socal114
07-17-2011, 01:10 PM
Headed up late afternoon Sat. and overnighted in Bishop. Due to less than positive reports at Crowley, we decided to hit Convict Sun. for a few hours before driving to June Lake RV park to check-in. Convict was slow and there was a lot of debris in the water near the inlet from the runoff. Managed four small bows on plastics.
Monday - Spent the day on Gull for a mostly WO bite all day long. All stockers caught on mini jigs and plastics. Called it a day at about 6 p.m. and headed to camp for some beer and BBQ. Baited the crawdad trap with two small stockers and dropped it on the backside of Gull.
Tuesday - Headed to Lake Mary down in Mammoth. Was hoping to get into some nice Alpers after their weekly stockings, but it didn't turn out that way. The water temp. was a chilly 52 deg. and the bite was pretty slow. Managed six fish to include a brown. All fish were 10" or smaller. Headed back to camp for lunch and hit Gull for an afternoon session of SWO fishing. Managed one quality 2.5# and countless other stockers.
Wednesday - Headed over to the trap at daylight to find 30+ monster dad's and two "skinned" trout. Those damn things cleaned one trout to the skeleton.:EyePop: Continued on to Grant with hopes of finding a few brown's. Got no brown love, but got into some quality bows to include a beautiful 2# Alper. Left a wide open bite at noon to head back to camp and meet my FIL. Finished the day on Gull for more WO bite.
Thursday - Headed to Little Virginia to check it out at the request of my FIL. Didn't know much about the lake, or should I say "pond", and was surprised to find it no deeper than 6' anywhere. I had heard this place was known for brown's, but there was no evidence of any on our visit. I had to laugh when the old lady inside the store told us we were about two hours late for browns (we arrived at 7) and she doubted they would "come up" this late. Come up from where, 6' of water?:LOL: Needless to say, I wasn't "feeling" this place. It was a mud hole in every sense of the word with a flat, shallow, mud bottom and no structure. After half a dozen 8-10" stockers each, we left and headed back to Grant at about 10 am. Grant was productive once again with more quality bows and another 2# Alper.
Friday - Spent the morning on Grant at the mouth of Rush Creek which was again productive, but nothing to speak of as far as size. The highlight of the morning was seeing a large buck and a HUGE black bear within a half hour of each other, walking the shoreline. Finished the day at Gull for a very slow afternoon (for Gull standards).
Once again, it was a great trip, but one thing had me scratching my head. Between three of us fishing and well over 250 fish caught, the largest fish was 2.5#...Are the lakes not stocking as many Alpers because of the economy? We were on Gull pretty much every day during the week and I didn't see or hear of anything over three pounds and very few Alpers. In fact, Gull still had the two big fish (4.6 and 5.2) posted on their board from our trip last month...From speaking to a number of locals/regulars, I was not the only one noticing the lack of larger/quality fish. If you were fishing from shore or only soaking dough bait, a good day was a five fish limit. The numbers increased dramatically if you were able to cover more water and work jigs/plastics.
For numbers, Gull was once again the "go to" lake but for quality fish (Alpers/Browns), Grant gets the nod. Here are a few pics/vids from the trip...
http://s470.photobucket.com/albums/rr67/socal114/?action=view¤t=IMAG0239.jpg#!oZZ1QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2F s470.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Frr67%2Fsocal114%2F %3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DIMAG0239.jpg
http://s470.photobucket.com/albums/rr67/socal114/?action=view¤t=IMAG0239.jpg#!oZZ2QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2F s470.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Frr67%2Fsocal114%2F %3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DIMAG0234.jpg
http://s470.photobucket.com/albums/rr67/socal114/?action=view¤t=IMAG0239.jpg#!oZZ3QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2F s470.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Frr67%2Fsocal114%2F %3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DIMAG0230.jpg
http://s470.photobucket.com/albums/rr67/socal114/?action=view¤t=IMAG0239.jpg#!oZZ4QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2F s470.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Frr67%2Fsocal114%2F %3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DIMAG0228.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXOrMoT9dAw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7qF5kGqCTk
Monday - Spent the day on Gull for a mostly WO bite all day long. All stockers caught on mini jigs and plastics. Called it a day at about 6 p.m. and headed to camp for some beer and BBQ. Baited the crawdad trap with two small stockers and dropped it on the backside of Gull.
