Despite Winds, Anglers Live Large

Tanner Donnelly didn’t catch the biggest fish, but he wore the biggest smile.

The three-pound cutthroat trout he coaxed from the depths of Crowley Lake on Saturday morning was something any 5-year-old could be proud of, a beautiful specimen flush with color and full of fight.

“It fighted really good,” the Bishop resident said, admiring his prize near the tackle-shop scale. “My pole started shaking and then I saw the fish jumping. He was jumping real high, and then he jumped right into the boat.”

Fishing wasn’t that good on opening day of the Eastern Sierra general trout season, but it was among the most memorable openers in recent years, producing unusually big fish, dangerously fierce winds and even a bit of mystery.

Bragging rights, as of late Saturday afternoon, belonged to Matt French of Sacramento. While trolling a Rapala at June Lake, French felt the strike and subsequent head shake from what was obviously a very large fish.

He had no idea it would turn out to be one of the largest opening-day trophies in years, a hulking 12-pound 15-ounce German brown trout that probably was suffering from the effects of old age because “he came in like a stick.”

Perhaps that’s good because French, 33, wore a cast on his left arm and was fishing against doctor’s orders.

Not far to the north, on a wind-swept Lower Twin Lake near Bridgeport, Harvey Neill of Smith Valley, Nev., was battling more than the elements. Trolling a deep-diving lure, he set his hooks into an 11-pound 13-ounce brown trout, then caught its companion, an 11-pound 1-ounce brown.

The 20- to 40-mph winds that raked across the region Saturday, sparing, for the most part, only a few waters and notably Crowley Lake, were credited for putting the brown trout in the mood to feed. But they produced more than discomfort for some fishermen.

At Bridgeport Reservoir, two small boats were flipped on or very close to shore, and at Convict Lake one boat was swamped by wind waves and sank. Neither incident resulted in injury.

At Crowley, about 8,500 anglers were treated to ideal conditions most of the day. The morning bite produced unseasonably large fish, averaging about 1 3/4 pounds instead of the typical one pound or less. This brought delight to the fishermen but concern to Department of Fish and Game biologists.

Conspicuously underrepresented were Kamloops-strain rainbow trout. They generally comprise the bulk of the catch early in the season.

Instead, anglers were catching mostly Coleman-strain rainbows, which usually become active later in the season.

DFG biologist Curtis Milliron theorized that the 150,000 Kamloops rainbows stocked late last summer either died a mysterious death or spawned much earlier than usual, perhaps because of an early thaw and prolonged warm spell, and have entered their inactive phase.

The fishermen didn’t seem to miss the Kamloops, however, judging from the chaotic scene at the cleaning station.

“Fortunately, the Colemans stepped up to the plate and came through,” Milliron said.

Which is pretty much what Donnelly did. He had to leave Crowley early for a scheduled game of T-ball.