Big Pine Creek + Lake 1

[jensfisc]

Camped @ Big Pine Creek campground from Friday 7/15 to Sunday but only really fished Saturday. Got up around 6 to check out the creek, saw a guy pull a 9-10" rainbow from the creek while I took the dogs for a quick walk, looked like he was using powerbait and was in the calm pool right by the campground. Handed the pups off to the GF and took the pole to the creek, tried drifting some powerbait in some of the fast moving parts of the stream to no avail. Switched to a very small golden spoon lure and immediately got hit by an 8" native rainbow with great looking color. Released him back into the stream and cooked breakfast.

We then hiked 5 miles up to the lakes by the north fork, lots of reports from hikers that lakes 4 and 5 were producing fish with goldens caught @ 5. Didn't really feel up for the day hike to 5 so checked out a nice spot at the first lake and there was tons of fish action, so we set up camp there and I fished for about 2 hrs. Caught 7 fish and 3 different species in lake 1. They were hitting on the tiny gold spoon and a very small brown natural fry rapala lure. Also looked like the guys next to us were doing well with yellow/cheese power bait. The lake was super healthy with tons of visible fish, actually had better luck targeting the ones swimming close to shore than full casting into the middle. Also snagged a couple times on some lake grass and it was covered in roe. Kept one ~12" rainbow for dinner that night.

Didn't fish Sunday AM but the creek had a good amount of fishing pressure from the campground. One cool thing about that campground was that they had a "trout pond" where people were taking their kids for some intro level fishing. Looked pretty popular with the boy scout crew.

[John Harper]

Thanks for the report. Flies really work good on wild stream fish and also the backcountry. Fly/bubble rigs can be real productive if you are a spin gear guy.

Did you check out Lon Chaney's cabin? That's a trip I really want to make, just to check out the architecture. I believe a very famous black architect, Paul Revere Williams, was the designer.

John

[carpanglerdude]

Camped @ Big Pine Creek campground from Friday 7/15 to Sunday but only really fished Saturday. Got up around 6 to check out the creek, saw a guy pull a 9-10" rainbow from the creek while I took the dogs for a quick walk, looked like he was using powerbait and was in the calm pool right by the campground. Handed the pups off to the GF and took the pole to the creek, tried drifting some powerbait in some of the fast moving parts of the stream to no avail. Switched to a very small golden spoon lure and immediately got hit by an 8" native rainbow with great looking color. Released him back into the stream and cooked breakfast.

We then hiked 5 miles up to the lakes by the north fork, lots of reports from hikers that lakes 4 and 5 were producing fish with goldens caught @ 5. Didn't really feel up for the day hike to 5 so checked out a nice spot at the first lake and there was tons of fish action, so we set up camp there and I fished for about 2 hrs. Caught 7 fish and 3 different species in lake 1. They were hitting on the tiny gold spoon and a very small brown natural fry rapala lure. Also looked like the guys next to us were doing well with yellow/cheese power bait. The lake was super healthy with tons of visible fish, actually had better luck targeting the ones swimming close to shore than full casting into the middle. Also snagged a couple times on some lake grass and it was covered in roe. Kept one ~12" rainbow for dinner that night.

Didn't fish Sunday AM but the creek had a good amount of fishing pressure from the campground. One cool thing about that campground was that they had a "trout pond" where people were taking their kids for some intro level fishing. Looked pretty popular with the boy scout crew.

Great report. Was up there a little over a month ago. Hiking up to the see the glacier and the peak was awesome, as was fishing underneath it. Good job on the fish!