WAVEMHOME
11-14-2007, 08:16 PM
My wife, two sons, and a cousin set out to Bishop early Thursday morning. We were on our way up to meet about 20 friends and family. We planned on getting on the road about 5:30am but didn’t get out until 9am. The drive from Long Beach was pretty smooth even though I gambled on taking the 5fwy through LA. The only snag was when I was on the cell phone and totally missed the 14.
When I saw signs for Gorman I knew something was wrong… I swung back across the 138 to Lancaster which turned out to not be as bad as I thought. So after the usual 2 stops, one at the McDonald’s in Mojave and at the Mobil in Lone Pine, we hit Collins Road about 2pm. We went about ¼ mile north of Collins to a spot we call the “Spigot” and met up with some of the fam who had already caught some nice fish.
Within about 15 minutes, I was in full “angler wrangler” mode and getting an 11 year old (cousin), a 7 year old (son), and 3 year old (son) set up to fish. Within a couple of hours, the cousin and my 7 year old had their limits and the 3 year old had two. I managed two and then decided to wade around a bend in the river. It was really cool after the anticipation of the trip to finally be off doing some fishing. On my first cast with a rainbow colored rooster tail I got a little browny. He fought really hard and when I pulled him out I was bummed on his size until I realized it was a brown and I quickly sent him back to get bigger. I stayed in that spot for about an hour and caught about ½ a dozen more fish keeping nice ones for the bbq. It was about dark so we headed to the good ol’ Mountain View Motel. One of my wifes aunts has stayed at the place on Fall fishing trip for 34 straight years.
Friday started about 6am and we hit the “Spigot” again. We could see tons of fish but they just didn’t care for much of anything. I emptied the tackle box trying… My 7 year old nailed a 2 ½ pounder early but that was it. We all kind of spread out and I went back to the spot I caught the brown the day before. I got four in an hour and went back for my 7 year old. After carrying him and his cousin across the river, we hiked around the bends in the river back to the spot and the two of them hooked up on their first casts. I think we walked with about 6 more fish in a little over an hour. Then it was back to Mountain View and a BBQ.
Saturday was 6am again and this time we went to the “Beach” which is between Line St. and the silos. For the 2nd day in a row, the 7 year old struck first. Once he caught his fish and ate a couple of Honey Buns he decided to catch some shut eye… I waded down the river and caught 2 nice ones and threw back 3 or 4. The 3 year old showed up (Mom doesn’t like to come down too early…) and he did some “wading” without waders which was a whole lot more fun to him than holding a stick with a hook on the end of it… A little later in the day I decided to play pack mule again and carry the 7 year old down the river. He caught 4 more and I caught and released 4 or 5. We called it a day around 3pm and went back for another BBQ. This time we cooked 20 trout and 10lbs of Carne Asada.
The plan was to hit Convict and other places farther north at some point during the trip but with all the people and fun we were having we never made it.
Now I’m sitting here three days later and already having Sierra withdrawals… Maybe lower O again during Christmas Vacation, definitely by President’s Weekend…
Here are some of the pics.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6508.jpghttp://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6096.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6486.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6487.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6495.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6493.jpg
[Ihttp://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6099.jpgMG]http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6492.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff10 ... G_6492.jpg (http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6492.jpg)[/IMG]
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6098.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6097.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6515.jpg
When I saw signs for Gorman I knew something was wrong… I swung back across the 138 to Lancaster which turned out to not be as bad as I thought. So after the usual 2 stops, one at the McDonald’s in Mojave and at the Mobil in Lone Pine, we hit Collins Road about 2pm. We went about ¼ mile north of Collins to a spot we call the “Spigot” and met up with some of the fam who had already caught some nice fish.
Within about 15 minutes, I was in full “angler wrangler” mode and getting an 11 year old (cousin), a 7 year old (son), and 3 year old (son) set up to fish. Within a couple of hours, the cousin and my 7 year old had their limits and the 3 year old had two. I managed two and then decided to wade around a bend in the river. It was really cool after the anticipation of the trip to finally be off doing some fishing. On my first cast with a rainbow colored rooster tail I got a little browny. He fought really hard and when I pulled him out I was bummed on his size until I realized it was a brown and I quickly sent him back to get bigger. I stayed in that spot for about an hour and caught about ½ a dozen more fish keeping nice ones for the bbq. It was about dark so we headed to the good ol’ Mountain View Motel. One of my wifes aunts has stayed at the place on Fall fishing trip for 34 straight years.
Friday started about 6am and we hit the “Spigot” again. We could see tons of fish but they just didn’t care for much of anything. I emptied the tackle box trying… My 7 year old nailed a 2 ½ pounder early but that was it. We all kind of spread out and I went back to the spot I caught the brown the day before. I got four in an hour and went back for my 7 year old. After carrying him and his cousin across the river, we hiked around the bends in the river back to the spot and the two of them hooked up on their first casts. I think we walked with about 6 more fish in a little over an hour. Then it was back to Mountain View and a BBQ.
Saturday was 6am again and this time we went to the “Beach” which is between Line St. and the silos. For the 2nd day in a row, the 7 year old struck first. Once he caught his fish and ate a couple of Honey Buns he decided to catch some shut eye… I waded down the river and caught 2 nice ones and threw back 3 or 4. The 3 year old showed up (Mom doesn’t like to come down too early…) and he did some “wading” without waders which was a whole lot more fun to him than holding a stick with a hook on the end of it… A little later in the day I decided to play pack mule again and carry the 7 year old down the river. He caught 4 more and I caught and released 4 or 5. We called it a day around 3pm and went back for another BBQ. This time we cooked 20 trout and 10lbs of Carne Asada.
The plan was to hit Convict and other places farther north at some point during the trip but with all the people and fun we were having we never made it.
Now I’m sitting here three days later and already having Sierra withdrawals… Maybe lower O again during Christmas Vacation, definitely by President’s Weekend…
Here are some of the pics.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6508.jpghttp://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6096.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6486.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6487.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6495.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6493.jpg
[Ihttp://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6099.jpgMG]http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6492.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff10 ... G_6492.jpg (http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6492.jpg)[/IMG]
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6098.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6097.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/wavemhome7/IMG_6515.jpg