Convict Lake (pics up)

[kewlwhip]

Anyone fished it lately from the FNN forums? I've heard its been really good
-going to be heading out there the weekend of the 26th-28th w/ family...

tia-

[jmurillo74]

I was up in the Mammoth area the last weekend of September. We fished Convict only one day. I think we only caught 3-4 pan size trout in about a five hour period. We had much better luck elsewhere, especially Pleasant Valley Resevoir and Lake George. That weekend was very cold with snow flurries, and everytime I go up there I see more and more bears. Good luck, let us now how you do.

[Mike274]

Kewlwhip,

A friend and I just fished Convict last weekend Fri-Sun. It was my first time there and not only was the fishing good, but it is a beautiful place. Other than the 8-10 inches of snow last friday the weather was beautiful. Just be aware to take plenty of warm clothing anytime you go to the Sierra's this time of year. Can be nice or just flat out cold sometimes changing in minutes.

Anyhow, back to the fishin' stuff. Fish all over the lake! We caught close to 100 fish, with the biggest being 4.2lbs while fishing Friday, Saturday and half day Sunday. Lots of pan size and lots of decent size one as well. On Saturday one of the Convict regulars caught a 10 punder sporting full spawning colors at the inlet. Lots of fish moving that way to spawn.

Lots of ways to fish that lake. We rented a boat and trolled, as did others, and except for 1 or 2 strikes nothing for anybody. In fact, while trolling a boat came all the way across the lake and cut us off. I was thinking what the heck, and all he wanted was to ask us where we caught all of the fish. Mostly anchored out and fished the bottom. If you need more info you can pm me.

Mike

[steve092]

Never fished there.

But I have seen Convict Lake in those Granola Bar Commercials.

[Mike274]

Kewlwhip,

Fished there for about 100 fish last weekend mostly on the south shore. Fish holding near the shoreline along big dropoffs to be had with mini jigs, lures or flies. Fish get wise and spook quickly though. Best bet is from a boat. Find shoreline areas with shallow shelves and anchor in about 20-30' of water. Cast into the shore and reel in to just above the drop off and wait. We used every kind of bait and lure with inflated crawlers being the best by far. Use the reg size crawlers and you can break them into 2 or 3 pieces. Put them on a #10 bait holder hook, attached to a 18-24" leader below a 1/4 ounce sliding sinker, inflate them to keep them off of the bottom and you have it. If they don't float they won't catch! Fished different tests as well, but found 2-4lb flouro to be the best by a wide margin. I prefer a Carolina Keeper as opposed to a swivel. You can easily move them up and down to change depth while eliminating needless other knots and connections. Pretty much caught fish everywhere we fished with the worms as long as the area had a shelf.
Actually surprising how shallow the fish were. You can also walk the shoreline, especially the inlet, with mini jigs or kastmasters. Definately fewer fish, but the ones caught will be of the larger variety. A 10 pounder in full spawning colors pulled out of the inlet. Most bigguns caught in the evening hours. Hope this helps

Mike

[kewlwhip]

thank you for all the knowledgeable information everyone.

-Ive been going to convict for the past 7 years, just never this late in the season...
so the bears are more abundant now than before? worried about my father fishing from shore, as he's
already asked to be dropped on "his" good luck spot :wink:

mike, just pm'd ya!

anymore info would be appreciated-
when my trip is underway, i will update with story and pictures later-

8)

[Mater]

Nice info Mike274. Thanks for the post.

[sierrajack]

I haven't fished there in awhile, but now should be a good time to try for some large browns.

[Mike274]

Kewlwhip and Sierra,

Kewlwhip, never received your pm. Anyhow, We did catch a few browns but most of the biggies are rainbows. We caught 5 browns with the biggest being about 13". The folks at teh general store said that they just started stocking browns again after a stopping for a few years. DIdn't get into the details though. That could be why there are not many large ones being caught.They were caught in deeper water though. I would say about 25-35'. Again, the water is getting pretty cold. By the way all browns were c&r'd due to the low number of quality browns at this lake. Always release the browns and brookies, Just my thing. :D

Mike

[kewlwhip]

hmm, I'll check again Mike-

will be definately trying for those browns! I just tried to pm you again-

[Kingfish]

Kewlwhip,
I was just there on Sat Oct 13th. We fished there for about 2 hours until dusk. If you are fishing the shore and don't mind an easy hike, drive to the end of the road by the trees (south side of the lake) and hike to the far end of the lake. Fish at the small creek inlet. There is a good drop off about 10' from shore and I caught 3 nice browns on orange power worms jigged along the bottom. We tried many lures and lip rippers for a few hits, but only caught them on power worms. There were many fish hitting the surface for about an hour, but we are inexperienced in the fly / bubble department. Saw several large fish swimming around also.

