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View Full Version : Fishing Trips/Lower Owens/Pleasant Valley



Carrie
10-21-2007, 06:27 PM
So I haven’t posted any fishing reports in quite sometime! I can imagine some have been wondering where they have been? Well I will admit that I have been fishing more than what is posted on here. With some major internet issues and lack of time I will catch people up. So I am going to do something really weird for a fishing report…..I am going to post a collage or collection of pics from 3 fishing trips I went on several weeks ago. BUT of course there is more! I have today’s fishing report to post as well. That one is HIGHLY successful and probably the best fishing success I have had in the Sierras so far!

Where should I start? Okay back in early September I fished at Sheperd’s Creek quite a few days in a row. I got off work late from Manzanar and it is getting dark earlier here now so I only went for a few hrs. Didn’t catch anything but still enjoyed myself.

Pic of me nearby Sheperd’s Creek. NOTE: The hat and shirt match. All I need is a samurai sword….haha!
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z121/cjhearn_photos/0906071914.jpg



The second week of Sept (the 9th to be exact) a few volunteers from Manzanar taught me to fly fish. I met Marty at his camp site (Fort Independence) and he had two fly rods. He taught me the basics to fly fishing. I did the four step cast in the middle of a campsite just to practice. Then he gave me his rod, reel, tapered leaders, dry flies, etc. I was able to borrow the rod for a week and went fly fishing in the lower owens one day after work. Once again I was not successful but, then again, I was still learning this new technique.

Pics of me fly fishing:

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z121/cjhearn_photos/0912071809a.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z121/cjhearn_photos/0912071809.jpg



The following weekend my parents came to visit my place here in Independence from September 14th-16th. They got to see Manzanar, my house and then we stayed in Mammoth for the weekend. We fished at Twin Lakes in Mammoth on the 15th. We only had time to fish for two hrs since we were so busy sight seeing. This was my parents first time they had been up here. Although I did get to teach them fishing…..my style!

My mom and me preparing to fish.
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z121/cjhearn_photos/0915071616.jpg

My dad setting up his line.
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z121/cjhearn_photos/0915071623a.jpg

So as you can see things have been busy! In the middle of fishing and working the site archaeologist at Manzanar, Jeff, offered me a shovel bum job for a week in Mammoth. Of course I went! I lived in Mammoth from October 8th-13th. We stayed at Snow Creek in their vacation resort condos for free. We had access to a gym, spa, etc. It was nice! Of course we found lots of artifacts! We basically were doing CRM (Cultural Resource Management) which is what my degree is in. This is where a construction company is building stuff and they call in archaeologists to move/dig up stuff as fast as they possibly can and move it out of the way. We excavated behind the vacation rental office in Snow Creek. They are going to build an outdoor spa in the back so we dug up 6 test pits. We found obsidian and quartz points, lots of debitage, parts of ceramic plates and even a glass bead. This stuff was 6,000 yrs old and was considered a Paiute site. It also contained artifacts from the historic ranching period.

Pic of me digging:
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z121/cjhearn_photos/1012071046.jpg

Pic of 2 obsidian bifaces (means worked on both sides):
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z121/cjhearn_photos/1013071416.jpg

Obsidian Point:
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z121/cjhearn_photos/1009070948.jpg

Quartz Point:
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z121/cjhearn_photos/1012070825.jpg

Anyways, it rocked! So then I had 2 jobs instead of just one but it only lasted a week. The biggest bummer was that there was a small lake to fish in with big fish that they were about to take out. I did not bring my pole since I left in such a hurry to get to Mammoth. I was annoyed!...haha.

But enough of that. You want to see more fishing stuff right?! Well it has been VERY windy up here lately. I had planned to fish yesterday but it was way too windy! So as luck would have it I fell out of bed this morning early enough, with no wind, and was able to go fishing! Not only that, but I caught fish!

I drove up to Bishop this morning, Oct 21st, around 8am. I decided to try the Pleasant Valley Reservoir and Lower Owens which were pretty close together.

