Convict Lake (pics up)

[Kingfish]

Kewlwhip,
I was just there on Sat Oct 13th. We fished there for about 2 hours until dusk. If you are fishing the shore and don't mind an easy hike, drive to the end of the road by the trees (south side of the lake) and hike to the far end of the lake. Fish at the small creek inlet. There is a good drop off about 10' from shore and I caught 3 nice browns on orange power worms jigged along the bottom. We tried many lures and lip rippers for a few hits, but only caught them on power worms. There were many fish hitting the surface for about an hour, but we are inexperienced in the fly / bubble department. Saw several large fish swimming around also.

I talked to another fisherman along the shore by the trees, who had 2 browns caught on a black & gold panther martin. They also had one 3 - 4 lb rainbow. The browns I caught were around 12" long.

Kingfish

[kewlwhip]

thanks kingfish, i was going to hit that spot, if the troll doesn't fire up... :wink:
-i've got a couple things for mr brownies!

[Afishionado]

I sure do love Convict Lake. Some of the nicest scenery in the E Sierra.

I fished there a couple of months back, parked the car near the launch ramp, then hiked around the north side of the lake for about a half mile. There are plenty of little spots along there to just sit and fish and enjoy the scenery. And I had some good luck on that trip as well. I caught 7 or 8 nice little stockers.

[kewlwhip]

thats awesome...

well, i'm packed and ready to go..leaving early from work... :banana: and ready to run up 5-14-395...anyone know of any hwy closings? just got off the horn w/ FA the hommie...got some good scoop as always, also thanks to Mike, i'll be using the goods!

[IncredibleHuck]

Fish that inlet! Toss out some jigs or lip ripperz in that area and you'll get yourself a big fish! :explode:

[Faulter_Mike]

hey dude. Me and my dad went up to convict at the beginning of october. Overall, it was pretty slow. however, the quality of fish was excellent. I caught this little guy with a nightcrawler drifted in the inlet current with a bubble and three foot leader. bright pink flesh on all the fish. I was told they were in full spawn mode, maybe that had something to do with it?[attachment=0:2a38d]bigfish.jpg[/attachment:2a38d]

good luck up there man, I hear the bite's been on lately.

[Jester]

I stopped in there today on my way back from Reno. No gear to fish with, but it looked great. seems they had a tourny this weekend. I was able to spot several decent fish from the foot bridge next to the road.

Good Luck!

~Jess

[kewlwhip]

nice fish faulter, right on! thanks fellas..jester isn't the view of convict lake awesome!

Well, with much anticipation of getting to the sierras to wet my lines, that day came...

Went home to meet with the fam after getting off work early around 1230...Got the Jeep packed,
and we were off to Mammoth/convict by 1.30pm. The traffic was ok, until we got by
LA...wow, i found out why i hate LA. Traffic was horrendous, and took 2.5hours extra.

Nonetheless, when we got to the 14/395, all those LA traffic woes disappeared. Thinking we would
get clean/crisp fresh air, I noticed that the smoke from all the fires followed us all the way to Convict Lake!

We got to our condo in Mammoth, and unpacked. Hungry with fishing our minds, we just went to Johns Pizza.
Upon going down the stairway, I was about to lift open the garage, and a rather large black bear was no more than 20' from me! :shock:
Startled, I shouted some absenities, and told my parents, and girlfriend to get in the jeep! Upon my hollaring and yelling, the bear saw me and took off
more frightened/starteled than myself! lol,,, In all my years camping in the sierras (10+years) I've never been that close/seen
a bear like that..not to mention we weren't even camping! Some local riders later told me that they're all over the place-
they're "fattening" up and its nothing unusual...just watch out for the mamma bear and cubs! :o Well, when we got back to the condo
that night, i drove around, saw that the same garage door was again opened, so i was tentative about getting out! lol,,,I got out
and upon checking that the coast was clear, i gave the fam the ok, to exit and head towards our condo.

