2008 Crowley season opener (pics)

[BishopTrouter]

Skipped school Friday and Monday to make time to enjoy this amazing weekend. Left at 645 Friday morning, had some breakfast in lancaster on the way up.
Decided to hit up somewhere new on the way up. First place that came to mind was cottonwood creek, I’ve always seen this place on the stocking list so I had to see what its all about. Turned left at the cottonwood plant road went up past the aquaduct, got kinda confused, took a left on a dirt road and winded past some cows to find, to my amazement, not one but two really nice looking sand traps with a nice flowing creek into it. But for some reason the water was very off color.

Upper trap^

Waterfall to lower trap^

Lower trap^

Yet, these really nice looking pools produced nothing, I didn’t see anything, nor did I even get a hit. I tried some gold mepps and a grasshopper trout stinger and got absolutely nothing. Kinda strange to see it so dead…. Anyone ever had luck here before?

After that headed to my house in Bishop and hit a lot of these guys on the way V


SATURDAY
Woke up at 400 am to find that I had somehow lost my license the day before at cottonwood. Dashed over to Culvers with my dad (thank god theyre open 24 hours on opening) Got my replacement license and the stamps (saved a lot of money by having the proof of purchase slip). Then finally headed up to Crowley , got to my favorite shore spot on the other side of Hilton bay by the sand island, and made my first cast of the season at about 5:30.
First cast on a Thomas buoyant produced this chunky lil female

Then I set two rods up with bait, casted out and played the waiting game.
Sun came up about 30 minutes later while I was eating my breakfast.


After the sun situated itself in the sky the bait bite started picking up.

Picked this guy up on those gulp orange eggs.
Bite continued to be with a slow rate of about a fish an hour. I limited at noon and my dad caught 2. All were around a pound or so, but these fish were really healthy with full fins, orange meat and a hard fight. All fish took a liking to those floating eggs on 3 lb test chucked out as far as I could cast.

The spot^

The bait^
After, we checked out the upper Owens around big springs. We found the main pool near the road filled with big spawners that swam up from Crowley, it was truly a sight to see, they act just like salmon. I only casted my spinner (barbless) a few times before realizing its better to leave them intact. Heres a vid of two small ones playin right in front of me.


One of the many big ones in there^
Also, I was wondering do the spinners here have to be single hooked or is treble ok as long as it doesn’t have a barb?

SUNDAY
Took it easy and just chilled around the house.

MONDAY
Got to Crowley at 8 am for round 2, but this time we were trying out green banks. Fish were fewer but definitely better in size. I caught 2 rainbows around 2 pounds, but my neighbor caught a fat 6 pounder and others around me were tellin me about other big ones pulled out the day before.

Me with a goofey ***** look on my face^

For some reason the one on the top had white meat, the one below had orange flesh….top one was an owens stocker that swam down?

Anyways it was a decent opener, I definately had better luck last year with 7 fish all over 2 pounds in 3 hours but w/e the weather was amazing and i missed 2 tests i wasn't ready for so it was worth it without a doubt. I can't wait to get back up there, and the great thing is i'm planning on another trip in 2 weeks.

Tight lines to all.... it looks like its gonna be a great season.

-Pasha

[FishingwithDave]

Nice report and great pix and videos!

[mth1997]

Cool report!

Most barbless/artificial waters allow barbless treble hooks. Its all good to use barbless trebles in Owens. There are only a few waterways in CA that require a single barbless hook, and those are usually single barbless flies (no other lures/bait). Hot Creek is one off the top of my head.

[BigGameHunter]

Nice report....... I rather be fishing on any day of the week even if it means missing a test.....

BigGameHunter