Bishop - Memorial Day Weekend - ALPERS!!!!!!!! (w/pics)
I am fortunate enough to have a buddy with a guest house in Bishop who allows me to come up as often as I like so with a few days off for the holiday weekend I decided to head up the highway and tube a few of the local lakes and take in the Mule Days' Festivities.
Thur. 5/24 - Tubed Crowley (Green Banks area) for a couple hours (until the wind started to pick up) and came up with a couple average sized fish in the 1.5lb range.
Thur. afternoon I hiked to the inlet at the back of Convict and spent the afternoon C&R'ing 5-6 more fish of average size.
Fri. 5/25 - Took my buddy's boat out on Crowley and spent the day trolling. We tried 20+ diff. lures and anywhere from 2-10 colors of lead core and all we caught was one dink!!!!
Decided I couldn't bear the skunk for the day so we went back to his place and set up on the Lower Owens and I caught 3 good sized fish while he set up a trap and caught 20+ crawdads.
I wear size 11 for reference....
Sat. 5/26 - Got up to North Lake and out on my tube by 7am. Caught 5 stockers but with breathable waders and 44 degree water, I only lasted about 2 hours before I needed to thaw out. Went up to Sabrina after that and hiked back to the inlet and caught 8 stocker sized fish. Around 2pm I decided to try South lake but ended up only taking a few pictures as the shoreline looked very crowded and I was too burned out to set up the tube again. I ended up fishing that little pond to the side of the road as you make your way up to South Lake (can't remember the name of it). Tossed out some salmon eggs for a couple hours and ended up C&R'ing 10-15 fish in the 8" to 13" range.
Sun. 5/27 - Went back up to Crowley (Green Banks area again) and took the tube out for a few hours while my buddy focused on Perch. We caught two each....
Spend the rest of the day at the Arts and Crafts fair buying my lady a bunch of crap we probably don't need at the house.
Mon. 5/28 - Let me start by saying that most years I will get up early and get a head start on the traffic to get back to LA but my buddy insisted I take home some smoked trout and said I would have to go fish for 4-5 hours while he attended to the smoker. The only place in Bishop Canyon that I had left out was Intake II. I have had so many days up there where I catch 30+ fish at this lake it is ridiculous. Never caught anything larger than a stocker but that was about to change. Having been up there when the lake was empty I took some pictures and memorized the holes and structure around the lake. Got up there around 7am and hiked around to one of my favorite spots on the far side of the lake. Set up shop and 1st cast.....dink. Second cast.....SLAM!!!... ;...10 min. fight on 2lb. test.....4lb. 15oz. ALPER!!!
3rd cast.....dink. Fourth cast.....SLAM!!! 10min. fight on 2lb. test.....another ALPER!!! With my adrenaline pumping I made a fatal mistake at this point and unhooked the beast prior to putting it on the stringer and it kicked and slipped out of my hands like a bar of soap and back into the lake it went. At first I was a little disappointed but with one beast on the stringer and only 30min. on the water, I figured I could catch another. That never happened but I did end up C&R'ing 20+ fish over the next several hours.
I've been fishing up there since I was old enough to walk and have never caught anything above 3lbs. in the Sierras so I am well aware of how rare cathing one of these can be so needless to say, I am still grinning from ear to ear over catching two 5lb. fish in 20min. even though I only got to fillet one of them.
Monday night's dinner......Trout "steaks" :lol:
Just goes to show you, time on the water and persistance always pays off. Every time I go up there I get more and more attached to that area. I'm not even 30yrs. old yet and I can' t wait to retire up there!!!! LOL!!!
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Originally Posted by troutdog
