High Sierra Topix

The slow thaw of the High Sierra following the record snowfall has limited options and complicated trip planning. For my family, the main concern is finding thawed lakes to fish as well as avoiding dangerous stream crossings. We had planned a hiking-fishing trip to serve as warmup for a 9-day backpacking trip that Dawn and I plan for later in July. I checked Sentinel Hub Playground regularly while in Newfoundland (June 11-24 including travel days) and upon return. We had originally planned to backpack to Warren Lake for a two-nighter (July 1-3), then get a room in Quincy and hike somewhere around Lakes Basin on July 4. Whereas Warren was thawed, the amount of snow to be hiked over would make for too strenuous a hike for Judy and Dawn who had not yet hiked in 2023. I changed the game plan to an entirely hotel-stay-based trip with two nights in Carson City and one night in Quincy. We chose lodgings with kitchen facilities because we planned to cook up fish for at least the first two nights (Carson City) with the possibility of having to cook on the third night if restaurants closed by the time we arrived. The potential advantage of the revised plan was being able to visit a larger range of destinations. Owing to the difficulty administering medication to our cat, Lily, Lee took one for the team and stayed home to make sure Lily received proper care (ie couldn't leave this to a friend).
Day 1, Saturday, July 1. Round Lake
We left sometime after 7 am on Saturday and made several stops en route to the Big Meadows trailhead, north of Luther Pass, so we did not arrive until sometime around 11 am. We found a parking space in the trailhead parking lot in contrast to 2020 (July 2) when we had to park along 89. As we hiked up the first upgrade I noticed how much easier it felt than my weighted 1.5 hour training walks (carry pack weighing 30-60 lbs) in the neighborhood on which I push a much faster uphill pace (and carry a lot more). I found I did not have to breathe very hard and I had to wait frequently for Judy and even Dawn to catch up. This shows the difference that training can make. We saw many hikers on the trail, including a good number of backpackers headed out. One of them carried fishing gear and told Judy that he had camped at Round Lake, fished it and seen no sign of fish life, meaning he had no strikes and did not see rises or cruisers or trailers.
As predicted, Big Meadow was a bit wet and the stream crossing left us with soaked boots. We hiked over a bit of snow to the junction with the trail to Dardanelles Lake and quite a bit of snow over the final approach. Judy and Dawn found the snow hiking tedious, so I realized I'd have to find an alternative for the planned 2nd day to Lower Velma (upper parts of the approach would have involved far more hiking over snow than the last bit to Round). After reaching Round Lake, Judy slipped on a rock while crossing the outlet stream, broke her walking stick, and backflopped in. I recalled that the crossing of Meeks Creek below Lake Genevieve can be pretty wet early season and it would certainly carry a lot more water than the Round Lake outlet. Given the length of the hike (over 6 miles to Stony Ridge), the likelihood of lots of snow on the trail above Crag Lake, and the strong flows in Meeks Creek, I figured I'd need to figure out a day 3 alternative. Shortly before arriving at the outlet stream ,we passed some folks camped on a nice high campsite, close to where we had camped on our 2020 backpacking trip. I heard one of them ask another "Would you like an IPA?" That completely derailed my train of thought from fishing to daydreams of enjoyment of craft beer. By about 1 pm or so we had set up for fishing. With the translucent green water of Round Lake one seldom sees cruising fish unless they are rather close, and with a steady breeze, the chop obscured potential rises. The stiff breeze kept us refreshed on what would have otherwise been a rather warm day and it kept the bugs at bay, too. One fellow was fishing from a nice slabby point