If Only the Sierra Trout Knew What Was Coming

The pilgrimage has already begun, though it won’t reach its peak until sometime Friday afternoon.

By then northbound traffic along U.S. 395 will resemble the morning commute on the Ventura Freeway.

Well, perhaps not. But the popular route into the Eastern Sierra will be jammed with vehicles of all shapes and sizes, from motor homes to Miatas, carrying people with visions of rainbows dancing at the ends of their lines.

Indeed there is nothing quite like opening weekend of the Eastern Sierra general trout season, which begins at dawn Saturday and ends at dusk Oct. 31.

It has been a highly celebrated tradition since 1940, when Father John Crowley, the Owens Valley preacher, helped bring about a stocking program and make opening day--back then it was always May 1--a local holiday.

Crowley is no longer around to bless the fishermen’s equipment and take collections in a creel, but tens of thousands of hopeful anglers, young and old, still filter into the region between Bishop and Bridgeport every year, taking the high roads, low roads, dirt roads or no roads at all to reach their favorite fishing holes.

It’s an all-out assault, targeting not only rainbow trout but great big browns and little brookies, who this weekend will be plucked from their icy homes in numbers that won’t be rivaled at any time the rest of the season.

The California Highway Patrol will be swamped. There will be more breakdowns, more speeding tickets and, unfortunately, more accidents and drunk-driving arrests than on any other weekend.

“This is one of our busiest times of the year,” says officer Ernie Madderra of the CHP’s Bishop office. “Our advice to those coming up is to start early and don’t rush. Watch out for the other driver.

“And if you’re going to put something [in the paper] about safety, tell them to drive with their lights on even during the daytime. It makes them more visible to the other driver, for oncoming traffic.”

As far as the local merchants are concerned, this is sound advice. They want everyone to make it to the mountains in one piece. They want the business.

“This is really the start of the summer season for us,” says Jeff Irons, a spokesman for the Bishop Chamber of Commerce. “In the winter we live off the folks driving back and forth to and from the ski slopes [in Mammoth Lakes and June Lake]. Now we start becoming a destination again. It’s kind of a rebirth.”

The same is true at June Lake, whose mountain has been closed to skiers since Easter; and at Bridgeport, about 60 miles north of Mammoth Lakes, which has basically been a dead town all winter.

But like the black bears emerging from hibernation, these communities again are stirring, preparing for the onslaught of fishermen.

“This is probably our biggest weekend of the summer,” says Pete Levy, owner of Gull Lake Boat Landing on the scenic June Loop. “All of us have been busy repairing docks and making sure the boats are running. The whole town is gearing for the weekend.”

Says Ron Scira, owner of Creekside RV Park on Bishop Creek: “We rake and repair stuff, but the fishermen are in a frenzy, they don’t even look at it. I mean, all they’ve got on their minds is a big fish. I’m serious, that’s it.”

So where will the biggest fish be caught?

Who knows?

Experts will say only that, given the relatively mild winter, which has given trout more time to awaken from their lethargic state and to forage and grow, this figures to be an excellent opener.

A brief rundown, by region, on conditions and prospects:

BISHOP

The place will not be in Bishop proper, which at 4,100 feet should be basking in 80-degree temperatures. It will be up Highway 168, which leads to Bishop Creek and such pristine mountain lakes as North, South and Sabrina.

Best bet: Bishop Creek. It’s heavily stocked with fish to three pounds and running at an ideal pace down the mountain. Limits won’t be the rule, but there shouldn’t be too many empty stringers, either.

A good bet, if not a particularly safe one, is South Lake, nestled at 9,800 feet amid snowy peaks. South is usually snowbound and accessible only on foot after a two-mile walk, and fishable only through holes in the ice. But this year, for the first time in anyone’s recent memory, the road is expected to be plowed all the way to the lake.

Anglers will still need augers, however, and warmer temperatures may make the ice a precarious place to stand. But those taking the risk may find a lunker trout starring at them through the ice: The lake received a big load of brood stock from the DFG and even bigger fish from Alpers Ranch toward the close of last season.

Nearby Lake Sabrina is definitely not worth the risk: The ice is breaking up in spots and the warm weather is not helping matters. There should be some open water in which to fish, however.

