Trout opener still a beautiful tradition

Tradition, according to Merriam-Webster: "an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action or behavior."

But what does the annual Eastern Sierra trout-fishing opener -- to be held this year on April 26 -- really mean to the thousands who attend?

"We all live our busy lives and this is probably the weekend I look forward to most because it's a chance for all of us to come together," says Kyle Harkness, a Stockton restaurant manager with Southland roots.

Harkness, 24, will be attending his 14th opener while reuniting with generations of family members, including his grandfather, who once cut short a business trip to Paris to make the opener.

"They all live in Southern California," Harkness adds. "So it's a chance to get to see them and just kind of get away from everything, be in nature, drink a little liquor, catch some fish, tell tall tales as we like to do and that's pretty much it."

That grandfather, Charles Pitts, is from Irvine and will be making his 45th late-April journey up U.S. 395. Charles Pitts Jr., from Pacific Palisades, will join his 43rd opener.

Kevin Pitts, from Newport Beach, will be making his 40th in a row, and then there are Devin Pitts (16 openers) and Harkness.

They're carrying on despite the glaring absence of Harkness' father, who has divorced his wife, moved across the country and is skipping the opener.

But as Debra Harkness says of Kyle and the male members of her extended Pitts family, "They wanted to keep the intactness of the family," regardless of gloomy circumstance.

And all around them at gorgeous Gull Lake on the scenic June Lake Loop -- as well as in trout-enriched waters from Bishop to Bridgeport -- others just like them will also be angling for memories and bragging rights.

Thomas Kelsey, a former Times photographer, is part of a group celebrating its 25th anniversary.

For the dozen-plus members of the original group, now introducing their children to the experience, memories linger like campfire smoke on a still night.

Years ago, Kelsey says, they'd bounce on a dirt road to a remote campsite behind Crowley Lake and party around a bonfire until the dawn cannon signaled the start of the season.

What they didn't know, on one of those bumpy rides, was that a container of white gas had spilled onto their food.

Kelsey recalls swallowing several mouthfuls of scrambled eggs before realizing they'd essentially been sauteed in propane.

"I thought I was going to die; my whole plate was saturated," says Kelsey, whose 1983 photo of a 26-pound 5-ounce brown trout caught by Carson's Jon Minami still hangs in the boathouse at Lower Twin Lake near Bridgeport.

This group barbecues, conducts Western sing-a-longs and plays horseshoes and poker. Its 25th anniversary logo is a trout smoking a cigar.

"We fly-fish, float-tube, troll, shore fish -- every type of fishing," Kelsey says. "And we eat trout with every meal."

Glen Eastman Jr. of Hemet caught the biggest fish: a 7-pound 2-ounce rainbow at Silver Lake, close to Gull.

Fishing at Silver will be extra-special this year because that's where one of the "grown-up kids" will propose to his girlfriend.