Fall Fishing Trip 2011 - Eastern Sierras

Well, another fall Mammoth trip in the books.  This year was Dad, Tom, Tim and Robbie.  Gary and Mike weren't able to make it.

Most of the boys arrived Thursday night, I came in Friday.  A big storm had just pushed through the Sierra's, so there was a ton of snow, and Tioga was closed.  I took the 50 through South Lake Tahoe, then down the 395.  It was a great drive.

(above)I love that Walker River canyon!

(above)Bridgeport looking west

(above) Ken's Sporting Goods

(above) Nice little brown out of McGee East of 395

Finally got on Crowley around 4pm.  On porta boat with Dad, Tom in tube, Tim and Robbie on Boat. Weather: The previous couple days, we had some nasty wind and almost 12" of snow.  BAD weather.  Friday was the first day it was semi clear after the big storm. The high of the day may have been 48 or low 50's.  There was a decent chop of wind on the water, and a few random clouds in the sky. Started getting bites pretty quick after launch. quite a few small feisty rainbows. I was trolling a single grey punk perch, and my dad was trolling a black wooly bugger. Everyone was getting some smaller rainbows.  We were in the north arm, but not parked on the point by the marshy cove where everyone normally parks.  I coudln't believe it that they were float tubing in the little cove.  The water was exceptionally high.  Normally it's completely dry.  Finally, around 630 - 7pm, the sun was almost set, and I hooked into a real nice brown.  22" on the grey punk perch.

(above) Nice brown! 22"

(above)Can't beat the view from Crowley

(above) Full finned crowley rainbow!

Day 2, October 8, 2011

Got launched on the lake around 1030am.  Same story.  Weather today was nicer, slightly warmer, and little wind.  No clouds in the sky at all.  Right after launch, we started getting bites again on the fiesty rainbows.  wind never came up too bad.  tom caught a nice rainbow and brown that day.  i feel in general the fishing was slow.  We tried midging for about an hour because it was so weedy and so much algae for trolling.  Dad had almost 4 take downs in an hour, and landed a small rainbow.  I think I maybe only had one take down.  Tom ended the day early, but Dad and I stayed.  We trolled for some time, and right near dark, I finally hooked into a decent brown on the white punk perch.  We moved closer to shore where fish were rising on the surface in some glass.  We headed over that way and threw the nymph rigs out briefly.  We wanted to inch closer, so I just slowly trolled my indicator rod in, and my indicator went down.  HUGE brown on my 4wt fly rod.  Top fly was some purple emerger, bottom was a zebra broke back midge.  It took over ten minutes to land this pig, but we got em and loaded up in near dark.

(above) Fat Crowley Perch (accidental catch)

(above) Nice brownie

(above) Fighting a fish

(above) Nice brown on the grey punk perch

(above) Bend that 4wt!!

(above) Big daddy on a broken back midge right at dark on the 4wt!

Day 3, October 9, 2011

Today started around 10am and lots of algae bloom in the north end.  We had to go out towards the middle to find any remotely semi clear water.  Some small rainbows, but again, a SLOW day.  I had 2 pigs hook up while trolling, but both came unbuttoned.  Pretty bummed.  Tom had a nice brown again.  Dad left around 2pm, and Tom and I went on the Crestliner with Tim and Robbie because the wind came up to whitecaps, so it was too rough for the porta-boat.  We caught 2 nice female browns, and a small rainbow while trolling till around 6pm.  There were still some white caps out there.

(above) Tom with another nice brown

(above) Troll fish, nice brown from Tim

We left the next day and had a rainy cold drive through Tioga Pass.  We stopped off at the ranch which was a nice half way point to spend the night.  

TOP FLY: WHITE/GREY LARGE Punk Perch

Honorable mentions: Black wooly bugger, olive punk perch.

Hardly any midging this trip, all strip fish!  Overall a bit slow fishing with some bad algae.  

We plan on going again next year, this time not on a full moon!

Pyramid Lake Trip - April 14-16 2011

Well, another Pyramid trip came about, and we went for it! We aren't pro's by any means, but we can catch a few fish!

Thursday, April 14

Thursday morning started off with Tom leaving Mammoth and myself leaving Danville, both to end up at Pyramid Lake, about 30 miles north of Reno, NV.
We arrived around 11am and got the trailer all setup and then tied our rigs up.
We started fishing around 1pm. Action was steady, with a lot of fish on the indicator. There was a good chop coming from the east, which made the indicators bounce nicely. The wind never became too much of an issue.

Below: Nice slot male

Below: Tom with a nice male:


Below: Look at the colors on this thing!


Below: Long and skinny!



Below: Took that snowcone midge!


Below: Nice fish:

Friday, April 15

Friday we got up super early, as ladders were being staked around 5-5:15AM. We got out there and got a few fish early, but it slowed down a little.

I saw a friend I recognized from the internet, so I went over and talked with Mike a bit. He offered to take me out on his boat and show me one of his techniques. We ended up getting a nice fish for him up at the North Nets, just north of the buoy line.

I came back, only to find out Tom had landed a nice fish, but unfortunately, I had the camera, and he forgot his. I guess without a picture, it's a fish story right?

We fished through the afternoon with a slow but steady bite, but the evening west wind set in, and the bite was pretty slow.

Alby and Brett showed up, we had a good time shootin' the breeze around the campfire!

Below: Beautiful morning:


Below: Nothin like an early morning bendo at sunrise!!


Below: Heaven, let that light shine down....


