Big Country
09-16-2010, 05:15 PM
Lucky enough to do 2 trips the past few weeks, so here's my reports:
Trip #1
Spent the past weekend up there on a "business" trip with the buddies. Fished Friday at Silver Lake and absolutely killed it. Between 4 of us, we caught close to 80 fish all stocker size on anything red and gold. We fished from a boat ($30 1/2 day or $41 for full day - what a steal) and did it trolling, anchored with bait and/or throwing lures. This was one of the sickest bites I seen up there in a while for a group of guys. Usually one of us has the hot stick, but never all 4 of us at the same time. We spent the afternoon golfing at Sierra Star back in Mammoth. Saturday we hit Gull with 9 of us on a pontoon boat for the 1/2 day. Again pretty solid fishing all morning, this time on baits such as gulp eggs and worms, pb and good ol nightcrawlers. Fishing 9 guys on a pontoon was kind of like the old days fishing the sand bass beds on the flats. Good times and we spent the afternoon golfing at Snow Creek. Sunday was the Steeler game so there was not much fishing until the afternoon when we hit the Owens and McGee. This was definitely the slowest fishing we found all weekend. Monday we were on our way back down. Everything we caught at every lake/stream was stocker size so I didn't bust the camera out for anything.
TRIP #2
Just before school started back up, the wife, daughter and I headed to Mammoth for a week of r&r. Not a lot of fishing going on with the exception of a guided trip I booked with Ray from Stay Bent Sportfishing up on the Res. The couple of weeks leading up to our trip, I saw a lot of reports on how he was killing it and flyfishing is something that my daughter and I had never done before. A couple of e-mails is all it took to get it set up. The day of our trip, we met Ray at the marina, climbed on his boat and bombed out to his spot where buckeye comes into the res. It took my daughter all of 5 minutes to get her first flyrod fish on board thanks to Ray's instruction. From that point on, we boated probably 25 to 30 classic Bport footballs all the way up to a beautiful 20+" fish my kid landed with her first cast. THIS TRIP WAS EPIC & MY DAUGHTER HAD THE TIME OF HER LIFE!!! Upon getting back to the marina, she looked at me when we got to the truck and said "we are doing this again next year with the same guy."
Like many people reading this, I have a pretty good idea how to bait and lure fish in the sierras and have caught my fair share of toads along the way. I never thought I would take to flyfishing that much. Boy was I wrong. After spending the morning with Ray, I have a new addiction that I now have to contend with. I found him to be very easy going, a guy that really cares about the fishery up there and perhaps the most important thing, he was awesome when working with my daughter. I've never used any other guides up there, so I don't have anything to compare his service too, but in my opinion he was top notch and the proof was in the fish we put on board and my daughter's smile all the way back down to mammoth. Thanks Ray - and we look forward to hanging fish with you again next year.
Here's a couple of pics of my kid shying away from a trout, but happy nonetheless.
Trip #1
Spent the past weekend up there on a "business" trip with the buddies. Fished Friday at Silver Lake and absolutely killed it. Between 4 of us, we caught close to 80 fish all stocker size on anything red and gold. We fished from a boat ($30 1/2 day or $41 for full day - what a steal) and did it trolling, anchored with bait and/or throwing lures. This was one of the sickest bites I seen up there in a while for a group of guys. Usually one of us has the hot stick, but never all 4 of us at the same time. We spent the afternoon golfing at Sierra Star back in Mammoth. Saturday we hit Gull with 9 of us on a pontoon boat for the 1/2 day. Again pretty solid fishing all morning, this time on baits such as gulp eggs and worms, pb and good ol nightcrawlers. Fishing 9 guys on a pontoon was kind of like the old days fishing the sand bass beds on the flats. Good times and we spent the afternoon golfing at Snow Creek. Sunday was the Steeler game so there was not much fishing until the afternoon when we hit the Owens and McGee. This was definitely the slowest fishing we found all weekend. Monday we were on our way back down. Everything we caught at every lake/stream was stocker size so I didn't bust the camera out for anything.
TRIP #2
Just before school started back up, the wife, daughter and I headed to Mammoth for a week of r&r. Not a lot of fishing going on with the exception of a guided trip I booked with Ray from Stay Bent Sportfishing up on the Res. The couple of weeks leading up to our trip, I saw a lot of reports on how he was killing it and flyfishing is something that my daughter and I had never done before. A couple of e-mails is all it took to get it set up. The day of our trip, we met Ray at the marina, climbed on his boat and bombed out to his spot where buckeye comes into the res. It took my daughter all of 5 minutes to get her first flyrod fish on board thanks to Ray's instruction. From that point on, we boated probably 25 to 30 classic Bport footballs all the way up to a beautiful 20+" fish my kid landed with her first cast. THIS TRIP WAS EPIC & MY DAUGHTER HAD THE TIME OF HER LIFE!!! Upon getting back to the marina, she looked at me when we got to the truck and said "we are doing this again next year with the same guy."
Like many people reading this, I have a pretty good idea how to bait and lure fish in the sierras and have caught my fair share of toads along the way. I never thought I would take to flyfishing that much. Boy was I wrong. After spending the morning with Ray, I have a new addiction that I now have to contend with. I found him to be very easy going, a guy that really cares about the fishery up there and perhaps the most important thing, he was awesome when working with my daughter. I've never used any other guides up there, so I don't have anything to compare his service too, but in my opinion he was top notch and the proof was in the fish we put on board and my daughter's smile all the way back down to mammoth. Thanks Ray - and we look forward to hanging fish with you again next year.
Here's a couple of pics of my kid shying away from a trout, but happy nonetheless.