I talked to another fisherman along the shore by the trees, who had 2 browns caught on a black & gold panther martin. They also had one 3 - 4 lb rainbow. The browns I caught were around 12" long.

Kingfish

[kewlwhip]

thanks kingfish, i was going to hit that spot, if the troll doesn't fire up... :wink:
-i've got a couple things for mr brownies!

[Afishionado]

I sure do love Convict Lake. Some of the nicest scenery in the E Sierra.

I fished there a couple of months back, parked the car near the launch ramp, then hiked around the north side of the lake for about a half mile. There are plenty of little spots along there to just sit and fish and enjoy the scenery. And I had some good luck on that trip as well. I caught 7 or 8 nice little stockers.

[kewlwhip]

thats awesome...

well, i'm packed and ready to go..leaving early from work... :banana: and ready to run up 5-14-395...anyone know of any hwy closings? just got off the horn w/ FA the hommie...got some good scoop as always, also thanks to Mike, i'll be using the goods!

[IncredibleHuck]

Fish that inlet! Toss out some jigs or lip ripperz in that area and you'll get yourself a big fish! :explode:

[Faulter_Mike]

hey dude. Me and my dad went up to convict at the beginning of october. Overall, it was pretty slow. however, the quality of fish was excellent. I caught this little guy with a nightcrawler drifted in the inlet current with a bubble and three foot leader. bright pink flesh on all the fish. I was told they were in full spawn mode, maybe that had something to do with it?[attachment=0:2a38d]bigfish.jpg[/attachment:2a38d]

good luck up there man, I hear the bite's been on lately.

[Jester]

I stopped in there today on my way back from Reno. No gear to fish with, but it looked great. seems they had a tourny this weekend. I was able to spot several decent fish from the foot bridge next to the road.

Good Luck!

~Jess

[kewlwhip]

nice fish faulter, right on! thanks fellas..jester isn't the view of convict lake awesome!

Well, with much anticipation of getting to the sierras to wet my lines, that day came...

Went home to meet with the fam after getting off work early around 1230...Got the Jeep packed,
and we were off to Mammoth/convict by 1.30pm. The traffic was ok, until we got by
LA...wow, i found out why i hate LA. Traffic was horrendous, and took 2.5hours extra.

Nonetheless, when we got to the 14/395, all those LA traffic woes disappeared. Thinking we would
get clean/crisp fresh air, I noticed that the smoke from all the fires followed us all the way to Convict Lake!

We got to our condo in Mammoth, and unpacked. Hungry with fishing our minds, we just went to Johns Pizza.
Upon going down the stairway, I was about to lift open the garage, and a rather large black bear was no more than 20' from me! :shock:
Startled, I shouted some absenities, and told my parents, and girlfriend to get in the jeep! Upon my hollaring and yelling, the bear saw me and took off
more frightened/starteled than myself! lol,,, In all my years camping in the sierras (10+years) I've never been that close/seen
a bear like that..not to mention we weren't even camping! Some local riders later told me that they're all over the place-
they're "fattening" up and its nothing unusual...just watch out for the mamma bear and cubs! :o Well, when we got back to the condo
that night, i drove around, saw that the same garage door was again opened, so i was tentative about getting out! lol,,,I got out
and upon checking that the coast was clear, i gave the fam the ok, to exit and head towards our condo.

