Eastern Sierra opening day: no snowstorm, few fish

For the first time in four years, anglers attending Merry Fishmas – opening day of trout season in the Eastern Sierra were not greeted with an early spring snowstorm. But while by the afternoon of April 29 was shorts and T-shirt weather, and most lakes were ice free, fishing was slow. Hundreds of San Diegans made the six-hour pilgrimage up Highway 395.

With a record Sierra snowfall, much of it still remaining on the peaks above 8,000 feet, cold nights have kept the water temperatures low – apparently too low to wake up the still winter-ized fish. At Silver Lake, in the June Lake Loop, water temp was 41 degrees at the official 5:03 a.m. start time.

Of the Mono County lakes from Crowley to Lundy, only Convict Lake had a hot bite; Matthew Vito of Rancho Penaquitos, using mini-jigs and rainbow Power Bait, limited out early.

Vito’s friend, Christina Rodriguez, of Escondido, got a bite five minutes after her first cast. Vito and Rodriguez’s party of nine, had luck using Berkley Trout Nuggets, which simulate the feeding pellets used in hatcheries.

“There was only about a quarter of the people there than most years,” said Rodriguez, thinking the heavy winter snow may have scared some anglers off the opener. Her crew, labeled BGOFE – Best Group of Friends Ever – celebrated their 10th opener at Convict.

Ken Johnson of Lakeside, having attended openers since 1973, did well at Convict Lake. Fishing the next day at Silver Lake, he said he hadn’t heard any good reports from any of the other Mono County lakes, included Crowley – the Sierra’s sought-after fish spot.

All the Mammoth lakes were still iced over. Lake Mary Road up into the Lakes Basin had only been plowed to Tamarack Lodge, where anglers found about 200 feet of open water in front of the lodge, directly under the pedestrian bridge where Twin Lakes converge.

The June Lake Loop produced winners of cash and prizes in twelve categories of their Monster Trout contest. But the biggest rainbow trout, which weighed in at six pounds, eight ounces, was about two pounds under the norm. Last year’s well-known winner, Tim Whitehouse, of Oxnard, said this year he didn’t catch anything sizable to place in the contest.

Of the eleven poles in the water from my annual group at the Point at Silver Lake, we only saw three fish brought in, using everything; Power Bait, worms, mouse tails, lures, and salmon eggs. Unfortunately half of my usual group went to Lundy and didn’t do any better either.

The three lakes up Tioga Pass; Ellery, Saddlebag, and Tioga, which were ice-free and wide open last year, probably won’t be accessible until after 4th of July, according to Caltrans. Tioga Pass, State Highway 120, the eastern entrance to Yosemite, still has snow banks up to 150 feet high against the sharply sloped mountainside. Caltrans crews are blasting daily, attempting to clear rock and debris for the snow-encased hillside.

Happiest about the day was probably twelve-year-old Mac Willis of Ontario, who caught his three-pound-five-ounce lunker at Silver Lake, on a Thomas Buoyant lure, winning the Kid’s Biggest Fish category. Dad Jason, not to be outdone, captured the Biggest Brownie of the four-lake contest at three pounds, two ounces.