View on the street going up to Pleasant Valley Reservoir:
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z121/cjhearn_photos/1021070856.jpg

Part of the Lower Owens:
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z121/cjhearn_photos/1021070943.jpg

I tried the whole stream fishing deal in the river but wasn’t catching anything. So I headed up the hill to Pleasant Valley Reservoir about 9:30am. This was the best choice! I quickly hiked down into the rocks and found a good place to sit. I quickly set up all my stuff and got my fish on! I think about 15 minutes later I caught a fish. It was like this the entire 3 hrs I was there!! Mind you, I had two rods. I really couldn’t use the other one.

View of the Reservoir:
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z121/cjhearn_photos/1021071019.jpg

There was a man and his son across from me. They had been there longer than me, and I was catching fish much quicker. About 30 mins after I had started fishing 3 or 4 young guys came and fished on the other side of the lake from me. The entire time I was catching fish I think they had caught maybe 1 or 2. I could hear them talking to each other about how a girl on the other side was catching fish. Then I heard whistling. The guy and his son across from me started asking me what I was using. I explained to them that I used gulp eggs, craws and bang. I had tried gulp dough and power worms but the fish didn’t want that. (Thanks Tim for the advice on bait. It all works wonderfully well!). Anyways, I think that all the guys I was fishing around were upset cuz they were getting out fished by a girl….haha! Soon enough I gave the man and his son advice and shared some bait with them. Then I told them about FNN. They all thought it was pretty awesome! Hopefully they caught more fish after I left.

So as I said I was catching fish continuously. I caught 5 rainbows (four were 10 in and one was 12in). I farmed another 5 and the last one I think was a big fish. My drag went whacko and the line broke. I don’t think I set the drag up completely correct. Plus, I kept trying to c&r many of the smaller fish and they all swallowed the mosquito hooks. I think I need work reeling in and taking the hook out. I could’ve caught several more fish and let the smaller ones go if my skills were stronger in these areas.

Here is my collection of fish:
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z121/cjhearn_photos/1021071212.jpg

Me with all my fish:
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z121/cjhearn_photos/1021071228.jpg

If I had actually stayed there all day I could imagine I would’ve c&rd around 30-40 fish. This place was like stupid fishing. The fish were jumping all over! Definitely a place I would fish at again!

Ready to clean these guys and cook:
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z121/cjhearn_photos/1021071437.jpg


Anyways, what fun it has been to live up here. I only have 3 more weekends left of fishing up here before the season ends. I am not sure that I will have time to do anymore fishing. Hopefully!! I move back down south in 8 weeks and thus will end my job at Manzanar. It will def. be a big change but good to see friends and fish with old ones again! :D

gwjones00
10-21-2007, 07:43 PM
Great report! Thanks for the pics! I gotta get up there sometime soon......

IncredibleHuck
10-21-2007, 10:05 PM
great reports

Snow creek lodge is nice, espically the gym that you can use! Too bad everytime I go there, the dang pool is always shut down, but at the condos you got the little spa's where are nice.

It looks like doing the archeology stuff is preety fun. I did a lil bit of that in a class I took at Crafton Hills, and it was a blast.

one_leg
10-21-2007, 10:17 PM
Carrie, I anxiously await your return.
Those are all great looking trout you got there.
I'm glad you got to teach your parents how to fish, Carrie-style, in the Sierras.

One_Leg

Troutman65
10-22-2007, 01:53 PM
Carrie, Great reports. Thanks for sharing on FN.

Congrats to you on out fishing the guys up there :wink:


Troutman65

FreshandSalt
10-22-2007, 02:15 PM
nice report. bet its nice to work up there with all the fishing oppourtunities. i think i saw you at pleasant valley yesterday (sunday) morning. maybe im mistaken. i saw someone who looked like you atleast fishing that same spot. i was fishing about a 1/4 mile up the reservoir and slayed em using panther martins on t he surface 3 days in a row this weekend.

Carrie
10-22-2007, 02:29 PM
nice report. bet its nice to work up there with all the fishing oppourtunities. i think i saw you at pleasant valley yesterday (sunday) morning. maybe im mistaken. i saw someone who looked like you atleast fishing that same spot. i was fishing about a 1/4 mile up the reservoir and slayed em using panther martins on t he surface 3 days in a row this weekend.

hmmm....yeah! Were u the guy fishing alone with a white hat on? I think I saw u catching A LOT of fish over there. I think u were the only other one that I saw catching quite a few fish! I did notice that! And yeah....I was there Sunday morning.

steve092
10-22-2007, 07:23 PM
Lookin good over at owens.
Can't wait to get out there.