Below: Mike with a bigger fish:


Below: Tom showin the goods


Below: Longggg one:


Below: This loon kept 'fishing' in front of us by 'snorkeling' around looking for fish, beautiful bird, amazing how they do this. I'd never seen one before!


Below: Nice sunset for the night:

Saturday, April 16

Alby and Tom got up around 5 and staked the ladders. I made it out there around 6, and they already had a few fish.

I ended up with a couple, but then it slowed down again, as usual. Then the mid day slumber set in, and we took a break, and drove up to Crosby's. First time I had ever been in there, pretty cool little lodge.

We came back, the fishing continued to be slow, we got a few. I did notice some guys indicator fishing south of us doing quite good, he was running a double black snow cone. They were getting hits maybe every 45 minutes. Slow for steady for them, but I struggled. The evening bite just left us with one fish for Alby, albeit a nice one!

Below: Fish Saturday morning:


Below: Tom with a nice male:


Below: Nice fish caught strippin' on the 9 wt.



Below: Just an amazing day out there, 70 degrees, I don't know how it could be more perfect... well... the fishing was pretty slow:


Below: I had been fishing for a couple hours without any action while Alby nursed his hangover. Then he came out, and landed this NICE fish on his second cast. We didn't catch another fish after this:


Below: The west winds picked up, and we tried hard, but nothing panned out besides this nice sunset:

Sunday, April 17

We got up early and packed up, and were out of there by 830am. I drove by Lake Tahoe and then down to the American River near Auburn on the way home.

Other notes:

Weather: Mid 60's up to 70 during the day, Low 40's at night. FULLLLLL MOON!! I think this killed the fishing!

Flies: Almost everything worked it seemed like. Some hot flies were darker wooly buggers, white beetle, black beetle, snow cone midge, red mahalo. Those guys catching a lot were using 2 snow cone black midges.

Bass Fishing Anderson Lake March 12, 2011

Arrived 12pm.

Water about 54. Water level still pretty low, 55%?

Air 60 with 2-10mph winds.

Party Cloudy, next day rained. Seemed to be some low pressure perhaps?

Fished north west shore, rock areas.

I had 4 fish to the boat, Jon had 2. All pretty small, Jon's was a decent little chunky female.

Split shotting with 3" Yum Dinger Pumpkinseed.

2-15ft water.

Bites were subtle.

Upon coming in, some guy said he had about 6, another boat had 30?

Bought a new Shimano Clarus rod for plastics Sunday from Coyote. Talked to Jared and Anthony, nice guys!

Pyramid Lake Trip - March 5 2011

For years on end there has been an annual trip to Pyramid Lake, Nevada. The main objective is to chase the Lahontan Cutthroat trout, but usually there are other distractions, mostly shooting the breeze at camp. This was only my second year going, I'm still a greenhorn learning the ropes. I'm getting a hang of it though!

Most of the crew arrived at the South Nets beach Thursday night, March 3. I left early Friday morning and rolled in around 10am.

Below: Looking back at our camp on the beach:

Friday was a fairly slow day. The weather was pretty nice. Everyone managed a few fish. Jimmy was catching them on purple Woolly Buggers. I landed 3 while midging. Billy was able to get his 5 fish personal goal, with the last 2 coming nearly at dark!

Below: Jimmy and the Pyramid:

Below: Billy hooks up!


Below: I go bendo:

Below: Nice male


Below: Dad with a nice fish:

The Friday night festivities around the fire were a great way to end the day.

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Saturday we awoke and a few of us started on the ladders early. I managed a midge fish early. Fishing throughout the day was relatively slow, we all managed to get some fish. Ryan Sims showed up and was able to land 6 in the few hours he was there. Pretty impressive. He was using an Olive Woolly Bugger. Tom was catching most of his fish on Billy's Purple Beetle with a slight tail (think tadpole). By the end of the day, I netted 6 fish, all midging. All my fish were on the top fly, a larger Red Mohalo. My bottom fly was a black midge pattern. Hardly anyone else midged. Jeff, one of Tim's friends, was at the North Nets midging all day and said he had 16 fish! Quite the catch. Towards the evening, right at dark, the bite seemed to turn on, mostly with 'dark' colored flies, such as a black Woolly Bugger or purple beetle. The beetle was the 'upper' fly.

Below: Billy with the Pyramid:

Below: Another nice slot male:

Below: Billy with a skinny male, nice colors!

Below: Alby hooks up!

Below: Another slot fish...

Below: Tom caught this nice fish, he had some flies on him from when he broke off another angler:

Below: Right before nightfall, Tom comes through again!

Saturday night Jerry made his famous spare ribs. Man, those were tasty! Brett's family came out and enjoyed the fire with us until the light rain chased us into bed.

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Sunday morning we started out on the ladders early. I had one foul hooked midge fish, and my Dad had a nice strip fish. People came out, but it was relatively slow, I think Alby got one fish. Everyone went back in to do some cleanup and eating, while I stayed out. It paid off. I got this 26" hog at the last minute on my indicator. He was on the shallower side of my drift. I ended the day on this one. We packed up and headed out by 1030am.

Below: Sunday morning, nice hen. Look at that tail!

Below: I hesitate to claim the biggest fish honors, but I think this 26" might do it:

We stopped by Cabela's as usual and then hit some snow on Donner Pass. The traffic was pretty bad through Sacramento.

Another great trip. Decent weather, fair fishing, and a great time with friends!

-Ryan