Pirate Crew Hits Windy PVR – Sierras still cccccold!

[Greg Madrigal]

Farmy, Beerboy, Mrs. Beerboy (Meagan) and I left our worries behind Friday and cruised up to Bishop to lay the slay to the resident trout population.

We stayed at the El Rancho which I would do again in a second!


Great beds, and nice views of the mountains for $40/night.


From our door at room 11.


I would stay clear of room 11 though. It may be “gassy” for a while! LOL!!!

We arrived at 1am, and go up to hit PVR at 6am. We all brought our bikes which turned out to be the ticket for this trip as we used them several times.


We fished an area about a mile in that was brimming with surfacing trout. It was sick. The trout were surfacing everywhere, and this experienced crew threw anything and everything in the arsenal for an hour for nothing but a few followers. They were taunting us!

We made a move a ways down and the alcohol started flowing on the way even before the first fish! B-Cuda brought his Trailer-o-booze, which I highly recommend!


This was sheer comedy-Well, actually, when you mix beer n bikes, you get lots of biffs! LOL!
#1


#2




For the record, we all ate it multiple times what with all the gear and all. Except Beerboy that is…He gots skills apparently.
At this second spot, I tied on a vintage crankbait that my neighbor gave me. It was sweet-It had a triangular lip on TOP of the bait and it swam beautifully. I cast it out and was slammed on the very first cast. The next cast produced this beaut:


I caught, fought, and professionally released it at the bank another moment later. Then I noticed that the friggin lip fell off the lure so it was out of commission! Dope! I borrowed a Rapala from Omar and proceeded to land one more which was released-well, he released himself from my hand-Which I magically captured at the exact moment of his escape.


Meanwhile, the others were having the same luck as the first spot.

Hey Farmy, whatcha doin????


#3


I worked the bank for another hour for nada as well.

We returned to the Owens above the lake where I scared up some browns on a bubble fly combo but couldn’t get them to stick. Mr. Beaver made a showing and disappeared into a hole in the far bank. That's him swimming towards his den carring a branch UPstream.


I moved up to the power plant and proceeded to CPR over a dozen small browns on a bead head nymph.








Meanwhile, the rest of the pack lost me and drove into town to get pizza unbeknownst to me! They returned just b4 dark and thankfully had saved me 3 sliced of ice cold pizza! Mmmmm….

The clan on the move...


We then headed up to Rock Creek lake in the afternoon. We watched the temps drop substantially as we climbed the mountain. 39, 38, 36, 31….It was Freezing at the top.
Me n the Beercuda


The lake was still frozen over 90%.


We took our bikes out and braved the fierce cold winds to try and bike to the ice-free inlet.

We were stopped over half way by a lot of snow on the closed roads. The weather started turning quick. Light snow flurries began blowing in the wind. Nap time.




Sunday, we woke up at 6am and hit the “brown” canal south of Bishop. The wind was HOWWWLNG! 25mph at least and it was in the low 40s so the wind chill was somewhere in the teens! Brrrrrrr. I walked a 150yard stretch pitching a muddler minnow and a horned bird fly. The latter produced over a dozen strikes but nothing stuck! The cold got the better of the pirates early on, and I had to finally join them in the warm truck to escape the frozen tundra after only 30 minutes of fishing.

We picked up Meagan (who slept in) and we had a killer breakfast at Jacks before heading back to PVR. We stayed clear of the lake with the wind howling like mad. We fished the river and the power plant. I got a couple of nicer browns on a Rapala CD7 pitched into the whitewater at the power plant.







This guy was hungry! He still had another headless unidentified fish in his throat when he smacked my Rapala. Look carefully and you will see the quite large tail of the dead fish in his throat.



Beerboy and the Mrs. Proceeded to school me on brown fishing w/crickets. They must have caught 10 fish by mid afternoon while I only caught about 6 for the day. Meagan's jackpot brown...


Their one ‘bow on crickets.



The gusts of wind would kick up and sand blast us at regular intervals. We called it a day around 3pm, hit Schatz on the way out, and were home by 8pm. Ummmm, wake up there Farmy!


The ride outta Bishop was festooned with beautiful shots that I just couldn’t resist. Hope u enjoy them as much as I did.




Somewhere in there is Mt. Whitney


More parting shots









It was a great trip with some great peeps. Let’s do it again soon!

Peace

GM<<><

[E.A.R.G.]

awesssssssssom report man. plain awesome
i love the sierras. can't wait til i get up in there in june

[Eat Sleep Fish]

Nice! Another group (like ours) that knows how to have a good time up there. Good job the fish guys!
Gotta watch that PVR road and those rocks when your a bit buzzed though lol. Bad memories hahaha

good times guys..you guys goin up for the team 57 event next month??

[Beeracuda211]

Oh boy brother, what a good time....mr brownie got wacked on sunday, total different story on saturday where my friend Yukon Jack hung out with us. He almost took the life of two pirates going over the cliff... lol Word of advice Greg, never leave the pack! lol what would you have done if we didn't come back...lol Bass fishin for brownies


Here is some more entertainment...






The Butt Rock lol This is where Trolly fishes


BROWNIE


BROWNIE BROWNIE


BROWNIE BROWNIE BROWNIE







Thanks for all the laughs guys, I will be doing some modifications to the beer trailer, lights, xterrain tires, 4x4 suspension, lol

B/C

[TroutOnly]

farmy you drunktard,,,,,,,lol,,,,,,,STAY OUT OF MY FISHIN HOLE,,,LOL,,,,,,,

[billy b]

Great report ... great fun ... fishing ... friendship

I cracked up when I saw the crack-ups (bikers ... and the rock)

[BLUE OYSTER]

Thinking of headin' up that way this week during vacation time.awesome report,info on motel appreciated,proof that the ladies can stand the cold & catch fish too (for my wifes sake),and the memories you brought back with the booze/bike report!!!!nice job

[Trout-Slayer77]

Very nice GM & pirate crew !! looks like some nasty weather blew in, but you managed some very nice trout. good looking browns !! thanks for the report and pics. That trailer-o-booze is a great idea with the bikes !!

[teejay]

Awesome report. Nice to see a little open water on Rock Creek Lake.

[Angler Dan]

Great report. I am planning my first trip up there this fall for my buddy's 40th birthday, so I am looking at all the reports to see where the fishing spots are and what is working. He is dying to catch a brown, after all the rainbow we have caught locally, so this will hopefully be the spot.