That night we all fell asleep, sharing that incident that had happened..it brought up some good laughs, since everyone was startled, and caught off guard. .I then told pops that we were getting up at 5.30am
Woke up at 5, and got to the lake by 6am...it was still nightfall, and the shop was closed. By the time daylight came, and elderly lady came out to open shop...We got the boat rental, and headed out..we were the 3rd boat in the water...I picked up a broke back rap., and a needlefish...the sky was cloudy, later found out it was actually the reminants of the smoke from the fires in LA..sad to see that in such a beautiful place (photos will show how it overcast the area). The water at the lake was like glass, visibility was crystal clear down to 20'+. and the water was ice cold...even spotted some fish right at the boat docks, and it then felt good. I told pops to relax, and just take in natures best. I let out my lead, and my 2 flats...since we had no fish finder, I figured to be quite challenging...a little wind picked up, say maybe 5mph and pops got the first hit...as he was holding the rod out, i see my pole snap back, and he was like whoaah..(keep in mind, pops never trolled b4, he's and old school bait fisherman, and was first asking me to drop him off at "his" spot :) ) right as he said that it popped off...i was laughin...and told him theres more where that came from...well, we did 1 more full lap, no hits.. I noticed that the shore fishing was somewhat slow, saw here and there people catching, but nonething too spectacular..then I get a hit on my lead, nice lil bendo, set the hook, and I handed it over to dad. He was bent and all smiles...the fish went on a couple runs, and pops fought it to the net. A nice 2lb rainbow, first one on! After getting it iced, I dropped the lead out and continued on...well 11am came, and pops wanted to fish his spot...I dropped him off by the inlet..or where the inlet used to be, it was dry back there, but I knew were it used to be, you could tell by the dry runoff...plus a few boats baited down, i figured they didn't do so well either on the troll. I dropped pops off, and told him to cb me if he needed anything...he was happy, and thats all that mattered to me. I then set off, this time another needlefish, and a tomas bouyant, the one that all said was a hitter...i trolled for another 2 hours, and managed to land 3more fish all about 1lb. I was about 20-50' from shore, the water was clear, but black...i could see my lure disappear to the depths....I could barely make out the bottom sometimes...i was just trolling beyond sight of the bottom...i talked to my dad a few times, and he said he only got 1 bite...He told me he was ready for a move, i told him an area to bait fish since it was were i was getting the majority of my hits...he said ok. I dropped him off after askin if he wanted to troll again, only him to say shore fish please...I figured to shore fish with him and catch some lunch. After eating lunch, and me not getting a bite w/in the hour, i was then ready to troll again. I noticed that there were only 2 boats out trolling, and a few float tubers (one being a fnn'r here once in awhile)...the rest (10+boats were all near shore bait fishing)...thinking of the fellow fishin brothers FA/T.O/ Trolly/Pontoon, i said to myself troll or die! lol,,, I then trolled shallower, then deeper only to catch another 1lbr...it was then about 5pm...I radiod pops, and asked how he was doing...he said only 1 more...told him how I was doing, and he asked to be picked up. By the time I got to him, it was close to 6. We decided to call it a day... A fun day, Convicts water was so dark and clear, it gave a eerie feeling when trolling, lookin into the depths...eventhough DVL is much deeper, the waters of Convict looked ominous, and challenging...FAlbert told me "kewly its a glacier, not manmade..." made sense! Hope to get a big one nextime! Ended up with 7 trout all in all, 1 keeper, the rest c&r'd for nextime ;)

Sunday the next morning, we headed to Lake Mary/George before heading home. The lakes there were beautiful, they were doin some road work on the way there, but still didn't take away from the beautiful scenery. We managed to get our lines wet for about 1hour...saw fish jumpin all around, but no takers...it was now time to head home...

Crowley looked enticing...wish we had 2 more days
We stopped at one of the local hatcheries to see some brutes..great last spot to see before continuing home.

Was planning on tryin to get up there one more time before season ends...
Photos to come from my gf's camera once i get them downloaded-

tight lines! 8)
kewly

[IncredibleHuck]

Sounds like a GREAT TRIP!!! What conod where you staying at in mammoth that the bears were at? We stayed at Snow Creek before and had a balast there, and didnt have one bear come through and that was after two different trips.

[kewlwhip]

jason, we stayed at St Anton- right next to the mtns.. beautiful scenery, and "wildlife" :mrgreen:
great, but too quick of a trip!

[trollmiester]

Sounds like good times with the famili.Cant wait for the pictures.

[Mike274]

Kewly,

Sounds like you had a good time with pops and the family. Sounds like the water was a little cold. Like your persistance with the trolling though. Fish the North shore at all (to the right as you come out of the marina)?

Fishing supplies - $30.00
Fishin' the sierra's for the weekend - $500.00 (and always beautiful)
Leavin' L.A to go to the sierra's worth - $1000.00
Fishin' with the Family and pops - Priceless!

Next time. Troutzilla is waitin'

Mike

[kewlwhip]

trolly, i should have the pics up and running when she gets the rest downloaded..
oh yeah, i forgot my digicam in my car, got to bishop went to the kmart and bought a camera...ended that all the cameras on display were all sold out. I lucked out and scored on a sweet sony digi cam for under $180-usually $400..a perfect sale, and a desperate stop so i could share some pics...i didn't argue.

Mike, Thats exactly where i started..i had my first line going right at the end of the rental marina. Thats were i saw a few fishies hanging out...a little further out is where we got the first hit, and first fish...the rest of the day was just slow, so I just fished the shelfs all around the lake...troll, troll, troll...the scenery helped the slow time relaxing...mother nature owns all...i know troutzilla was look'n at me from the depths of convict! :shock: 8) Thanks for the help again!

[IncredibleHuck]

jason, we stayed at St Anton- right next to the mtns.. beautiful scenery, and "wildlife" :mrgreen:
great, but too quick of a trip!


