.6mi from our destination) and find that we have to ford the MF San Joaquin river!!! No way to cross except to walk right through it! Lucky for me I had an extra pair of shoes I could put on and walk across. Steve and James were not so fortunet. I went first and walked across, Steve, who's only other form of shoes were flip flops, followed but made the mistake of having his boots in his hand. He lost balance and dunked his boots and socks in the river. James crossed next without incedent barefooted, he is the one in the pics.
So after spending way too much time contemplating where to cross the river, and letting our feet dry out before we put our boots back on, Steve decides he will have to wear his flip flops the rest of the way. So we start the 500' .6mi hike up to the inlet of Garnet. Well.....Lets just say we did not find the correct trail up the mountain, we ended up taking the goat / photographer trail up right next to the waterfalls..... with 35-40lbs on our backs. We arrived near the top about 45 mintes later absolutely exhausted. We then found ourselves completely out of gas stairing at a large steep section of the trail that is covered in snow. At this point we decide to walk back down a little bit and camp at the last campsite we passed on the way up. Which was a smart idea, as steve was wearing his flip flops. We setup camp, got a small fire going and cooked our ramen meals. Those were the best damn Top Ramens we had ever eaten. We topped it off with a shared helping of instant mashed potatoes. Beaten, we got 10 hours of sleep in that night, and woke up sore to some coffee and a hike up to the lake with just our fishing gear.
After climbing up the last snowey section of trail we found ourselves looking at the inlet of Garnet lake, and like six people. :ROFL: There were two hikers doing the JMT passing through, 2 JMT hikers fishing the creek just below the inlet, one hiker coming our direction, and a forest ranger. As we started to walk across the bridge we noticed the forest ranger drinking water straight from the outlet of the lake. This gave us a sence of comfort because we had been drinking water straight from the river the previous day. :Envious:
Onto the fishing. We started out tossing Boyants and got no love for about 20 minutes, I was the first to rig up with a crawler and James soon followed. Steve meanwhile, was working the shore with a super duper. So about 10 minutes after baiting up James goes BENDO! With grins on our faces he brings his catch in. What he brings up I think will prove to be a once in a lifetime catch. TWO BROOK TROUT! Two nice 9-11" brookies, one on the hook, and one one the split shots!! As he is removing the lip hooked fish the split shot fish lets go of the wieghts, and swimms off. :ROFL: We are seriously WTFing the situation and my rod goes tap tap. I pick it up, tap tap again, set the hook, BENDO! I have my first Garnet trout on the line, and he is pulling drag!! After a fairly short fight I bring him up and low and behold its a beautiful 15" Bow! You will see in the pics that I attempted the ever satisfying *no touch* release, but it was not meant to be, he swallowed it. He was the only fish kept from Garnet and he was pink and freakin delicious! We fished for another two hours or so and caught 6 or 8 more nice 9-12" brookies before heading back down to break our camp, and walk back in with our gear.
After we got back and found a nice campsite, we headed right down to this sweet little point right in front of our campsite. First I tried out the little bit of PB I had just to see how it worked on these wild fish, I caught two in a few mintes and decided that it would be great emergency bait but is too easy to fish with, even with a barbless #10 single hook. Then we started catching them on Boyants, I was doing especially well on the perch colored one, which actually looks like a little orange bellied brook trout. After a long day of nice brook trout we cooked up our Ramen, had a few shots of Jim Beam next to the fire, and went to sleep around 11pm. Tired and satisfied. :Envious:
The next day we woke up feeling like crap and didnt fare too well in the hot morning sun. James was feelin sick and went to lie down in the tent at about 1130am, I hung in there untill about 1245pm and headed into the tent for a little rest. After an hour and a half nap for me I awoke to a headach. But nothing a double oatmeal and two motrin couldnt handle. I also awoketo a nice overcast afternoon. Which was both welcomed, and revered. The clouds sure looked like they had rain for us, but they never rained on us, thankfully. This was my best fishing day of the trip with 12 fish total. 9 on Boyants and 3 (including one rainbow) on a Wooly Bugger 7 feet from a clear bobber. Oh, and remind me to put a hook on my bobber the next time I am in the sierras, I had like 4 bobber stikes the whole trip!!! I felt quit proud of myself for fooling the fish that day, rather than my normal method of placing a hook in a peice of food to catch them. Steve caught 4 or five that day, all on lures. These were first time lure trout for Steve as well. James ended up sleeping all day and all night. He said he felt like he had the flu.
The next morning we hauled *** out of camp at 840am dreading the river crossing. But we arrived at the river, promptly crossed, and boogied down the trail and made it back to the truck at 1215pm. I was limping the last two miles due to a blistered right foot. But we made real good time getting out of there. Back to the truck and off with the shoes. Man it felt good to get back to the truck. After a little while of resting we headed for motel 6 for some beds and a shower for the night. We ended up sitting out in front of our room for about 4 hours drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon and listening to some tunes. Good times.
