Early success in the quest for rainbow trout

Brett Herron wrestled from the depths of Convict Lake a 3-pound, 11-ounce rainbow trout and afterward proclaimed it to be the best opening day he’d ever attended.

It also happened to be the first Eastern Sierra trout opener for the 10-year-old from Camarillo, but his jubilance was understandable.

The catch of such an impressive fish is rare for someone so young, and it capped a period during which he’d hiked amid glacial landscape and scaled a towering peak to sled back down.

On a skateboard. Minus the wheels.

That might have been more fun than the fishing on Saturday, Herron added, “but I fell off and went down on my butt from the very top.”

40th time’s the charm

An opening-day banner at Gull Lake read “Congratulations Kevin Pitts!” and it was not to honor his meager stringer of small rainbows.

It was because Pitts, of Newport Beach, was celebrating his 40th consecutive opener – over sipped cognac – with cherished family members.

Pitts was 8 when he attended his first opener in 1969, and he recalled 10-foot snow banks lining the shores and only partial clearing of ice on the lake.

“I was wearing an old Sears & Roebuck jacket that felt like a Windbreaker, and it was just freezing,” he said, wistfully. “But we caught fish so it worked out. When you’re catching fish you’re never that cold.”

It was shirtsleeve weather by midmorning Saturday. Same as last year and the year before that.

For whatever reasons, those frigid, nasty openers so vividly recounted by opening-day veterans appear to have become ancient history.

A different viewpoint

Jeffrey Wenger, owner of Bridgeport Reservoir RV Park and Marina, on what opening day means to concessionaires:

“My first thought is it’s the start of getting my butt out of debt again–from the whole winter.

“It’s the start of the season. It’s the inflow of cash that hopefully allows us to operate and provide a service, and it’s kind of crazy because of the short time span that we have to open everything back up after the snow, and it makes me scared and nervous, but I do it.”

The reservoir, which yielded numerous rainbows and browns to about six pounds over the weekend, is one of the premier Eastern Sierra fisheries.

Local lakes produce too

Steve England proved you don’t have to visit the mountains to catch a large and beautiful trout.

The Mission Viejo angler’s 10-pound Irvine Lake brown was enticed with a Thomas Buoyant spinner at Woody’s Cove. Before the heat wave, Irvine Lake yielded numerous lunkers, including a 29-pound limit topped by a 9-pound rainbow for Dee Bartlett of Anaheim.

Meanwhile, in Anaheim

Santa Ana River Lakes have received 4,000 pounds of “Mt. Lassen Sierra Rainbow Trout,” supposedly raised with more care and consideration than the typical Mt. Lassen Trout Farms fish.

That was done “to address angler complaints about fin quality, coloration and vigor,” reads the lake’s weekly report. “The result has been vividly colored, wilder-acting and -looking fish.”

Clearly, SARL pasted the “Sierra” label on these fish hoping to capitalize on the Eastern Sierra trout-opener hype.

Finally, a seabass score!

Philip Friedman, founder of 976-tuna.com, is a weekly contributor to this column and finally has some good news on the local saltwater front:

“At least three private boaters and the six-pack Dreamer out of Pierpoint landing in Long Beach logged limits of white seabass (one per angler) on Sunday.

“Sinclair Wallace from Redondo Beach was fishing the back side of Catalina Island for three-plus hours without a bite but moved to anther part of the island and it paid off. ‘My friend had a bait in the water for no longer than 10 minutes when he hooked up,’ said Wallace. ‘I could tell by the way the fish was fighting that he had a white seabass.’

“A few seconds after the first fish was hooked, a second rod was bent over with line being stripped from the reel. As Matt Pleines from Redondo Beach and Keven Fini from Torrance fought their fish, Wallace said he saw more than 100 white seabass cruise past the boat.