Tuesday - Headed to Lake Mary down in Mammoth. Was hoping to get into some nice Alpers after their weekly stockings, but it didn't turn out that way. The water temp. was a chilly 52 deg. and the bite was pretty slow. Managed six fish to include a brown. All fish were 10" or smaller. Headed back to camp for lunch and hit Gull for an afternoon session of SWO fishing. Managed one quality 2.5# and countless other stockers.
Wednesday - Headed over to the trap at daylight to find 30+ monster dad's and two "skinned" trout. Those damn things cleaned one trout to the skeleton.:EyePop: Continued on to Grant with hopes of finding a few brown's. Got no brown love, but got into some quality bows to include a beautiful 2# Alper. Left a wide open bite at noon to head back to camp and meet my FIL. Finished the day on Gull for more WO bite.
Thursday - Headed to Little Virginia to check it out at the request of my FIL. Didn't know much about the lake, or should I say "pond", and was surprised to find it no deeper than 6' anywhere. I had heard this place was known for brown's, but there was no evidence of any on our visit. I had to laugh when the old lady inside the store told us we were about two hours late for browns (we arrived at 7) and she doubted they would "come up" this late. Come up from where, 6' of water?:LOL: Needless to say, I wasn't "feeling" this place. It was a mud hole in every sense of the word with a flat, shallow, mud bottom and no structure. After half a dozen 8-10" stockers each, we left and headed back to Grant at about 10 am. Grant was productive once again with more quality bows and another 2# Alper.
Friday - Spent the morning on Grant at the mouth of Rush Creek which was again productive, but nothing to speak of as far as size. The highlight of the morning was seeing a large buck and a HUGE black bear within a half hour of each other, walking the shoreline. Finished the day at Gull for a very slow afternoon (for Gull standards).
Once again, it was a great trip, but one thing had me scratching my head. Between three of us fishing and well over 250 fish caught, the largest fish was 2.5#...Are the lakes not stocking as many Alpers because of the economy? We were on Gull pretty much every day during the week and I didn't see or hear of anything over three pounds and very few Alpers. In fact, Gull still had the two big fish (4.6 and 5.2) posted on their board from our trip last month...From speaking to a number of locals/regulars, I was not the only one noticing the lack of larger/quality fish. If you were fishing from shore or only soaking dough bait, a good day was a five fish limit. The numbers increased dramatically if you were able to cover more water and work jigs/plastics.
For numbers, Gull was once again the "go to" lake but for quality fish (Alpers/Browns), Grant gets the nod. Here are a few pics/vids from the trip...
http://s470.photobucket.com/albums/rr67/socal114/?action=view¤t=IMAG0239.jpg#!oZZ1QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2F s470.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Frr67%2Fsocal114%2F %3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DIMAG0239.jpg
http://s470.photobucket.com/albums/rr67/socal114/?action=view¤t=IMAG0239.jpg#!oZZ2QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2F s470.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Frr67%2Fsocal114%2F %3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DIMAG0234.jpg
http://s470.photobucket.com/albums/rr67/socal114/?action=view¤t=IMAG0239.jpg#!oZZ3QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2F s470.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Frr67%2Fsocal114%2F %3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DIMAG0230.jpg
http://s470.photobucket.com/albums/rr67/socal114/?action=view¤t=IMAG0239.jpg#!oZZ4QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2F s470.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Frr67%2Fsocal114%2F %3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DIMAG0228.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXOrMoT9dAw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7qF5kGqCTk