about thirty yards to my right. He hadn't seen any sign of life nor had any success. I fished several nice dropoffs, but did not hook up until nearly 2 pm. The fish was a disappointment. It was a super skinny 13" cutthroat. I wondered if the fish were getting a bit stunted in the lake. Dawn caught a slender 13-incher, then Judy caught an 11-incher. I fished a good portion of the shoreline, whereas Dawn and Judy preferred to rest and not move much. They also had some issues with line tangles and snags and lost so much line that their casting distance was drastically reduced. I ended up catching a total of 10 cutthroat running 11-13", 6 of which were caught on my last 15 casts finishing at about 330 pm. Most fish were alarmingly slender. I really wonder if the population density of this lake is getting so high that the fish growth is stunted as in many brookie lakes (ie spawning is a bit too good), or whether the fish are a bit emaciated following an especially heavy winter. In 2020 I caught a lot of fish but they weren't this skinny and I have a hard time believing a lake's fish population can increase that quickly. Collectively, we kept 7 fish that I cleaned and wrapped in one of our "fish towels" to hike out for our dinner and part of the next.
Our hike out went fairly smoothly and we drove to Carson City where we figured we had to get some new line to respool Dawn's and Judy's reels before checking in to our suite. While shopping at Sportsman's Warehouse, I decided to get Dawn a new reel because she had been having problems with hers, plus we bought a ton of Kastmasters to restock. We had lost 11 of them to snags (5 for me and 3 each for Dawn and Judy) and our supply had still not been restocked from a severe 2022 season in which I think I lost about one lure per every two fish landed for the entire season. Upon checking in to our suite at My Place, on the north side of town, we found the accommodations spacious (including a bathroom much larger than our cramped ones at home) and clean, but were surprised to find no cooking or serving implements or utensils. This delayed our beer, and we headed out to Save Mart to get necessary "suite camping" gear. Once back and set up, Judy and I belatedly opened cans of Faction's superb HBC586 Pale Ale and I started prepping dinner. I did up the vegetable dish first because this was a two burner electric stove and the burners were closely enough spaced that I had to span them with the large frying pan we'd bought. I cooked up Brussel sprouts with garlic powder, black pepper, and salt. We found that serving this with a little topping of crushed potato chips really took it to another level. We could have probably contented ourselves with the Brussel sprouts alone, but I had to do the main course. The cutties, although skinny were orange-meated and tasty. These were seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, then lightly floured before frying. All of them had the characteristic high fat content that makes cutties so good. We had brought leftover rice from home to microwave so we were set. It was, however, rather late (11 pm) by the time we finished dinner.
Day 2. Sunday July 2. Poore Lake.
Sunday morning, we realized they didn't have coffee filters with the coffee maker, so we went downstairs to get the free coffee in the lobby, then brought it back up to have with the leftover breakfast cake I had brought from home. After getting some gas, we headed off south on 395 to Leavitt Meadow to hike to the revised day 2 destination: Poore Lake. Driving south, I was impressed with the huge flows in the West Walker River. Upon arrival at the backpackers lot, I was surprised to find it completely full for the first time in my memory. I parked to the east along 108. I think the crowding here is likely a product of the limited number of options one has early this season. Even along this trail one would find few options, given that West Walker is not crossable, so I'd guess Roosevelt and Lane Lakes must have been jammed. We can only speculate because we split off for