MAMMOTH LAKES AREA

Crowley Lake, maintained by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and named after Father John, is the most popular opening-weekend fishing hole in the region, if not the entire state. Between 5,000 and 10,000 anglers will wet their lines here.

And most of them will catch fish, thanks to heavy stocking and ideal conditions in the weeks leading up to the opener.

“One never knows for sure until we get out there and fish it, but conditions that can promote unusual fish growth and survival were better than typical this year,” says Curtis Milliron, a DFG biologist based in Bishop.

What he means is, the 463,000 eight-inch catchable and five-inch sub-catchable rainbow and brown trout dumped into the lake late last summer and fall have been feeding and putting on weight at a surprising rate.

Another popular place will be Convict Lake, a gem of a mountain lake carved by a glacier thousands of years ago, nestled between towering snow-capped peaks at end of Convict Lake Road, only two miles from U.S. 395 between Bishop and Mammoth Lakes.

Convict is not only more scenic than Crowley, it also harbors some monster rainbows and browns and often produces the biggest fish in the Eastern Sierra on opening day. The fact that the DFG planted 100 fish at a 10-pound average and another 80 in the 5-pound class in February may help it earn that distinction again.

Crowley and Convict are about it. Rock Creek Lake and lakes Mary, Mamie and George are iced over and reachable only by snowmobile and skis. Twin Lakes has only recently begun to break up and there is little room to fish.

JUNE LAKE LOOP

No best bets: All four lakes on the loop have been ice-free for a month, all have been heavily stocked and each should produce limits and a trophy-sized fish or two or three.

Rush Creek, loaded with rainbows and browns, will provide the only alternative, because the back-country lakes above town are still snowbound and inaccessible.

BRIDGEPORT

Twin Lakes thawed much earlier than usual, which is good and bad. Good, because the rainbows have been feeding, putting on weight and gaining strength. Bad, because the more-wary browns, which are most vulnerable immediately after the thaw, figure to make themselves scarce.

Best bets are closer to town: Bridgeport Reservoir and the East Walker River.

“My first choice would be Bridgeport Reservoir [trolling] for 2- to 5-pound rainbows, then the East Walker River [casting big streamers] for quality browns and rainbows,” says Rick Rockel of Ken’s Sporting Goods downtown.

Best alternative: Kirman Lake for brook trout.

“It’s traditionally very good but very busy as well,” Rockel says. “But if a guy wants to catch brook trout, that’s where to go.”

NOTEWORTHY

Whole lotta halibut: Riverside anglers took first and second places in last weekend’s Santa Monica Bay Halibut Derby. Ron Madril won the event with a 36.3-pound halibut and Bart Bastiaans caught a 36-pounder. Melanie Ots of Thousand Oaks won the women’s division with a 20.8-pounder. In all, 1,554 anglers weighed in 290 legal-sized halibut in the two-day event. The Marina del Rey Anglers are holding their annual halibut tournament May 4-5. Cost is $40. Details: (310) 391-5779.

Conservation: There are still openings on some commercial vessels for this weekend’s white sea bass broodstock collection at Santa Catalina Island. The rod-and-reel-caught fish will be transported to a Carlsbad hatchery operated by Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute and San Diego State University and designed to raise fish for eventual release. Details: (714) 846-8259. . . .

All is not golden: Brown trout will be planted this season in the south fork of the Kern River near Kennedy Meadows as an interim measure to save the Volcano Creek golden trout native to the Southern Sierra. Volcano Creek golden trout have been affected by environmental changes, despite efforts to protect the habitat and construction of fish barriers.

Domestic strains of rainbow trout have been planted for years to provide a recreational fishery. They breed with goldens, but it had been assumed they could not get past the barriers and affect the upstream golden population. The DFG has since learned otherwise, and said planting more rainbows may pose a threat to the golden trout. Brown trout, the DFG said, will not breed with goldens.

Historic paddle: A six-member crew from the Southern California Paddleboard Team will try to become the first to officially paddle across the notoriously rough English Channel in June. The group has clearance from the governments of England and France to make to 22-mile crossing from Dover to Cap Gris-Nez, and is holding an auction-raffle May 2 at 7:30 p.m. at the Lighthouse Cafe in Hermosa Beach to raise travel expenses. Details: Derek Levy, (310) 379-0503.