Today, Trout Lures the Anglers : Outdoors: Towns in the Eastern Sierra teem with fishermen on the eve of opening day.

The metamorphosis is complete.

Normally quiet streets are buzzing with traffic. Vacancy signs have been replaced with no-vacancy signs.

Cash registers, primarily those at local tackle stores, are ringing to the tune of trout madness.

Bishop, and all the little towns along Interstate 395 from here to Bridgeport, have been transformed into bustling centers of tourism for anglers.

It’s opening day of yet another trout-fishing season, the big event for the trout-fishing crowd and the businesses that cater to them.

“They’ve been stocking the shelves and getting some sleep because they all know they will be working through opening weekend,” said Martha Maklaucic, a manager at the Bishop Chamber of Commerce.

“This is what we do best: hosting visitors and showing off the Eastern Sierra. It’s what we do and everybody loves it, so there’s an air of festivity in the air.”

The most popular items at the local grocery stores: beer and ice.

Elsewhere, it’s hooks, line and sinkers.

This is the trout fisherman’s day in the sun, and the forecast calls for plenty of both.

Temperatures today and Sunday are supposed to range between 60 and 80 degrees, depending on the location. Winds are supposed to be light, ideal conditions for such an occasion.

Maklaucic said there are perhaps 14,000 residents in Bishop and the outlying communities.

“I would say there are easily between 30,000 and 40,000 in the area now,” she added.

Thousands more have gone north to the Mammoth, June and Bridgeport areas.

Lt. Phil Downs of the California Highway Patrol said traffic along Interstate 395 started to pick up Thursday and peaked Friday at noon and then again at 4 p.m.

“We always see significant rise in comparison to the norm,” he said. “And this weekend will be the highest of all weekends.”

Downs said speeding tickets were up, but not as much as one might expect.

“Skiers are the ones that have the heavy foot (on the) pedal,” he said. “The ski traffic generally drives much faster cars than your fisherman and his pickup.”

Yet, while today doesn’t mark the end of ski season, it does signal a transition, whereby fishing becomes the primary activity.

About the only places the trout will be safe this weekend are in the higher-elevation back-country lakes that are as yet inaccessible.

South and Sabrina lakes, above Bishop, are still covered with ice, and there are warnings advising against walking on them.

The road to South Lake is open to a point, but a hike of nearly a mile is necessary.

Rock Creek Lake, a bit north of here, at about 10,000 feet, is frozen, and a fair crowd is expected to be fishing through holes likely to produce rainbow trout.

In the Mammoth area, the road to Twin Lakes has been plowed. The lakes are about 80% clear of ice with “some open water at the inlets and outlets,” according to Jeff Irons of the Mammoth Lakes Visitors Bureau.

In the Bridgeport area, little Virginia Lake is “dangerously thin” and upper Virginia is “ice-fishable,” according to Rick Rockel of Ken’s Sporting Goods.

The road is clear to a point 200 yards from little Virginia and 500 yards to upper Virginia.

Twin Lakes in Bridgeport, which have for the last three years produced the largest fish on opening day, probably will again.

Rockel, however, said crowds are lighter than average for opening day in Bridgeport.

But, he added: “We’re still hopping.”