Poore. You actually have to take another fork (one goes to Secret Lake, the other to Poore) not long after leaving the main trail, but I'm now 0 for 3 hitting the trail to Poore. It is abundantly true that if I used GPS and set a waypoint at the split all would be good, but I continue to do my navigation "old school" with my topo only. It is worth noting that the 2017 Tom Harrison Hoover Wilderness topo does not show a spur trail to Poore at all, but the 2001 Tom Harrison Emigrant Wilderness map shows the somewhat complex trail geometry fairly faithfully (but only the southern part of Poore lake is on this map). Note that there is a sign at the cutoff from the main trail (signed for Secret and Poore Lakes) but no sign at the cutoff for the Poore Lake trail.
The off trail descent (steep, loose, and locally class 2) to Poore was troubling for Judy who was a bit rusty in off trail scrambling and bruised from her fall the day before, so this descent took some time. I found the view of Poore Lake uniquely beautiful and different from most Sierra lakes. Part of this unique appearance is because of the milky blue green color of the lake, which, unlike Round (always murky), is probably a function of the runoff over volcanic rock that liberates a lot of fine sediment compared to what seems to be algae in suspension in Round. Last year Dawn and I found Poore clear and deep blue no doubt because it was effectively later in the year (earlier on the calendar) and the runoff had not been as extreme. The particular volcanic backdrop of Poore, with its softer altered rock instead of the more typically craggy-bumpy cliffs, also gives Poore a unique visual setting. On arrival I found that the "overflow" channel (not main outlet) had enough water in it to be discouraging for Judy, so I decided not to cross it to the preferred drop offs to the north. For the first hour (about 1-2 pm) we had little action. Judy and I each hooked and released a 9" brookie but otherwise the three of us had no strikes in a good 60 casts between us. I had been avoiding what looked like submerged floating plants, but Dawn, whose distance vision is better than mine recognized these as schools composed of enormous numbers of fish. These fish did in fact look like trout and many were of decent size (12" or larger). They paid no attention to our retrieves. Given the uncooperative nature of the fish in the lake, we decided to take the time to snack and relax. In the meantime, the mesmerizing schools of fish had vanished. Dawn was the first to start fishing again and her first cast followed by the usual deep retrieve of a 3/8 oz Kastmaster did in fact hook up. It had been so many casts since her last fish that Dawn doubted that it was really a fish. This turned out to be a meaty 14" brookie. Within less than a minute Judy hooked and landed another 14-incher. I then got into the act and caught a 13-incher. We quit fishing about 330 pm, by which time Dawn and I had caught 5 fish and Judy 2. Dawn took best fish honors with a 15-inch male. We kept 5 fish between us to wrap in a 2nd fish towel, some for dinner that night, and the remainder to be refrigerated to provide dinner after arrival back home. Our evening back in civilization began a bit earlier, delayed only by a short trip to Save Mart to get coffee filters, more craft beer (hadn't brought all of the beer I had planned to), and a pudding cake for the next breakfast (my own leftover breakfast cake had been consumed). Back in the kitchen we cooked up only one of the five brookies (we had Dawn's 15-incher) because with the huge portions of Brussel sprouts (added some wild sage to this batch), some leftover cutthroat from the night before, we would be plenty full. The fish were seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and wild onions, and not floured. I now had the straddle-the-burners heat distribution better wired and I used this knowledge to put a nice crisp on the skin of the brookie pieces. Partly because of this we considered this main course even tastier than the night before.

