From the fishing to scenery, trout opener is quite a catch

Today the big city becomes a distant place and a distant memory.

Thousands of anglers are heading north along U.S. 395, like salmon up a river, to attend Saturday’s opening of the Eastern Sierra trout-fishing season.

They’ll gaze to the right, toward the Owens River, and to the left, toward mountain streams, imaginations running freely, wondering where the big ones are hiding.

It’s no secret that Tim Alpers grows the largest, most robust rainbows in the region on his ranch near the Owens headwaters.

What isn’t widely known is where he put them in the days before this great trout offensive.

Hint: You won’t want to miss Intake II.

This picturesque Bishop Creek Canyon reservoir, managed by Southern California Edison, will generate more than electricity Saturday morning.

Alpers deposited 72 fish totaling 450 pounds there -- most of them 6 to 8 pounds. Intake II also received a generous plant of smaller fish by the Department of Fish and Game.

There will be loads of excitement, but also tangles and flare-ups, as shoreline space will surely be at a premium.

Other Alpers-spiked waters include Convict Lake, Gull Lake and the West Walker River. Each received 50 rainbows averaging four pounds apiece.

And today, Baker, Tinnemaha, Independence and Taboose creeks, already open to fishing, will be stoked with dozens of 1- to 2-pound Alpers rainbows.

Lunch, then death

Last week’s Florida catch of a 1,063-pound mako shark made the nightly news in Los Angeles.

Photos of its bloody, lifeless body were unimpressive, though. A far more striking scene would have been the shark’s final moments.

But, alas, nobody had a video camera.

The crew of the 23-foot See Ya Later II watched in awe as the 12 1/2 -foot predator terrorized a pod of dolphins 400 yards from shore near Pensacola Beach.

In fact, it had a dolphin in its jaws when it was snagged with a cobia jig, and did not let go until the crew of a larger boat arrived and sunk a flying gaff into its gill.

“I’ve been fishing all my life and I have never seen a shark eating a porpoise,” said Capt. Jason Hallmark of the 45-foot Mother Lode, the assist vessel. “It was about a 120-pounder.”

Controversy still swirls, even among anglers, over the killing of the shark, which was brought in to be weighed as a potential world record.

A posting on one website reads, “In much happier news, a 24-year-old surfer was bitten on the hand by a smallish shark while he was paddling in off New Smyrna Beach, Florida.”

The catch may be submitted to the International Game Fish Assn. for consideration as a record in the 30-pound line class. The all-tackle record is a 1,221-pound mako landed off Massachusetts in 2001.

Said Hallmark, “It is a shame, but an opportunity to catch a fish like that comes along only once in many, many lifetimes.”

Meanwhile, off Mexico

Scientists at Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station on Monday recovered a tag worn by a young great white shark that had spent 137 days on exhibit at Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The data-filled device popped free in the Sea of Cortez on April 15, 90 days after the shark’s release in Monterey Bay. The tag was found 77 miles west of Mazatlan.

Ironically, the young predator’s 1,100-mile journey comes as Mexico is ironing out details of a regulated shark fishery that could allow up to 4,000 long-line vessels -- combined with as many as 2 million hooks -- to ply the country’s waters.

Hopefully, the little fella is a picky eater.

Back to trout season

Three hundred miles to Bishop, at 20 miles and $3.40 per gallon: $51.

Fifteen miles west and up a sharp incline to this region’s top fishing destinations: $5 extra.

The drive from Bishop, up incredibly steep Sherwin Grade to Mammoth Lakes, the June Lake Loop or Bridgeport: $10 to $25 more, depending on the vehicle.

The look on a child’s face as he reels in his first Sierra trout? Pretty darn special.

Despite the cost, more than 15,000 anglers are expected to open a season that runs through Nov. 15.

Frontier justice

The Eastern Sierra wasn’t always an idyllic paradise, where people could cast their cares away.

In the 1870s it was a rough-and-tumble lawless frontier -- except when residents took the law into their own hands.

From the Inyo Independent on Aug. 12, 1871: “A few days ago, three men, supposed to be guilty of stealing ropes with horses attached, were found ornamenting a telegraph pole. It is supposed that they committed suicide.”

Trip planner: East Cape

After trout, how about leaping billfish?

The windy season has ended and marlin and sailfish are breezing in abundance through gorgeous blue water in the Sea of Cortez off southern Baja California.

Rancho Leonero reports an average of two marlin per boat, and dorado to 47 pounds. Hotel Buena Vista logged a weekly tally of 64 marlin catches (54 released) for 32 vessels.

Baja on the Fly guide Lance Peterson cites “literally hundreds of jacks” spooling most anglers trying to subdue the strong swimmers with fly rods.

“I’m absolutely spent from running down fish,” he said.

pete.thomas@latimes.com