The next day we headed up to lake Mary for some more fishing. This was the first day of our trip that we were effected by the smoke from the fires. It was very bad and there was very low visibility. First up I rerigged the woolly bugger and caught a nice little brown right away. Then one stocker bow. Then after a nice strike on my bobber I rigged up a little cricket dry fly and procceded to get like 7 hits, but not one actually took the fly. :confused: Then I switched back up to the boyant and slammed another stocker. Fished the boyant for a long while and no action. We all ended up rigging up carolina with a crawler and caught a total of 16 fish between the three of us.All rainbows except the one brown. We left lake mary and hauled *** home at about 4pm.
Sorry for rambling on. I started out planning to make the report short and sweet, but I couldnt hold it in. Hope you enjoyed it. I did.
Satcher.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip003.jpg
James gettin some Bendo!
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip008.jpg
Steve gettin some Bendo!
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip016.jpg
Me getting some Bendo!
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip020.jpg
My first lure trout!!!
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip023.jpg
James Bendo with his first lure trout!
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip024.jpg
Camp at agnew meadows.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip028.jpg
James crossing the San Joaquin.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip030.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip032.jpg
Camp just below Garnet.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip035.jpg
Beat, having some dinner.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip037.jpg
The pass we need to go up to arrive at Garnet.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip038.jpg
Looking down from our campsite.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip045.jpg
James' double brook catch.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip048.jpg
The *no touch* release attempt.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip051.jpg
My 15" bow.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip053.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip054.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip056.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip057.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip058.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip059.jpg
Killer bridge at the outlet of Garnet.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip060.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip061.jpg
The most beautiful trout I have ever caught.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip063.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip065.jpg
A little baby bow that James caught.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip066.jpg
Clouds rolling in.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip069.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip073.jpg
Fat brookie caught by Steve.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip074.jpg
Cool cloud formations.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip075.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip076.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip079.jpg
Steve getting some water.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip080.jpg
Myself and two friends (we will call them Steve and James) headed back up to the sierras last sunday for our first ever backpacking trip. We headed out of town at about 8am sunday July 6th of our way to the sierras once again. This would be my third sierra trip of the season, Steves second, and James first.
We arrived in mammoth at around 1pm and got our permits from the ranger station. We setup camp in Agnew Meadows and headed up the road to check out Satcher lake. We started catching stocker bows on crawlers right off the bat. After an hour or so with 5 on the stringer, I decided to try out my new Thomas Boyant. I start casting and after about 15 minutes I am staring to accept that I cannot catch a damn thing with lures and should go back to bait like I always have. And then BAM! I get slammed and BENDO! My very first lure trout! I caught one more and the forker broke me off at my hemos and swam back into the drink with my fresh brown trout colored Thomas Boyant. :Embarrassed: Meanwhile James busts out the rainbow colored Boyant and in 2 or 3 casts, has his first lure trout. James then proceeds to miss a strike on the next cast, and catch another fish on the third cast. We headed back into town for some last minute supplies, and a new assortment of Boyants. We got back to camp with some Tecates, and treated ourselves to fresh Trout and Top Ramen. :Envious:
We hit the trail at 930 the next morning headed 5.5 miles in, and 1600 feet up, to our destination at 9600', Garnet lake. This hike in would prove to kick our asses. We got to the turn off to Garnet (.6mi from our destination) and find that we have to ford the MF San Joaquin river!!! No way to cross except to walk right through it! Lucky for me I had an extra pair of shoes I could put on and walk across. Steve and James were not so fortunet. I went first and walked across, Steve, who's only other form of shoes were flip flops, followed but made the mistake of having his boots in his hand. He lost balance and dunked his boots and socks in the river. James crossed next without incedent barefooted, he is the one in the pics.
So after spending way too much time contemplating where to cross the river, and letting our feet dry out before we put our boots back on, Steve decides he will have to wear his flip flops the rest of the way. So we start the 500' .6mi hike up to the inlet of Garnet. Well.....Lets just say we did not find the correct trail up the mountain, we ended up taking the goat / photographer trail up right next to the waterfalls..... with 35-40lbs on our backs. We arrived near the top about 45 mintes later absolutely exhausted. We then found ourselves completely out of gas stairing at a large steep section of the trail that is covered in snow. At this point we decide to walk back down a little bit and camp at the last campsite we passed on the way up. Which was a smart idea, as steve was wearing his flip flops. We setup camp, got a small fire going and cooked our ramen meals. Those were the best damn Top Ramens we had ever eaten. We topped it off with a shared helping of instant mashed potatoes. Beaten, we got 10 hours of sleep in that night, and woke up sore to some coffee and a hike up to the lake with just our fishing gear.
