There’s Nothing Fishy About This Tradition
Charles Pitts once cut short a business trip to Paris to get home in time for the Eastern Sierra trout opener.
It was 16 years ago and the retired executive from Irvine recalls that he, his two sons and a son-in-law enjoyed their best fishing on Gull Lake, one of four sparkling gems on the scenic June Lake Loop. They caught and released so many trout that Pitts is embarrassed to reveal the number.
Not that you could believe him anyway, given that fish stories tend to get better over time.
For instance, Pitts’ daughter, Debra Harkness, remembers her father taking the Concord from Paris to ensure a timely arrival.
Pitts, however, recalls it as “just an ordinary airplane.”
Pitts, 66, is among thousands of Southland anglers who, two weeks from today, will be making their annual pilgrimage north on U.S. 395 to celebrate the beginning of a new trout-fishing season.
The April 27 opener will be his 40th in succession and again it will be spent at Gull, the smallest of the four lakes, nestled beautifully beneath the towering, snow-covered Sierra slopes.
“We’ve always fished at either June or Gull, but Gull is probably my favorite because it’s so serene when you’re out there on the water,” he says. “At times all you hear are the waterfalls.”
The number in his group once reached 30, but now the opener has become mostly a family affair involving himself, his two sons, Charles Jr. and Kevin, son-in-law Scott Harkness and grandsons Devin Pitts and Kyle Harkness.
The memories are beginning to blend together, Pitts says. There have been sunny days and snowy days, and days when they were pelted by sleet and surrounded by shifting ice.
The biggest trout Pitts has landed weighed only 3.78 pounds, but Charles Jr. once weighed in a 7-pound 15-ounce rainbow.
“And his brother and brother-in-law didn’t speak to him the rest of the day because he put his line in the water as I was still positioning the boat, and because we had a cash pot for the first, biggest and most fish, and they felt it was unfair,” Pitts said.
There was the time one of them accidentally used potato mix to make the morning pancakes. Some other times, the food was only half-cooked.
“But it tasted good anyhow,” Pitts says. “We’ve always found opening day to be a lot of fun, but it’s also a bonding experience and I feel it has had a positive influence on my sons and grandsons.”
Of course, there was also the time two of them fell into the water while trying to get out of the boat--after drinking too much brandy.
A little sipping, Pitts confesses, is also part of the tradition.
If a little sipping is a tradition within the tradition, so is enjoying some hot pozole--a spicy Mexican soup--at Bishop Creek Lodge. Chef Adolfo Castillo poured his first bowl 14 years ago and since then it has become, for those spending their openers high in Bishop Creek Canyon, a belly-warming capper to what is often a frigid first day of fishing.
“It has gained a notoriety of the people who come into the canyon,” lodge owner Gary Olson says.
If the current weather pattern holds, the demand for pozole might be at a minimum this year. Olson’s lodge is at 8,500 feet and on Monday evening he barbecued outside, wearing shorts and a T-shirt. The nice weather is troubling, however.
The lakes that feed the various forks of Bishop Creek are popular ice-fishing holes and the ice is getting more precarious by the day. In fact, officials in Inyo and Mono counties are strongly advising against ice fishing.
On the bright side, the warm spell has enabled the clearing of the road to both South Lake and Lake Sabrina, and it’s likely that North Lake also will be accessible by car by opening day.
Fishing is generally good throughout the Eastern Sierra on opening weekend, and the Department of Fish and Game deserves much of the credit. Between now and April 27, its trucks will be stocking 94,000 pounds of rainbow trout, or about 188,000 fish.
The fish will supplement the planting late last season of 30,000 pounds of brood-stock rainbows weighing three to eight pounds.
Crowley Lake’s pre-opener stocking is done toward the end of each fishing season.
Last September, the reservoir received its usual allotment of half a million fish of various strains.
The breakdown: 183,970 sub-catchable Coleman-strain rainbows, 164,350 sub-catchable Eagle Lake rainbows, 92,243 sub-catchable Kamloop rainbows, 65,232 sub-catchable and 22,950 fingerling brown trout; and 25,000 sub-catchable and 35,125 fingerling cutthroat trout.
Twin Lakes Resort in Bridgeport is sponsoring its inaugural “Guns and Hoses” derby May 3-5, open only to active or retired law enforcement or fire department personnel. Prizes will be awarded in several categories and a special trophy will be awarded to the department with the most participation.
Cost is $35 and proceeds will benefit the local Cops for Kids and Firemen’s Bike Charity programs. Details: (877) 932-7751.
News and Notes
* Local freshwater: Ventura’s Randy Crabtree on Tuesday caught a 191/2-pound largemouth bass while fishing with a 12-inch Castaic Soft Bait in the Deep Cat area of Casitas Lake. It was the largest bass caught in the United States this year but fell well short of the 22-pound 4-ounce all-tackle world record set in 1932 at Montgomery Lake in Georgia. The Casitas record is a 21-3 largemouth bass caught in March 1980.
“I was a little surprised at this one,” concession manager Randy King said. “I didn’t think there were that many close to 20 pounds still in the lake.”
This is prime time for bass fishermen throughout Southern California as the bigger fish are spawning in the shallows.
* Local saltwater: By this time last year, white seabass were coming over the rails by the dozens aboard both island and coastal boats. Maybe they learned then that this is not a good place to be because they remain elusive and catches have been spotty.
On time, however, are barracuda.
They showed this week off the Long Beach Breakwater--the enterprise out of Marina Sportfishing on Thursday reported 10-fish limits for everybody by 9 a.m.--and the only problem so far is that a lot of sub-legal fish--shorter than 28 inches--are mixed in with the “stovepipes.”
As for the absence of seabass, the most reasonable explanation is that the water temperature remains about three degrees colder than normal.
* Santa Barbara salmon: Capt. David Bacon of WaveWalker Charters reports excellent fishing for those aboard boats small enough to effectively troll, with fish coming in three size classes: 10-15 pounds, 17-20 pounds and 25 to 30-plus pounds. An effective rig is a Hotspot flasher blade trailed by a Rotary Salmon Killer, which is a hood fitted over an anchovy or sardine. Bacon can be reached at (805) 964-2046.
* Baja bite: While the Southern California bite is late in coming, it’s early in southern Baja and resort operators are crediting El Nino conditions. At remote Las Arenas Resort, Linda Glassman-Davis labeled the inshore fishing for roosterfish and jack crevalle, along with the offshore fishing for yellowfin tuna as “the best I have ever had in over 20 years in April.” Details: www.lasarenas.com.
* Revillagigedo Island update: The remote Mexican archipelago remains off-limits to San Diego’s long-range fleet. Bob Fletcher, president of the Sportfishing Assn. of California, said he hopes to resolve the recent revocation of permits through legal channels but has also enlisted the support of Rep. Randall “Duke” Cunningham (R-Escondido), who helped SAC secure permits to fish the islands in 1995 and hopes to schedule meetings with officials in Mexico. The closure was announced unexpectedly two weeks ago, in the middle of a season for which the fleet had already purchased permits.
* Shooting sports: The California Waterfowl Assn.’s annual Shoot and Barbecue is April 20 beginning at 7:30 a.m. at Triple-B Clays in South El Monte. Cost is $75 per shooter, which includes 50 rounds of sporting clays and 50 rounds of five-stand competition. Details: (714) 893-2082.
* Showtime: The Fred Hall Tri-County Sports Show, focusing primarily on boating and fishing, is in progress through Sunday at Seaside Park in Ventura. Admission is $7 for adults and free for children 15 and younger. Hours are 2-8:30 p.m. today, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday.
FISH REPORT: D14