Day 3: Monday July 3: Lost in the Lost Sierra.
The original game plan had been to have breakfast and coffee in our room, check out and head for the Stony Ridge Lake before heading on to our lodging for July 3 in Quincy. Even if Judy and Dawn had been in top hiking shape, and the stream crossing and snow hiking problems were minimal, this would have meant very late arrival in Quincy which was a bit problematic in because of the early closure of the various restaurants there that night. I revised the Day 3 plan to a much easier one that would have us driving directly to the Tamarack Lake trailhead in the Lakes Basin area north of the Sierra Buttes, about one hour driving distance from Quincy. From there we'd hike to old stand by Saxonia Lake and investigate whether there were any cutthroat trout left in the lake. Lee and I had encountered super slow fishing (one cutthroat apiece in a very long fishing session) in late October of last year and the lake, which appears to lake spawning habitat, hadn't been air dropped since 2015. Doubting that there would be any fish in Saxonia, I planned to quit early then head over to try the Tamarack Lakes, which I hadn't fished since 1998, which was back in the era when those lakes were air dropped.
Part of the plan actually worked. We had a leisurely start from Carson City but an efficient drive of something like 1h 15 min to the Tamarack trailhead parking in which we found only two other vehicles. We soon began hiking toward Saxonia Lake. Getting close to the lake is not so difficult on the short unmaintained trail, but getting from the trail to lakeshore itself is fairly rugged with boulder hopping and bushwhacking. Judy was still beat from the first two days, so she decided to head for the closest set of drop offs and stay there, while Dawn and I worked our way to the far side of the lake. The three of us fired cast after cast into the deep blue water but without a result. This does not prove the lake is fishless, but it certainly raises doubts. Dawn spent plenty of time snacking, whereas I lacked appetite owing to the huge breakfast I had back in the hotel, which included leftovers the previous nights (fish and Brussel sprouts). By 2 pm we were packed up and ready to hike out and head for the Tamarack Lakes. Judy planned to head for the car and wait there, leaving me and Dawn to do the short hike up the jeep trail to the Tamaracks. But before reaching the Tamarack jeep trail, I made the 3rd worst hiking route error in my 50-year history of picking off trail routes. If I had checked the topo more carefully or pulled out my "just in case compass" I could have corrected things. Instead my blunder put Judy and Dawn through 1 mile of rough off trail travel, which I'd rate as Newfoundland Level 5 on a scale of 10 (scale calibrated so that my hardest off trail hiking in Newfoundland is Level 10). The key errors were coming a bit too high out of Saxonia, missing the trail, then mistaking Dugan Pond for Mud Lake (a 90 degree difference that would have been obvious with a compass). The mile of bushwhacking and scrambling took three hours (probably half hour for me, if solo) and put us on a jeep trail that led us to a junction with the Tamarack Lake jeep trail right below the outlet of Lower Tamarack Lake. But it was 5 pm and too late to think about fishing. We were relieved to be on a known route and headed for the car.
The place we had planned to eat at in Quincy, the Wildflower Cafe had a voicemail message that they closed at 230 (this was them closing after lunch, before reopening for dinner) which Judy heard when she had called them in the morning, so I did some quick thinking. A longtime favorite (of mine), The Brewing Lair of the Lost Sierra in Blairsden always has a food truck and they were apparently open until 7 pm, and less than a half hour from where we were parked, so our dinner conundrum was solved. Judy and I especially enjoyed their Belgian Blonde which was a particularly flavorful brew and vastly more interesting a beer than one usually gets for this style and abv (only 5 percent). The three of us ate tacos from the Ricochet Cafe food truck at the brewery. I haven't read up on why this part of the Sierra Nevada is called the "Lost Sierra" but I had certainly gotten us Lost in the Sierra that day.
A short drive from the Brewing Lair got us to our lodging in Quincy. Fishing folks have this "Code" that prevents them from naming the more treasured fishing places for fear too many folks will go there and spoil the place. I will use The Code for our lodging owing to the fact that there are not that many units and I don't want to see the place booked when we want to stay there again, because we surely will. I guess you could say I'd like the business to do well, because they deserve too, but I don't want them to do so well that I have trouble reserving a room when I want one. We had a two-bedroom, one-bath suite and all the rooms are bigger than those in many houses, including ours. The kitchen is especially nicely set up and spacious, and the living room is absolutely comfy, including two of the most comfortable couches I've ever sat or reclined on. The place was really clean with the exception of a small part of the kitchen floor that could have used more careful sweeping or vacuuming and a minor ant invasion in the kitchen. The kitchen featured a full 4-burner gas range and oven as well as a full fridge. It was fully equipped with cooking implements, utensils and glassware, including nice wine glasses. After touring our accommodations all three of us regretted we had not booked this place for the entire 3 nights of the trip. We have plenty of excuses to do hikes in the Lost Sierra, so we will certainly return.