That night we all fell asleep, sharing that incident that had happened..it brought up some good laughs, since everyone was startled, and caught off guard. .I then told pops that we were getting up at 5.30am
Woke up at 5, and got to the lake by 6am...it was still nightfall, and the shop was closed. By the time daylight came, and elderly lady came out to open shop...We got the boat rental, and headed out..we were the 3rd boat in the water...I picked up a broke back rap., and a needlefish...the sky was cloudy, later found out it was actually the reminants of the smoke from the fires in LA..sad to see that in such a beautiful place (photos will show how it overcast the area). The water at the lake was like glass, visibility was crystal clear down to 20'+. and the water was ice cold...even spotted some fish right at the boat docks, and it then felt good. I told pops to relax, and just take in natures best. I let out my lead, and my 2 flats...since we had no fish finder, I figured to be quite challenging...a little wind picked up, say maybe 5mph and pops got the first hit...as he was holding the rod out, i see my pole snap back, and he was like whoaah..(keep in mind, pops never trolled b4, he's and old school bait fisherman, and was first asking me to drop him off at "his" spot :) ) right as he said that it popped off...i was laughin...and told him theres more where that came from...well, we did 1 more full lap, no hits.. I noticed that the shore fishing was somewhat slow, saw here and there people catching, but nonething too spectacular..then I get a hit on my lead, nice lil bendo, set the hook, and I handed it over to dad. He was bent and all smiles...the fish went on a couple runs, and pops fought it to the net. A nice 2lb rainbow, first one on! After getting it iced, I dropped the lead out and continued on...well 11am came, and pops wanted to fish his spot...I dropped him off by the inlet..or where the inlet used to be, it was dry back there, but I knew were it used to be, you could tell by the dry runoff...plus a few boats baited down, i figured they didn't do so well either on the troll. I dropped pops off, and told him to cb me if he needed anything...he was happy, and thats all that mattered to me. I then set off, this time another needlefish, and a tomas bouyant, the one that all said was a hitter...i trolled for another 2 hours, and managed to land 3more fish all about 1lb. I was about 20-50' from shore, the water was clear, but black...i could see my lure disappear to the depths....I could barely make out the bottom sometimes...i was just trolling beyond sight of the bottom...i talked to my dad a few times, and he said he only got 1 bite...He told me he was ready for a move, i told him an area to bait fish since it was were i was getting the majority of my hits...he said ok. I dropped him off after askin if he wanted to troll again, only him to say shore fish please...I figured to shore fish with him and catch some lunch. After eating lunch, and me not getting a bite w/in the hour, i was then ready to troll again. I noticed that there were only 2 boats out trolling, and a few float tubers (one being a fnn'r here once in awhile)...the rest (10+boats were all near shore bait fishing)...thinking of the fellow fishin brothers FA/T.O/ Trolly/Pontoon, i said to myself troll or die! lol,,, I then trolled shallower, then deeper only to catch another 1lbr...it was then about 5pm...I radiod pops, and asked how he was doing...he said only 1 more...told him how I was doing, and he asked to be picked up. By the time I got to him, it was close to 6. We decided to call it a day... A fun day, Convicts water was so dark and clear, it gave a eerie feeling when trolling, lookin into the depths...eventhough DVL is much deeper, the waters of Convict looked ominous, and challenging...FAlbert told me "kewly its a glacier, not manmade..." made sense! Hope to get a big one nextime! Ended up with 7 trout all in all, 1 keeper, the rest c&r'd for nextime ;)

Sunday the next morning, we headed to Lake Mary/George before heading home. The lakes there were beautiful, they were doin some road work on the way there, but still didn't take away from the beautiful scenery. We managed to get our lines wet for about 1hour...saw fish jumpin all around, but no takers...it was now time to head home...

Crowley looked enticing...wish we had 2 more days
We stopped at one of the local hatcheries to see some brutes..great last spot to see before continuing home.

Was planning on tryin to get up there one more time before season ends...
Photos to come from my gf's camera once i get them downloaded-

tight lines! 8)
kewly

[IncredibleHuck]

Sounds like a GREAT TRIP!!! What conod where you staying at in mammoth that the bears were at? We stayed at Snow Creek before and had a balast there, and didnt have one bear come through and that was after two different trips.

[kewlwhip]

jason, we stayed at St Anton- right next to the mtns.. beautiful scenery, and "wildlife" :mrgreen:
great, but too quick of a trip!