Sierra Trip May 25 to May31 JuneLoop /Parcher's
Day One
Drove up from Santa Ana with my girlfriend CC to Lake Front Cabins at June Lake. I found my buddy John fishing from his cuddy at the marina and managed to talk him into fishing the evening bite off the west end reeds. We found schools everywhere rising to the evening hatch of bugs. The bite was just plain stupidily good as I pitched a pearl white minijig from the bow for small rainbow after another ( all released) while John used a CD Rapala in the brook trout pattern for similiar results. No big boys seen but the small rainbows were very entertaining to catch . At one point, I had to rest my back laying down on the deck of the bow , (threw out my back before coming up) and managed to cast sideways and still catch a rainbow or two . The bite was that good. We headed in a dusk.
Day 2
Fished the same area with John and 2 other clubmembers at the same place John and I fished in the morning and caught numerious small rainbows again but nothing big so we headed down to Oh Ridge Beach area . The bite was very good and we all caught rainbows but again nothing big worth mentioning. Headed in around noon for lunch.
Later that day , John took CC (my girlfriend) and I out for the evening bite again. This time we fished off the Big Boulder Marina reeds looking for Alpers . The Alpers were cruising the reeds but just couldn't get any takers on jigs or anything else . We all limited out on the small rainbows including my girlfriend who was having a great time catching fish and enjoying the scenery . (who wouldn't ?). We headed in for dinner .
Day 3 Derby Day
My fishing club has an annual trout derby on Memorial Weekend Sunday every year . This year we had 16 signups . We also upped the jackpot to 10 bucks per person. Not big money but to win the derby is bragging rights for a year. The purse is split for biggest fish and heaviest stringer. Big fish cannot be used for stringer. I suggested to John that we anchor off the Big Boulder reeds again as our starting place to fish. Seems like everyone else had the same idea but since we had the spot 1st and anchored in a way that no one could fish the point , it worked out really nice. We started catching small rainbows one at a time. Other members could only watch us catch fish but they just couldn't get to the right spot where the fish were holding. Later that morning , John hooks a large rainbow that topped out at 4.8 lbs. It proved to be the winning large fish for our Derby . We also took the largest stringer weight with the help of my 2.8 lb. rainbow late in the afternoon. Yeah baby !!
John Hughes with 4.8 lb. rainbow.
Dave Finkelstein 2.8 lb . rainbow
Day 4 Memorial Day
I had made reservations at Parcher's resort to see my friend Smitty and company in Bishop. He has a sweet midweek deal going where you book 2 nights and get the third night free so since I'm on vacation it seemed like a great way to enjoy the rest of the week. On the way down to Bishop we decided to go to Devil's Postpile which was open for the 1st time in 16 years on Memorial Weekend due to the lack of snow in the Sierras this year. It costs 7 bucks a person to get in . The drive is 14 miles long to the valley floor and the road is mostly single lane with an occassional turnout for oncoming traffic . The view is awesome .
Here's a few photos of the Devil's Postpile. Its a cool looking place that's very unique geologically speaking.
The San Jaquin River is really beautiful down in the valley and looked to be a trout fisherman's fantasy stream to fish. In fact there was a guy down in the meadow next to the main parking lot flyfishing. Lucky bastard! I was so jealous . LOL.
San Juaquin River
Left the Postpile and headed to Bishop and Parcher's Resort. Got there around 3:00 P.M. Said Hello to Smitty who was trying to recoup from the big weekend crowd they had up there Memorial weekend. We rented a deluxe cabin for two. Very nice inside with a fridge, 2 burner stove , sink and nice bathroom with shower. Girlfriend bitched about no cable T.V or microwave but she's not use to semi roughing it. LOL. I loved the cabin none the less and had a great time up there. Smitty comped me a boat for the next day on South Lake . Thank You Smitty ! I thought that was way cool. We fished South Lake the next day and caught 3 stockers. The lake has a low water level right now but is filling up rapidily with the meltoff snow. Fishing at the inlet area for small planters would have been ok but I came for the big Alpers . Smitty informed me that Edison put in 75 really big Alpers the week before so I tried my usual hot spots but no one was home. Left the lake and headed back to the cabin. Later that afternoon we headed to Intake II and had limits for both myself and girlfriend down on the north shore side towards the dam. Girlfriend didn't want to leave.
Cabin 2 at Parcher's Resort
Other cabins close to ours
Cabin next to South Bishop Creek
South Lake
South Lake Dam
South Lake towards the back area
Girlfriend CC at South Lake
Girlfriend with Intake II limit she caught
Girlfriend hiding under the covers of our cabin
Day 5 North Lake and Sabrina Lake
Fished the next morning up at North Lake which is one of my favorite lakes up in the Bishop Basin area. There was very few people up there in the middle of week so we owned the place. I saw several big Alpers cruising the shoreline but I could not get any biters on the jigs. I did catch and release at least 10 or more small planters on the Perch colored jigs along with the black with rainbow glitter pattern jigs. Girlfriend didn't catch anything so we left .
North Lake
Inlet at North Lake
Headed to Lake Sabrina which is still very low also but didn't fish it .
Lake Sabrina view
Another view of Sabrina
Girlfriend begged me to take her back to Intake II so we went down the mountain to fish there. The bite was really good and we both limited out in nothing flat on rainbow glitter Gulp powerbait dipped in Procure Garlic. It was just a great bite and she didn't want to leave. Eventually it got close to dusk and we left.
Day 6
We left Smitty's place in the morning . Headed to Eric Schat's Bakery for several lofts of speciality bread that my co-workers put an order in for. About 38 dollars later , I left the store. We headed down Hwy. 395 and I decided to visit Manzanar the interment center for Japanese-Americans during WWII. Since my buddy Cory (Fear NO Fish) has a display there, I thought that I would pay a visit. I stayed for a solid hour. Both my girlfriend and I thought it was a very well done historic landmark . I highly recommend a visit to there. I spoke to a gentleman named Sab who was interned there when he was only 7 years old. It was a very interesting conversation on what it must have been like for his family at that time in our history . The exhibit is only 3 years old in the main building and definitely worth a visit. Its free .
Manzanar from outside.
Cory's exhibit
List of names of internees at Manzanar
Headed home for one day break and then went out on Clubfish overnight trip to San Clemente Island the next day. To top off my vacation I caught a 30 lb. Halibut and won the Jackpot. I gotta say it was a hell of a good vacation ! Good Fishing and tight lines,
Dave Finkelstein
Chartermember Clubfish
http://www.clubfish.org
P.S. Halibut pictures to come soon.
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Originally Posted by Dave92706