Day 4: Tuesday July 4. Unfinished business in the Lost Sierra: The Tamarack Lakes
The day before Judy had called my favorite north Sierra breakfast place, the Morning Thunder Cafe to be assured they'd be open on 4th of July. We were happy to find that they were. This has been one of my favorite breakfast places since my first visit there in 1986 and it held the position of no.1 on my list of favorite breakfast places until we ate at Batter Up in Fresno sometime around 2009 or 2010. Batter Up has been our favorite breakfast place since our first time there, but a Morning Thunder visit is still eagerly anticipated. Although Morning Thunder has high quality coffee, in order to enjoy our accommodations a bit more, we began the day by brewing up some Peets Coffee and sipping on it at the island bar in the dining area before heading out for breakfast. Morning Thunder delivered the top-of-the-line breakfast experience as it always has, and after some last moments of relaxation back at our lodging, we packed up, checked out, and headed back to the Tamarack trailhead. This time we found but a single vehicle parked there. The evening before I had studied the jeep trail to Tamarack Lake carefully while descending it. I had 4-wheeled to the lakes and camped there three times, twice with Judy (1996 and 1998) and I was happy to see that the road appeared drivable for me and our Pathfinder (same vehicle that I drove there in 1996 and 1998). We headed directly for the upper lake. On the way up we met a dayhiker descending with fishing rod. He said he'd seen no sign of life in either lake. It was a warm day, and unlike the other days there was no breeze, so it felt quite hot and the bugs were moderately bad. Until I'm fully adjusted to being back in the Sierra, mosquitoes seemed mild after getting mauled by black flies (as well as moquitoes) in Newfoundland. Dawn, on the other hand, was less than pleased.
The lack of wind meant a glassy water surface which allowed a thorough inspection of the water. No rises were seen, nor any crusing fish. After about 25 casts or so I had not received anything remotely like a strike and we would not see cruising fishes or rises during our entire stay at the lake. Although a shallow lake the bottom was soft and it was soon enough after thaw that there wasn't that much bottom vegetation to foul the lure. It was nice to do the bottom-hugging retrieves and actually not lose a lure. I had lost 8 lures on the trip to this point (5 at Round, 3 at Poore) but had managed not to lose one at Saxonia; it was good to find the bottom at Upper Tamarack forgiving. I think it was at cast 26 or so when I felt a pretty good yank that I didn't think was the top of a rock or the soft bottom, but I couldn't be sure. At about cast 30 when I winged another one in the same approximate direction. This time I had another hard yank and it got really hard to retrieve, so much so that I reared back on the rod and watched it to check whether this was a snag or fish. The rod tip bounced enticely, telling me that it was in fact a very strong fish. I anticipated a giant brookie and I lacked a net (having forgotten it at Round L. on day 1) so I worked my way of the slab to a place where I could easily slide the fish out of the water. When I brought it into view, I was rather disappointed at the size. The fish was a 14-inch brookie and the best fish of the trip, but it was hardly the 18-inch monster I thought it would be based on its strength. Dawn arrived just as I landed the fish, but was too bothered by mosquitoes to want to fish. I took about 10 more casts from the same spot but failed to get any results, so I moved back to with Dawn to where Judy awaited near the outlet. I then ran to one more casting spot, took 10 more casts, one of which I thought hooked into another super strong fish, but this one didn't really wiggle---it was in fact a pine branch. Judy had gone back to the lower lake but couldn't reach the better drop offs because of steep snow slopes, so she had returned. I wanted to try to reach some dropoffs at the lower lake by a different route, but Dawn wanted to see if we could hike out, move the car, and hike to Upper Sardine Lake where she'd been successful in 2017. When we reached the car, we looked at the time and realized that we would not be able to get in much fishing time if we held to our plan to be home by about 6 pm, so we hit the road for the Bay Area. We stopped in Davis for some gelato, then Dublin to get some Asian groceries and some cat food, before getting home a bit after 6 pm. Lee arrived home from work as I was still unloading the car. I took a quick shower then opened a 24 oz. bottle of my own Ale of the Rising Sun 2023 (Belgian Red Triple IPA), poured into glasses and then started meal prep with Judy. We figured that the five large brookies would be good for 2 meals, so we did the biggest one (Tamarack) and one Poore brookie, which I oven baked with teriyaki sauce, fresh ginger and garlic, and wild green onions. We had cold tofu with grated ginger, somen (also with grated ginger), a cabbage salad, as well as some cherries I had forgotten about in the 2nd fridge (had intended to take them on the trip). It was a fine finale to a relaxing (for me) Sierra hiking vacation and a good Sierra opener for 2023 for Judy and Dawn. They felt in need of some repair after the trip, but this should help prepare Dawn for "The Big Trip" on which we leave on July 16. We will certainly return to the Lost Sierra. If I can get enough work done in the next couple of days, Lee and I might even shoot up there for an up-and-back dayhike within the next several days. We certainly intend to return later this year (probably fall) so as to find an excuse to stay in Quincy again.

