Many Opening-Day Anglers Are Elated to Be in the Loop

Dave Stephenson hadn’t missed a trout opener in 33 years, so he wasn’t going to let his daughter’s college graduation stop him this year.

“I watched her get her diploma, told everyone, ‘Thank you very much,’ and boom, I was out of there,” the 53-year-old angler from Arcadia said. “I left Pepperdine at 4:45 Friday afternoon and pulled into June Lake in a driving snowstorm at 11:15.”

It was worth the trouble.

Stephenson, his brother, Kris, and a group of friends who had come up earlier Friday awoke Saturday to find the entire region covered in a blanket of fresh snow.

Rays of sunshine streaked through the clouds. The countryside glistened and the lake’s glassy surface mirrored all the whiteness as well as the coal-colored clouds passing overhead.

And what made things really special for all of the 1,500 to 2,000 anglers casting their hopes into June Lake was that the fishing was as spectacular as the scenery.

One duo claimed to have caught 50 trout in only two hours--releasing all but their five-fish limits, of course.

If there was someone who didn’t score a quick limit of quality rainbows, he or she probably had no business holding a fishing pole.

Stephenson and his group, using lures and bait, had limits well within an hour and spent the rest of the morning releasing fish that averaged one to three pounds.

“It’s like the old days,” Stephenson said, taking his stringer to the cleaning station. “As good an opener as I’ve ever seen.”

That’s saying a lot, given that he has been coming to the opener since he was 6.

June Lake anglers might have had an edge over the thousands taking part in Saturday’s opening day of general trout season in the Eastern Sierra: About 15,000 pen-raised trout earmarked for periodic release during the summer were cut loose by lake personnel two months ago after violent winds and shifting ice broke the pens free of their anchors and smashed them against the shore, threatening to kill the fish.

This supplemented the plant of 10,000 pen-reared trout by lake manager John Frederickson at the end of last season and Department of Fish and Game-raised fish that have been stocked not only at June but throughout the Eastern Sierra.

But if June Lake fishermen did have an advantage, it wasn’t obvious. Fishing was good to outstanding from Big Pine to Bridgeport, despite snow, wind and rainy conditions that have been around since Thursday, courtesy of a low-pressure system over Nevada.

Weeks of warm weather before the storm, however, meant an early thaw at lakes below 8,000 feet, and subsequent rising water temperatures put thousands of hungry trout in the mood to attack just about anything.

“We had our best day ever,” said Tad Geiger, manager of the Mono Village boat house at Upper Twin Lake in Bridgeport, 35 miles north of June. “And I’ve been here 67 years. They were bringing in stringer after stringer until mid-morning.”

The biggest trout in the Bridgeport area as of late Saturday afternoon was an 8-pound 13-ounce rainbow pulled from Bridgeport Reservoir by Ken Forlens of Dublin, Calif. There was also an unconfirmed report of a 12-pounder.

The top trout taken on the June Lake Loop was a 7-2 rainbow caught on a Needlefish lure at Gull Lake by Roger Martin of Lakewood. A 6-9 was caught at Grant and a 6-8 at June.

All of these fell short of the egg-laden rainbow that tipped the scale at 10.41 pounds after being hauled ashore by Charles Hennessey of Burbank at Convict Lake, a jewel of a fishery just south of Mammoth Lakes.

The fish was one of 40 Alpers Ranch-raised rainbows purchased by Convict Lake Resort general manager David DeSurra and stocked last Tuesday to spice things up for opening day.

DeSurra called this the best opening day in at least four years and the stream of people lugging two- to five-pounders through the doors of his general store made this quite obvious.

Down the highway at Crowley Lake, always at center stage on opening day, an elaborate predawn fireworks show kicked off the start of the season and more than 10,000 fishermen began an assault, from shore and boat, that led to relatively quick limits for most--that’s about 50,000 trout, the makings of quite a Saturday night fish fry.

The top catch at Crowley was a 5-pound 13-ounce rainbow landed by Eric Sharp of West Covina.

“It was the fireworks that stirred the fish up,” lake manager Heather Topp said. “Definitely the fireworks.”

They could have used some fireworks in the mountains above Bishop. Far and away the most uncomfortable opening-day anglers were those fishing South, North and Sabrina lakes, and both forks of Bishop Creek.

Snow fell throughout the day, causing some minor traffic problems but not really putting a damper on the fishing in either the creek or on the lakes, which remain iced over.

The biggest fish in this area was a 4-pound 12-ounce Eagle Lake rainbow caught at South Lake on Sierra Gold by Keith Saeger of San Bernardino.

The most excitement, however, might have been at Sabrina on the day before the opener when a coyote running across the lake fell through to its haunches, eventually scrambling back on all fours and high-tailing it for the hills.

“There are some puddles near the edges, but people are still out on the ice fishing,” concessionaire Rick Apted said, adding that a four-pound brown was the top fish of the day. “And, no, nobody has fallen through.”