driven2fish
08-10-2016, 06:30 PM
So my buddy and I sped up to Bishop on Friday morning out of Long Beach and pulled straight into the Pleasant Valley Campground just north of town. I would have definitley preffered to camp up in Bishop Creek, but all of the "reservable" campsites had been booked and we were not ready to drive up there and find that the "first come first served" sites were gone...so we settled on PV Camprground, which of course is located at the very start of the Wild Trout section of the Lower Owens River.
We scored one of the only campsites in the shade, which was an absolute must with temps in the upper 90's! But we had a chance to stand in a small portion of the river directly next to our site, and started to enjoy some of the tasty cold brews we'd brought with us. The river flows were somewhere around 475cfs...which is super fast! Ideal conditions are rated somewhere around 75 - 250cfs if I read correctly.
Despite the conditions, we fished the river about one hour before sunset and gave it a go. Tough tough...not a lot of access, on top of very fast water rolling through like thunder! After working a few sections with an in-line spinner, I decided to go with a very heavy version in hopes of getting it as deep as possible. That was the ticket! I mangaged to scratch out 2 nice rainbows in the 12" range and even caught a Largemouth Bass! (seems like they follow me everywhere). I missed several fish as well, but felt great as we were headed back to the campsite because I had not only got on the board right away, but also caught a few decent little fish! We hit one more hole on the way, and wouldn't you know it...BAMM I get nailed. Ding Dong I got a good one...nice fight, pulling drag, pulled up to the bank of the river and he takes off again. Thakfully, I had my net hanging from my side, and once I pulled the fish back in, I was able to scoop him right up and take a sweet pic! Speckled Trout. I let the fish go right away and watched him swim back to his hole without a hitch!
Game Over. From this point on, it just doesn't matter. I was on top of the world. Beers flowed like water that night. And the mosquitos made an absolue buffet out of my drunk *****!!!
The next morning we drove up to Bishop Creek and hit the trailhead at South Lake around 730AM. Our intention was to fish Long Lake...which was what a few other fisherman in the parking lot said they were going to do as well...but once we go to the fork in the road further down the trail, we were unaware of which way to go (either the Pass or Treasure Lakes)...not knowing the right answer and wanting to fish, we went with the "Lake" option. As it turns out, we picked the hardest hike in the area. Wasn't misserable or undoable...but it was definitely a kick in the pants!
Once we arrived to the lake (around 10,700'), we met with some Fly Fisherman (3 of them) who were packed up and headed out! "No Bites" they said..."just a bunch of chasers" they said. How funny! I ended up catching and succesfully releasing 20 fish! It was amazing. I am no doubt headed back. The lakes up ther are fantastic. We didn't see one other group of fisherman all day, until the very end of the day when we were headed out. We walked just about 3/4 of the way around the lake, until it became a bit to tough to trek. I used the same spinner all day and had an absolute ball. The fish were all in the 8 - 12" range, all of them Golden Rainbow Hybrids, and all of them fiesty and beautiful.
I've got a few pictures from our trip.
We scored one of the only campsites in the shade, which was an absolute must with temps in the upper 90's! But we had a chance to stand in a small portion of the river directly next to our site, and started to enjoy some of the tasty cold brews we'd brought with us. The river flows were somewhere around 475cfs...which is super fast! Ideal conditions are rated somewhere around 75 - 250cfs if I read correctly.
Despite the conditions, we fished the river about one hour before sunset and gave it a go. Tough tough...not a lot of access, on top of very fast water rolling through like thunder! After working a few sections with an in-line spinner, I decided to go with a very heavy version in hopes of getting it as deep as possible. That was the ticket! I mangaged to scratch out 2 nice rainbows in the 12" range and even caught a Largemouth Bass! (seems like they follow me everywhere). I missed several fish as well, but felt great as we were headed back to the campsite because I had not only got on the board right away, but also caught a few decent little fish! We hit one more hole on the way, and wouldn't you know it...BAMM I get nailed. Ding Dong I got a good one...nice fight, pulling drag, pulled up to the bank of the river and he takes off again. Thakfully, I had my net hanging from my side, and once I pulled the fish back in, I was able to scoop him right up and take a sweet pic! Speckled Trout. I let the fish go right away and watched him swim back to his hole without a hitch!
Game Over. From this point on, it just doesn't matter. I was on top of the world. Beers flowed like water that night. And the mosquitos made an absolue buffet out of my drunk *****!!!
The next morning we drove up to Bishop Creek and hit the trailhead at South Lake around 730AM. Our intention was to fish Long Lake...which was what a few other fisherman in the parking lot said they were going to do as well...but once we go to the fork in the road further down the trail, we were unaware of which way to go (either the Pass or Treasure Lakes)...not knowing the right answer and wanting to fish, we went with the "Lake" option. As it turns out, we picked the hardest hike in the area. Wasn't misserable or undoable...but it was definitely a kick in the pants!
Once we arrived to the lake (around 10,700'), we met with some Fly Fisherman (3 of them) who were packed up and headed out! "No Bites" they said..."just a bunch of chasers" they said. How funny! I ended up catching and succesfully releasing 20 fish! It was amazing. I am no doubt headed back. The lakes up ther are fantastic. We didn't see one other group of fisherman all day, until the very end of the day when we were headed out. We walked just about 3/4 of the way around the lake, until it became a bit to tough to trek. I used the same spinner all day and had an absolute ball. The fish were all in the 8 - 12" range, all of them Golden Rainbow Hybrids, and all of them fiesty and beautiful.
I've got a few pictures from our trip.