High Sierra Topix

This is a pretty popular loop with lots of prior TRs, so Ill make short and sweet with some of the important details.
Headed out with the wife and a few friends for a loop around Edison lake. Great weather and no bugs. Spent the night at VVR and got the boat at 9AM to start. The plan was to do an easy day to the meadow below Silver Pass lake and acclimate. The meadow was nice, but we were looking for fishing so we pushed on to spectacular Silver pass lake.



It was beautiful and while the fishing was slow, we caught a few in the 13" range as well as this beauty.



Hiked Silver pass to Wilber May lake where we found great camping, a beautiful lake and lots of 12 to 14 " fish. The next day we looped around to olive lake (lots of 11 to 13" fish) and ended up camping at Peter Pande where we also caught good sized fish. Next day our plan was to hike Silver Fox / graveyard pass and stop where ever we decided. The pass was a little intimidating for my wife, but she sucked it up and all in all it turned out to be pretty easy. Took us about 1.5 hours all told to go up and over.




We got to graveyard Lakes where the fishing was slow for little guys so we moved on. we ended up doing about 11 miles and hoofed it back to the trail head for gourmet dinner at VVR and an early drive home in the AM.

Thanks for the TR and pictures, nice size fish.

Nice trip. I am surprised at the quality of fishing you encountered too. Wilbur May has always been consistent, but I ended up catching fairly small fish in Peter Pande on my last visit and medium sized ones in Olive. That is a nice area to explore. I was in there after a heavy winter (I think it was '95 or so) and Graveyard Pass was a bit more thrilling than I would have liked owing to a serious icy headwall/cornice.

Great looking golden out of Silver Pass Lake! Well done. The type that have fluorescent colored guts and radiant red meat that is as tasty as the best fresh steelhead.

Very cool trip! Man, i wish i had friends willing to do hikes like this with me. All i can do is drool, until i decide to just go it alone.

That's a great fish in your second photo. The rod and reel look huge. what size reel and rod is that and what kind of line did you find worked best for your fishing there?

eric
fresno, ca.

I think that is optical. The rod is 5 wt with a 4 wt reel And 5 wt line with very little backing. Yes, it's nice to have a core group of friends to hike with. I have about 6 friends I hike with and my wife loves going on the easier hikes. I do have trouble finding friends who like hiking over 8 miles a day, so I have learned to slow it down and do easier hikes If I want them to come. To be honest, I have really started to enjoy a half day of hiking followed by a nap and some fishing.

I hear ya about the naps. I have one buddy near me who I started dragging along on day hikes. I took him to Twin Lakes in the Kaiser Wilderness last year, his first decent dayhike in his life I think. As he fished Upper Twin, I actually went around the lake, and took a nap for a bit.

eric
fresno, ca.