Nice TR. I am glad you caught fish at Poore. I was getting worried about that area since I got skunked on June14th at Lane and Roosevelt. 20-30 years ago the fishing at all of those lakes Poore, Secret, Lane, and Roosevelt was no stop. I THINK the whole area is over fished except Poore Lake since its off the beaten path. From your pics I don't think I have ever seen Poore Lake that full. I see you only caught brookies. I wonder if there are still any kamloops in that lake. I caught a nice one there(19 inches), but that was 30 years ago. Also I was planning on going to Round Lake in August but I might not go after your report. That lake used to have healthy and fat cutts in it, so I might just fish upper and lower Echo Lakes instead since I heard they re-introduced cutts into the lakes. Thanks again for sharing. I always enjoy reading your reports.

Texan

texan wrote: ↑Wed Jul 05, 2023 9:26 pm From your pics I don't think I have ever seen Poore Lake that full. I see you only caught brookies. I wonder if there are still any kamloops in that lake. I caught a nice one there(19 inches), but that was 30 years ago. Also I was planning on going to Round Lake in August but I might not go after your report. That lake used to have healthy and fat cutts in it, so I might just fish upper and lower Echo Lakes instead since I heard they re-introduced cutts into the lakes.

Yeah, Poore was super full. Dawn and I visited Poore last year on 6/13/22 and actually experienced better fishing action, or perhaps we just hit it at the right time (fished 2-315 pm), or we fished a better spot (deeper drop offs to north). Although we were fairly early that year, too (6/13 last year is probably equivalent to a smidge later than 7/2 this year) the water level was significantly lower as illustrated by the comparative photos which show a bathtub ring in 6/13/22 and none at all for 7/2/23. We did not catch any kamloops (rainbow) in 2022 or this year, nor have I heard of anyone reporting them. It would be interesting to see if the CDFG/CDFW data caught any trout/char other than brookie in their surveys but I can't seem to access their stuff since they changed from their Bios5 to Bios6 viewer which doesn't like my Mac, I guess. It seems to me that rainbow in Poore would have good potential to spawn in the inlet, so there is a chance there is a small population of them that probably get very large are rarely caught. The "test" would be to visit the place at ice out and see if there are any rainbow stacking up in the inlet area. Regarding Round, I think a lot of folks are pretty bummed about it. I was already worried last year because of the number of fish I caught and the relatively small average size (only 2 of 11 were over 12") but the fish were suitably meaty unlike the eelike bodies of the fish this year. On the other hand, I can't see how a lake can maintain a pretty stable population with big fish for decades, including decades receiving air drops, then, with no air drops, have a dramatic increase in natural reproduction and stunt out within a couple of years. So I guess I haven't given up on the place yet.

So they're putting cutts into Upper and Lower Echo. They've been doing that (fingerling and sub-catchable LCT) into Caples for years. Have you ever fished Caples? I'm curious as to whether shore fishers score well with cutts there. The management plans say they will start air dropping Dardanelles and Showers (and I think Elbert, too, but there are challenges at Elbert getting rid of the brookies there) with LCT but other than one(?) drop into Showers that has since died off this hasn't happened. That area would become really attractive if Elbert, Showers, and Dardanelles were LCT lakes. Elbert reminds me of Roosevelt and Lane and I think it would grow some monster LCT.

Thanks GB for the reply. I have fished Caples before but only caught Lake Trout. I also heard that Showers, Dardanelles, and Bull lakes have been planted with LCT's. I think I will try Bull lake maybe. One other item I just read. I heard at Silver Lake in June Lake lake loop that they were catching golden trout in the lake. They think its because the Goldens came done from Alger Lakes. I read it on Western Outdoors News. Here's the link
https://wonews.com/bigs-still-biting-as ... s-to-thaw/. Thanks again.

Texan

texan wrote: ↑Thu Jul 06, 2023 9:58 am I have fished Caples before but only caught Lake Trout. I also heard that Showers, Dardanelles, and Bull lakes have been planted with LCT's. I think I will try Bull lake maybe. One other item I just read. I heard at Silver Lake in June Lake lake loop that they were catching golden trout in the lake. They think its because the Goldens came done from Alger Lakes. I read it on Western Outdoors News. Here's the link
https://wonews.com/bigs-still-biting-as ... s-to-thaw/.

Lake trout in Caples from boat or from shore? Interesting about Silver Lake. That makes one think about the many lakes that have golden trout lakes upstream of them. For example I'm pretty sure Judy caught a golden or golden/LCT hybrid in Beyers Lake (air dropped with LCT at that time) in 2001 on our last visit there. I recall that back in the day, Mont and Kaneen Lakes, upstream of Beyers, were air dropped with goldens. Beyers had some nice LCT in those days. On our 2001 visit, the fish we caught ran to 16". Beyers clearly has natural reproduction because we caught a rainbow in there, as well as the LCT. The one thing that has stopped me from returning there recently was the less-than-impressive sizes returned in the CDFG/CDFW gillnet data which led me to believe that the fish are reproducing too well there. Anyhow, I figure there are other lakes like Silver that have goldens because they have golden spawning habitat and are downstream of lakes with goldens.