” ‘It was unbelievable,’ Wallace said. ‘I couldn’t take my eyes off the school but I knew I had to get a bait on them.’ Wallace then baited a live squid onto a half-ounce lead-head, cast into the school and was instantly hooked up.”

Now for the bad news: The bite did not carry into Monday and fishing remained slow as of 1 p.m., despite water temps to 65 degrees and calm seas.

Baja California

East Cape: The place for those seeking to catch their first, or second, and perhaps even third marlin. Fishing is that good.

“There are tailers and jumpers everywhere,” says John Ireland, owner of Rancho Leonero Resort. “It is very visual fishing.”

Dorado are mixed with marlin and sailfish – every fourth billfish is a sailfish, Ireland says – making this an angler’s paradise.

La Paz: “It’s the best early season we’ve had in ages,” reports Jonathan Roldan of Tailhunter International, citing catches of large pargo, tuna, dorado and roosterfish.

But the giant pargo were the big story, Roldan said of the tasty reef denizens. “As one angler put it, he said, “The waters weren’t red with pargo. They were black because the pargo were so thick.”

San Jose del Cabo: Yellowfin tuna to nearly 20 pounds are being caught on cedar plugs, feathers, Rapalas and sardines, but with dorado making their way into this picture it’s looking brighter, reports Eric Bricston at Gordo Banks Pangas. Sierra are prevalent along the beaches.

Cabo San Lucas: Not nearly as good as East Cape. Marlin are plentiful but are gorging on squid so catches are sporadic. Dorado action picked up slightly, but tuna catches have dropped. Tracy Ehrenberg of Pisces Sportfishing describes fishing as “pretty good.”

The reason for the drop-off is troubling. More than a dozen purse-seine vessels, some using helicopters to spot tuna schools, spent the past week wrapping yellowfin schools as close as two miles from Cabo San Lucas beaches.

This supposedly is against the law and sportfishing operators are irate. But the seiners – some of them 200 feet long – supposedly produced permits.

Bemoans Fly Hooker Sportfishing Capt. George Landrum: “If these boats continue to fish right in front of Cabo, look for the numbers of all species caught by the local sportfishing fleet to drop off quickly.”

Joy to the world record

We close with a story about a broken record for Cory Wells, leader of the 1960s and 70s rock band Three Dog Night.

The 3-pound, 8-ounce white bass Wells caught in 1981 while fly-fishing at Lake Nacimiento has held up much longer than any of the hits the band produced.

But it may soon fall.

Missouri angler Michael Bryan Kyle recently caught a 3-12 white bass at Beaver Creek near Bull Shoals Lake in his home state, and awaits International Game Fish Assn. approval.

This week’s trout plants

LOS ANGELES – Bouquet Canyon Creek, Castaic Lagoon, Elizabeth Lake, Little Rock Reservoir and Pyramid Lake.

ORANGE – Trabuco Creek.

SAN BERNARDINO – Miller Canyon Creek, Mojave Narrows Regional Park Lake, Santa Ana River, Santa Ana River South Fork and Silverwood Lake.

SAN DIEGO – Cuyamaca Lake.

SAN LUIS OBISPO – Atascadero Lake, Lopez Lake and Santa Margarita Lake.

SANTA BARBARA – Cachuma Lake and Santa Ynez River.

INYO – Baker Creek, Big Pine Creek, Bishop Creek Intake II, Bishop Creek Lower, Bishop Creek (Middle & South Forks), Cottonwood Creek, Diaz Lake, Georges Creek, Goodale Creek, Independence Creek, Lone Pine Creek, Owens River (below Tinnemaha), Pine Creek, Shepherd Creek, Symmes Creek, Taboose Creek, Tinnemaha Creek and Tuttle Creek.

MONO – Convict Creek, Lee Vining Creek, Little Walker River, Mammoth Creek, McGee Creek, Rock Creek (Sections 1 & 2), Rush Creek, Sherwin Creek and West Walker Rivers (Sections 2 & 3).

VENTURA – Piru Lake.