DreStyle
10-22-2007, 07:27 PM
Good job Carrie. I was wondering where you were laying down trout destruction.

troutdog
10-22-2007, 07:53 PM
Good to see your reports back on the board Carrie, nice job getting your trout revenge at Pleasant Valley! The flyfishing thing is a kick, don't get discouraged and keep it simple was the advice I was given. Thanks for the info and pics, take care for now.


TD

Mike274
10-22-2007, 09:38 PM
Carrie,

Nice report. Don't get frustrated with the fly fishing though 'cause it is a lot of work. Throw a dropper under the dry and work on your drift. You will catch fish..

Mike

Carrie
10-23-2007, 09:36 AM
great reports

Snow creek lodge is nice, espically the gym that you can use! Too bad everytime I go there, the dang pool is always shut down, but at the condos you got the little spa's where are nice.

It looks like doing the archeology stuff is preety fun. I did a lil bit of that in a class I took at Crafton Hills, and it was a blast.

Yeah, archaeology is definitely a blast! We found quite a bit of stuff! Not used to finding whole arrow heads. Ohh...and all the spas are VERY nice!


Good to see your reports back on the board Carrie, nice job getting your trout revenge at Pleasant Valley! The flyfishing thing is a kick, don't get discouraged and keep it simple was the advice I was given. Thanks for the info and pics, take care for now.
TD

Flyfishing is great fun! I really like how it is almost like an art. Most of the steps seems simple but once u start going with it ...it takes a lot of effort. I def. like the style tho. It is fun!


Carrie,

Nice report. Don't get frustrated with the fly fishing though 'cause it is a lot of work. Throw a dropper under the dry and work on your drift. You will catch fish..
Mike

Nice adivce. I'll work on that....haha. It is def something new to keep me entertained! :D

Wingnut
10-23-2007, 05:39 PM
Very nice report Carrie. You are doing some fun activities up there, thanks for sharing again. :D

Beancounter
10-24-2007, 11:12 AM
We're heading up there the weekend of Nov. 10th. :banana:
I know where I'm fishing.
Thanks for sharing your adventures!

Jester
10-30-2007, 12:47 AM
Very nice report. I stopped into Manzanar today and took the car tour. I wanted to go inside, but was a bit short on time.

Tight lines!

~Jess

Fisherman57
11-05-2007, 02:14 PM
Beautiful.

Thanks for sharing Carrie!



57

sansou
11-05-2007, 03:12 PM
Nice report!

I stopped by Manzanar just yesterday, and they said you were out fishing!

Carrie
11-05-2007, 04:01 PM
Nice report!

I stopped by Manzanar just yesterday, and they said you were out fishing!

Well that figures...haha. I don't work weekends cuz I have them off. And actually I was fishing but don't post all my reports on here. I admit it....haha! Althought this coming weekend is my fly fishing class with Gary from Brock's so I will try and post that! Anyways, thanks for stopping by, and too bad I wasn't there to say hello.

steve092
11-15-2007, 05:37 AM
Nice job out there.
I wanna go there soon, but I heard they're shutting down.

clem de la clem
12-09-2007, 11:46 PM
you are a fish slayer.... nice job out there.

what are you digging up at manzanar? that must be an interesting job....

cdlc

Carrie
12-10-2007, 05:04 PM
you are a fish slayer.... nice job out there.

what are you digging up at manzanar? that must be an interesting job....

cdlc

Well there has been a mass of work that has been done. We re-created block 34 at Manzanar which was a Japanese garden. We have cleaned out all the gardens and helped build an irrigation system in the historic orchard. The amount of things accomplished on this job has been countless. The first 2 months with the YCC was all outdoor maintenance for the site. Now it's all indoor office work. Stuff like transcribing oral histories, working the front desk and answering questions or writing the curriculum or organizing the entire library have been my job. It has been an awesome 6 months. I have 5 work days left here and move back down south in 9 days.... :( It has been awesome!!