Speaking self-sustaining LCT, Bull has long been known as a self sustaining LCT fishery. For example, the 1987 Carson-Iceberg Wilderness book by Jeff Schaffer, has a chapter on fishing written by a CDFG fisheries biologist (James Ryan) which states that Bull Lake has held a reproducing population of LCT since 1957. The CDFG/CDFW gillnet stats show an OK top end size, not as big "usual suspects", such as those lakes out of Leavitt Meadow, but better than Beyers. Bull is the only backcountry LCT I know of that I haven't visited yet. This may be because it is a bit far for a dayhike, but it certainly isn't as far in as Birch, which I've visited twice (sadly, the LCTs in Birch are rapidly hybridizing with rainbows).

Thanks for the report and photos! Glad you had a good trip despite the snowy conditions and the last-minute plan changes.

Speaking of Lahontan cutthroat lakes, I'm curious about Meiss Lake which has long been closed to fishing for re-establishing a cutt population. Meiss is now open to fishing from May through September with special regs: 0 bag limit and only artificial lures with barbless hooks can be used.

texan wrote: ↑Thu Jul 06, 2023 9:58 amOne other item I just read. I heard at Silver Lake in June Lake lake loop that they were catching golden trout in the lake. They think its because the Goldens came done from Alger Lakes. I read it on Western Outdoors News. Here's the link
https://wonews.com/bigs-still-biting-as ... s-to-thaw/.

I once caught a golden in South Lake in the Dinkey Lakes Wilderness. South has rainbows and brookies, but it's immediately downstream of Island Lake which is stocked with goldens, so I'm sure that some of the goldens bounced their way down the outlet creek from Island and ended up surviving in the lake below.

giantbrookie wrote: ↑Thu Jul 06, 2023 12:11 pm

texan wrote: ↑Thu Jul 06, 2023 9:58 am I have fished Caples before but only caught Lake Trout. I also heard that Showers, Dardanelles, and Bull lakes have been planted with LCT's. I think I will try Bull lake maybe. One other item I just read. I heard at Silver Lake in June Lake lake loop that they were catching golden trout in the lake. They think its because the Goldens came done from Alger Lakes. I read it on Western Outdoors News. Here's the link
https://wonews.com/bigs-still-biting-as ... s-to-thaw/.

Lake trout in Caples from boat or from shore? Interesting about Silver Lake. That makes one think about the many lakes that have golden trout lakes upstream of them. For example I'm pretty sure Judy caught a golden or golden/LCT hybrid in Beyers Lake (air dropped with LCT at that time) in 2001 on our last visit there. I recall that back in the day, Mont and Kaneen Lakes, upstream of Beyers, were air dropped with goldens. Beyers had some nice LCT in those days. On our 2001 visit, the fish we caught ran to 16". Beyers clearly has natural reproduction because we caught a rainbow in there, as well as the LCT. The one thing that has stopped me from returning there recently was the less-than-impressive sizes returned in the CDFG/CDFW gillnet data which led me to believe that the fish are reproducing too well there. Anyhow, I figure there are other lakes like Silver that have goldens because they have golden spawning habitat and are downstream of lakes with goldens.

Speaking self-sustaining LCT, Bull has long been known as a self sustaining LCT fishery. For example, the 1987 Carson-Iceberg Wilderness book by Jeff Schaffer, has a chapter on fishing written by a CDFG fisheries biologist (James Ryan) which states that Bull Lake has held a reproducing population of LCT since 1957. The CDFG/CDFW gillnet stats show an OK top end size, not as big "usual suspects", such as those lakes out of Leavitt Meadow, but better than Beyers. Bull is the only backcountry LCT I know of that I haven't visited yet. This may be because it is a bit far for a dayhike, but it certainly isn't as far in as Birch, which I've visited twice (sadly, the LCTs in Birch are rapidly hybridizing with rainbows).

We caught the Lake Trout from shore at Caples. Pretty good sized too. I am staying at Meyers during the second week of August. I am going to fish Bull, both Echo Lakes, and Caples. If the river flows are down I will go to the Carson and West Walker too. You know a good spot on the West Walker is where Poore lake outlet comes into the West Walker. Always catch decent fish there, some browns too believe or not.

Texan