LOW-WATER MARK : Trout Anglers Advised to Plan Trips Early in Season Before Streams Dry Out

“Things like preserving habitats and species in the Southwest make the opening of a fishing season seem very small stuff. Seeing the (human) population continuing to explode, with every home hooked up to a water main, bears ill tidings for things like fish populations. It’s frightening.”

--PHIL PISTER, State Dept. of Fish and Game associate fishery biologist

When trout season opens in the Eastern Sierra Saturday, Phil Pister will be itching to wet a line as much as anyone.

But there’s a larger picture that concerns him and, he believes, should concern every eager angler who will be motoring north this weekend.

With the region awakening from its third consecutive winter of precipitation well below normal, the California Department of Fish and Game urges anglers to plan their fishing trips early in the season, before the water runs out.

“It’s probably down another 10% from last year,” Pister said. “We’ll have another good season, but toward the end of the year, streams and any lake with an outlet-control structure are going to be very low.”

Crowley Lake is down four to five feet from last year, which was a foot or two below normal. More big fish probably will come from Upper and Lower Twin Lakes near Bridgeport, to the north, but Crowley is traditionally the centerpiece of opening day, despite a slump in trophy trout in recent years, and will have several hundred boats afloat with lines baited when a flare goes off at dawn.

Bridgeport Reservoir, drained to a puddle by Nevada farmers last September, is back up to half full and has been heavily restocked, although the first few miles of the East Walker River beyond the dam remain a write-off.

Anyone looking for ice fishing will have to hike into the back country above 9,000 feet. A recent warm spell and rain turned the surfaces of the accessible lakes to mush or melted the ice entirely.

Whether certain passes across the Sierra will be open is a day-to-day situation. There were snow flurries around Bridgeport and Mammoth this week. A warming trend was forecast for the weekend, but weather can change radically and quickly in the area.

The DFG assures that wherever there is water, there will be fish. With the Mt. Whitney and Black Rock hatcheries returning to operation after having been shut down in 1984 because of whirling disease, the department plans to stock 2,210,000 catchable-size rainbows throughout Inyo and Mono Counties during the season that runs until Oct. 31.

If a lake or stream runs too low to support fish life, its allotment will be shifted to a nearby fishery.

With a limited water source, somebody always seems to have rights to it before the fish. If it isn’t unquenchably thirsty Los Angeles, it’s the farmers downstream from Bridgeport along the East Walker--until last September one of the best trophy trout streams in the state.

Also, Pister is among those battling to hold the line against several proposed hydroelectric projects that threaten Eastern Sierra fisheries and a geothermal power development on Hot Creek, a fly fishermen’s citadel and site of another hatchery.

Pister, based in Bishop, said that the Inyo National Forest alone “supports more recreational activity than Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon and Glacier National Park combined--7 million visitor days last year.”

And yet the priority of conservation remains low.

“When I started with the department in 1953, I had a crew of six at Crowley for opening day,” he said. “This year I’ll have a crew of three.”

Recently, flying into Arizona for a meeting of conservationists who share a concern for diminishing fish and wildlife habitat, Pister was appalled to see housing developments sprawling in every direction.

That won’t happen in the Owens Valley, front porch to the Eastern Sierra, because the L.A. City Department of Water and Power owns most of the land for the water rights. But, Pister reasons, it hurts a fish in the Sierra no less when a faucet is turned on in San Fernando.

That’s why, Pister says, the excitement of opening the trout season “puts a mask on the reality of habitat loss in the Western United States (and the problem of) trying to keep habitat halfway together.”

The outlook for some popular spots:

BRIDGEPORT AREA

--Rick Rockel, CalTrout stream keeper for the East Walker: “The East Walker is still full of silt, and with the increased water flows, that silt is being washed down to the lower portions of the river, which was the only portion that had any trout population left to speak of.

“We expect Bridgeport (Reservoir) to be red hot. It’s had 500 two- to five-pound rainbows put in it, along with 20,000 catchables that average two to the pound. They were put in six weeks ago, so those catchables should be right up around three-quarters of a pound by opening day.

“We should have some good fishing also in Virginia Lakes, (which are) partially ice free. That should be good for those big broodstock rainbows they plant in there in the fall. It’s going to be cool up there, but good fishing.

“Upper and Lower Twin (Lakes) also had broodstock rainbows put in last fall, and anglers do pretty well on those the first couple days of the season--especially the first one hour of legal fishing, tossing lures. I think their intelligence level is not quite on a par with wild fish.”

JUNE LAKE LOOP

--Elaine Logue, Ernie’s Tackle: “Back 10 or 12 years ago, it wasn’t unusual to have 17- and 18-pounders to come out three or four times a year. We’re just getting back to the big fish. Fish and Game is planting large fish for us in the fall--the brooders--but a lot of the 10- to 16-pounders are obviously fish that have been in here for a number of years.

“(Also), Fish and Game planted cutthroat trout in June Lake as an experiment about three years ago and last season saw them starting to be caught, and they’re good size--a pound and three-quarters to two pounds. They thrive in this lake . . . a colder water fish, a deeper fish, and they generally go more for live bait--worms or crawlers--or artificial lures that imitate the live bait.

“June Lake used to have a lot of cutthroat trout and it kind of got fished out. The old-timers get real excited about catching them again. The newer fishermen don’t even know what they are.”

Note: The Eastern Sierra’s largest single trout for opening day and the ’88 season came from this area.

CROWLEY LAKE

--Dave Griffith, manager: “The lake has been prepared to the best shape it’s ever been, as far as the docks, the (rental) boats. It’s been ice free for more than two months. The water level is down . . . (but) that only affects the fact there is less fishing way up at the northern end. Boaters will have to be alert for shallow-water areas. There’s going to be plenty of nice shore fishing because the shore has been exposed so much. It’s not into the bushes and stuff.

“Fish and Game stocked more than 700 brooders, plus something like 450,000 (catchables), which is a decent number to work with. We need two nice days. Last year we didn’t have a half of one day (but) people in the latter part of that first two weeks caught fish out there.”

--Bill Rowan, supervisor of Eastern Sierra hatcheries: “We cut back on the browns last year and this year because of the drought. The lake is so low we didn’t want to over-populate the lake or they wouldn’t be any growth.”

MAMMOTH LAKES

--Fred Rowe, Sierra Bright Dot Guide Service: “All the tributaries to Crowley Lake--the Owens River, Convict Creek, McGee Creek, Hilton Creek--from (California) 395 to Crowley Lake are managed as catch-and-release fisheries: two fish, 18 inches or bigger, single barbless hook, lures or flies only.

“Most is going to be nymph and streamer fishing. A No. 14 gold-ribbed hare’s ear (nymph) is going to be best. It’s one fly pattern that imitates several insects. That’s what makes it so versatile.

“It’s been cold and freezing here. We went from summer weather and walking around in shorts and T-shirts to pulling out the jackets again.”

Note: Lakes Mary, George and Mamie are ice-free, but roads may be closed.