After climbing up the last snowey section of trail we found ourselves looking at the inlet of Garnet lake, and like six people. :ROFL: There were two hikers doing the JMT passing through, 2 JMT hikers fishing the creek just below the inlet, one hiker coming our direction, and a forest ranger. As we started to walk across the bridge we noticed the forest ranger drinking water straight from the outlet of the lake. This gave us a sence of comfort because we had been drinking water straight from the river the previous day. :Envious:
Onto the fishing. We started out tossing Boyants and got no love for about 20 minutes, I was the first to rig up with a crawler and James soon followed. Steve meanwhile, was working the shore with a super duper. So about 10 minutes after baiting up James goes BENDO! With grins on our faces he brings his catch in. What he brings up I think will prove to be a once in a lifetime catch. TWO BROOK TROUT! Two nice 9-11" brookies, one on the hook, and one one the split shots!! As he is removing the lip hooked fish the split shot fish lets go of the wieghts, and swimms off. :ROFL: We are seriously WTFing the situation and my rod goes tap tap. I pick it up, tap tap again, set the hook, BENDO! I have my first Garnet trout on the line, and he is pulling drag!! After a fairly short fight I bring him up and low and behold its a beautiful 15" Bow! You will see in the pics that I attempted the ever satisfying *no touch* release, but it was not meant to be, he swallowed it. He was the only fish kept from Garnet and he was pink and freakin delicious! We fished for another two hours or so and caught 6 or 8 more nice 9-12" brookies before heading back down to break our camp, and walk back in with our gear.
After we got back and found a nice campsite, we headed right down to this sweet little point right in front of our campsite. First I tried out the little bit of PB I had just to see how it worked on these wild fish, I caught two in a few mintes and decided that it would be great emergency bait but is too easy to fish with, even with a barbless #10 single hook. Then we started catching them on Boyants, I was doing especially well on the perch colored one, which actually looks like a little orange bellied brook trout. After a long day of nice brook trout we cooked up our Ramen, had a few shots of Jim Beam next to the fire, and went to sleep around 11pm. Tired and satisfied. :Envious:
The next day we woke up feeling like crap and didnt fare too well in the hot morning sun. James was feelin sick and went to lie down in the tent at about 1130am, I hung in there untill about 1245pm and headed into the tent for a little rest. After an hour and a half nap for me I awoke to a headach. But nothing a double oatmeal and two motrin couldnt handle. I also awoketo a nice overcast afternoon. Which was both welcomed, and revered. The clouds sure looked like they had rain for us, but they never rained on us, thankfully. This was my best fishing day of the trip with 12 fish total. 9 on Boyants and 3 (including one rainbow) on a Wooly Bugger 7 feet from a clear bobber. Oh, and remind me to put a hook on my bobber the next time I am in the sierras, I had like 4 bobber stikes the whole trip!!! I felt quit proud of myself for fooling the fish that day, rather than my normal method of placing a hook in a peice of food to catch them. Steve caught 4 or five that day, all on lures. These were first time lure trout for Steve as well. James ended up sleeping all day and all night. He said he felt like he had the flu.
The next morning we hauled *** out of camp at 840am dreading the river crossing. But we arrived at the river, promptly crossed, and boogied down the trail and made it back to the truck at 1215pm. I was limping the last two miles due to a blistered right foot. But we made real good time getting out of there. Back to the truck and off with the shoes. Man it felt good to get back to the truck. After a little while of resting we headed for motel 6 for some beds and a shower for the night. We ended up sitting out in front of our room for about 4 hours drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon and listening to some tunes. Good times.
The next day we headed up to lake Mary for some more fishing. This was the first day of our trip that we were effected by the smoke from the fires. It was very bad and there was very low visibility. First up I rerigged the woolly bugger and caught a nice little brown right away. Then one stocker bow. Then after a nice strike on my bobber I rigged up a little cricket dry fly and procceded to get like 7 hits, but not one actually took the fly. :confused: Then I switched back up to the boyant and slammed another stocker. Fished the boyant for a long while and no action. We all ended up rigging up carolina with a crawler and caught a total of 16 fish between the three of us.All rainbows except the one brown. We left lake mary and hauled *** home at about 4pm.
Sorry for rambling on. I started out planning to make the report short and sweet, but I couldnt hold it in. Hope you enjoyed it. I did.
Satcher.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip003.jpg
James gettin some Bendo!
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip008.jpg
Steve gettin some Bendo!
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip016.jpg
Me getting some Bendo!
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip020.jpg
My first lure trout!!!
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip023.jpg
James Bendo with his first lure trout!
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip024.jpg
Camp at agnew meadows.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip028.jpg
James crossing the San Joaquin.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip030.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip032.jpg
Camp just below Garnet.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip035.jpg
Beat, having some dinner.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip037.jpg
The pass we need to go up to arrive at Garnet.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip038.jpg
Looking down from our campsite.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip045.jpg
James' double brook catch.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip048.jpg
The *no touch* release attempt.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip051.jpg
My 15" bow.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip053.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip054.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip056.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip057.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip058.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip059.jpg
Killer bridge at the outlet of Garnet.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip060.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip061.jpg
The most beautiful trout I have ever caught.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip063.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip065.jpg
A little baby bow that James caught.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip066.jpg
Clouds rolling in.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip069.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip073.jpg
Fat brookie caught by Steve.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip074.jpg
Cool cloud formations.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip075.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip076.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip079.jpg
Steve getting some water.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/yotamasters/sierras7-7-08garnetlaketrip080.jpg