Bishop Aug 8-10

[ttplt]

Friday - Lone Pine Creek at 6:00AM. Was surprised at how much water was flowing. Equally surprised at how few fish we caught. Caught none in the deep pools. About seven between the metal bridge and where the water crosses under the road towards the sand trap. Only a couple between the road and the sand trap.

11:00 Owens River - a few from the bridge. Hooked into a good rainbow (estimate at least 24")...battled for a long time. Got off the bridge, fought a little longer. Thought I tired him out. About 3 feet from the shore he thrashed one last time and spit the hook. Bummer. But at least I got to see the fish. Beautiful with a really deep red stripe. Caught a couple further up around 14". Had alot of orange color around the gill area. Never seen that before.

5:00 Intake II - C&R'd 24 from the beach by the pipe. Fish were the smallest I've seen at Intake. No one seemed to be catching anything of size but the bite was wide open on the puny's.

Saturday - Bircham Canyon - One word - "HOT"! And unfortunately i dont mean the fishing. Caught one on a bobber with salmon eggs. No other hits. Bailed at 10AM. Almost died from heat stroke on the walk back to the parking lot.

Back to the Owens - hot but there was a breeze. Caught a few. No big deal.

6:00 - Left Bishop (91 degrees) and went up to Intake II (62 degrees and rain). Weather was fantastic! Because of the rain no one there but a few die hards! Bite was good - caught a dozen and they were much bigger this time (10-13"). Heard there was a bear the night before. at 8:00 we hear a woman scream and yell that she saw the bear. Packed up our gear really quick and headed for the parking lot! Don't want to meet Yogi in the dark!

Sunday - Owens again. Caught a few. By 10 it got hot again and bailed before we got scorched!

Great trip! But my advise is to wait till the fall. Too hot!

[simijab]

Yeah Bishop in the summer is horrible. We almost always save the bishop area for the off season.

[pitman]

Nice report. We were up at North Lake Saturday morning and were greeted by two DFG Officers. We went through the usual routine everything checked out and they beamed in on one guy and bolted off. I guess they were up there to investigate a guy who shot at a bear the night before and they had found him. They took him to the parking lot got his story and sent him on his way. My partner talked to him and got the story of this same bear around intake II campground that took a liking to his truck. I saw the scratches in person this bear tore his truck up. He definitely was improperly storing camping goods in his truck attracting the bear. Im not sure what the outcome will be but he fired a warning shot in the air to scare the bear allegedly. He also said he hit it in the face the night before with a hammer, 600lbs plus the guy said. I do know this bear story has travelled in the North / South fork area...

[ttplt]

Wow, Pitman! Thanks for the info! Really didnt want to meet the bear in the dark so we bailed pretty quickly. We fished Intake two nights in a row and heard about the bear the first night and people on the dam saw him the second.

[b_bspk]

Great report, bro!