I've never stayed there. How are the rates at St. Anton? Do they have hot tubs at all?

[Jester]

Kewley,

It was amazing up there! way to get your pops on some fish! watch for those bears.

~Jess

[kewlwhip]

jason it was about $300/weekend, booked in advance...room was hooked up, just needed to bring food, coffee, condiments. Me and my friends have used that place as a spot for snowboarding...its only 100 yards from the lifts- http://www.stantoncondos.com/Rates.htm theres a link-

thanks jester- yup, nothing like seeing a smile on pop's face- yeap, dem bears are hungry right about now!

[kewlwhip]

Well here are some of the pictures...

6.15am @ Convict Lake - still too dark! You can barely make the classic mtn background/shade
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y106/chronicavenger/sierras_convictlakewithdad_oct27-5.jpg

dads first fish on the troll!..under smokey overcast skies...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y106/chronicavenger/sierras_convictlakewithdad_oct27-1.jpg

troll...check out the smokey skies
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y106/chronicavenger/sierras_convictlakewithdad_oct27200.jpg

dad at one of his spots, over from the inlet
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y106/chronicavenger/sierras_convictlakewithdad_oct27-3.jpg

troll....lead getting hit...what a site, despite the smokey skies
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y106/chronicavenger/sierras_convictlakewithdad_oct27-4.jpg

and troll...!!! the water was like glass...but SO dark and ominous, never seen it this dark ever
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y106/chronicavenger/sierras_convictlakewithdad_oct27-2.jpg

spotted some elk on the drive home...so kewl!
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y106/chronicavenger/DSC00046.jpg

stopped at ONE of my secret spots, only to see these two phatties! NO poles in hand :(
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y106/chronicavenger/DSC00047.jpg

and an old shot from last year...hahahaha... :banana:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y106/chronicavenger/SIERRA527-5.31042.jpg

tight lines!
8)
kewly

[Jester]

Man those are some sweet pictures... I gotta tell you that is one of the most amazing spots in California. I was in awe my entire drive down from Reno. the 395 is one of the most amazing drives one can take. Way to go on the fish and the priceless time with your pops.

[kewlwhip]

Thanks Jester...I'm actually going to blow one up poster size for my house...the one w/ my father reaching for his pole, and the 2 fish in the stream one..I do photography for a "few" car magazines ;)

395 definately is full of natures best!

[fullstringer]

Kelwip does this lake close Nov.16 for the season or is it opened year round planning a trip up to the sierras but know where to go and fish any help would be great.



Joe/fullstringer

[VineAssist]

I think that is the infamous Fat Albert as for the lake I am going to have to pass. I do not want a date with Trollmeister and his stinky toe. Fat Albert can have the date! He is all ready use to that smell!
Hey Kewli at least you where near something when you saw the bear. When I was hiking up to a "secret" spot. I spotted one and I was a mile from everybody with guns and I had the food. Talk about freaked! One hundred and fifty pound Italian punk with a side of Chips and PB and J sandwhichs with a Jack and Coke. Here Mr. Bear! :D :D :D

[IncredibleHuck]

Great pictures! What camera are you using?

I'll have to agreew with Vine and say that it's Fat Albert, but what lake is it? That I don't know. Possibly June Lake, or Maybe up further like say Bridgeport or Virgina? I'never been to the marinas or anything at those lakes.

[fndaway66]

I believe the pic is from the Lower Twin in Bridgeport. Don't know the guy though

[kewlwhip]

FAlbert is right vineline! :banana: trollmiester still said he wants a date with you though! :spank:
yeah, i was like @#$$%! bear! wth...

jason- Camera is a sony cybershot s700..its all about the angles, not just the camera ;) Not givin up the spot yet, keep guessin'...

fndaway- FAlbert will need to verify.

trollmiester's gett'n hot!

[diamondbear]

Kewly , I love that place Convict Lk. its one of my old time favorites , I like trolling during the summer [ july - aug. ] with flashers and a worm at 8-10 colors lead line . the pics of your dad on shore is what its all about , just being there and enjoying the beauty of the Sierras . Next time you come across a bear just offer him some orios cookies , lol great report dude // steve

[Troutman65]

Thanks for the pics. Nice report.

TM65

[Poseidon]

there is no PICS buddy

[Mike274]

Convict is not year round. Try the Owens (catch and release) Pleasant Valley Res. (I believe you can keep here) and I believe the Walker rivers (don't know if you can keep here but don't think so).

Mike

[kewlwhip]

helpful info as always- I want to try the latter lake soon for some monsters! - t.o style! 8)