High Sierra Topix

Great first report! Pictures are great. There have been some great reports this year , haven't there?

richard

Thanks Richard. I agree, there have been some really interesting reports this year. Wandering Daisy's epic is particularly interesting. Wish I had more time to get out there before fall is upon us, but alas, it is not to be. So, I will have to live vicariously through these reports, which I hope keep coming.
Herm

I am hoping for one more trip for 5-6 days, beginning 2 weeks from today, if the weather holds. After that, I will be on hold till next year.

Hope the weather holds for you Richard, so that you can get out there for your final trip. I wish my schedule would allow for another trip, if only to see the aspens turn in certain areas of the eastern Sierra. Good luck.
Herm

Yes, it's too bad I couldn't make the Cordilleran meeting last spring. Too many good meetings, not enough time. I know Diane and Jeff and I met John a few years ago. As for UCSB geology profs who like High Sierra fishing, I know two, both of whom are retired: Ken Macdonald and Cliff Hopson.

Taking a picture of wet freshly caught trout is often difficult in the sun because of bright reflections that often result in overexposed highlights. Generally one ought to shoot minus one-third or minus two-thirds stop on just about everything in the outdoors else highlights are likely to be overexposed. Easy to post process slightly dim images up but impossible to recover overexposed elements. If one has a tripod or something to stabize a camera on, standing in front of the sun so the trout are shady will help produce a more even rendering that can be easily post processed. The shade will however slow the shutter speed thus the need for camera stability. One strategy in the sun is to put the trout in a shallow area of water that will act much like a polarizer, and then position the camera at right angles to the sun. Out of the water, a good background is to lay trout atop green turf with the camera again offset at right angles to the sun. The advantage of being off angle is to reduce bright wet sun reflections.

This shows how the part of the trout under water is fine while areas of the stones have overexposed reflections.

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Nice report! Your shots of the Glacier Divide from Mesa brings back some very recent memories. I fished quite a few lakes in that area earlier this month and my biggest golden came from Mesa. My best fish-per-cast ratio was from Muriel. I only fished Puppet and Alsace on the French Canyon side of Carol Col but I did hit a few of the Glacier Divide lakes. The brookies from Tomahawk were succulent! A side note, I fished Desolation HARD for nada. Perhaps it is fishless? Goethe, on the other hand, is a different story....

Thanks for allowing me to tag on to your report, this area has been well hit this year.

Flip

SSSdave;
Thanks for the the photo tips, they make sense. For the future, I need to commit to some experimentation with the camera, along with making notes of settings to find out what works best. The best shots I took of fish were on the western and eastern shores of the lake, where the sun shone at nearly a right angle in mid-afternoon. However, it was on the northern shore where I caught the most fish. Since I was not keeping any of the fish, I wanted to do my best in handling them as little as possible, and tried to keep them in the water. Now, if I didn't have so much food and needed the fish for food, I would not have hesitated to set them on the grassy ground for better photos. Thanks again for your interesting feedback.

Ozark Flip;
Thanks for the comments. I wanted to spend a night at Muriel, as I have had success there before (not like yours), but the howling wind and the amount of smoke in the air drove me out. Given that this was my first time solo, I was rather cautious, and did not venture afield nearly as much as I could have. But there will be a next time. My wife is even expressing an interest in returning to Humphreys Basin, where she caught her first and only golden trout out of Muriel Lake back 2004.
Cheers,
Herm

Excellent report, Herm! Feels like I was right there with you.. oh wait, I was..

Wish we could have stayed longer at Mesa, and maybe shared some Pasta Puttanesca and 151 with you, but we were on a Mission (my TR to come). Glad to see you got some nice fish out of Mesa. Upper Desolation is not dead, btw. The south side off the points East of outlet were hot with 14" fish. We hooked up on them with both fly and lure.

Now, tell us more about this Frog biologist you met.. As it turns out, we met a DFG fish survey team on the other side of Carol Col, and had a very interesting discussion.

Great to see you posting..

Russ

WOW...where did this come from....teach me a lesson. Great report first of all. The pics are worth 1,000 words. Now aren’t solo trips just the best? Nothing like having to depend on yourself in the wilderness. Looks like you kept well and had a good trip. Thanks for sharing.

Now where in the heck are the rest to the TR for that area (Russ)....Im waiting! Someone must of caught a hog....because the boards are too quiet for as many folks visiting French Canyon this fall.....