Perfect conditions greet anglers at trout opener

CROWLEY LAKE, Calif. -- David Buckman does not typically attend opening day of trout-fishing season at Crowley Lake.

“There are just too many people,” said the 69-year-old resident of the reservoir’s namesake community, located just across the highway. “I haven’t been to an opener in 10 years.”

Buckman made an exception Saturday, after friend Hudson DeCray informed him there was room for one more on his boat. And when the modest morning action waned beneath a cloudless, almost breathless sky, guess who had upstaged more than 9,000 anglers on hand for Crowley’s 2008 unveiling?

Buckman’s wonderfully speckled 7-pound 14-ounce brown trout, caught while trolling a trout-pattern Rebel lure, would earn him victory in Crowley Lake Fish Camp’s annual big-fish contest.

Surprisingly, though, Buckman himself would ultimately become upstaged by another local, Mike Picker of Bishop, who brought in an 8-4 brown after the 4 p.m. contest deadline.

As nearly identical bookends they became among the largest and undoubtedly the most gorgeous of thousands of trout pulled from Eastern Sierra lakes, rivers and streams on the first day of the general season. Asked how it felt to have out-angled the hordes from Southern California, a humble Buckman merely smiled, while DeCray declared, “We live for that all through the winter.”

But it was a glorious day for Southlanders too. Only those who chose to fish at night or through ice at high-elevation lakes braved the cold.

At Crowley and other top destinations, such as Bridgeport, Convict Lake and the June Lake Loop, temperatures crept into the low-50s by mid-morning.

Fishing was not spectacular but most caught fish, and through early evening Mike Martinez of Moreno Valley held bragging rights with a 9-pound 15-ounce rainbow caught on a Trout Teaser at Convict Lake.

Remarkably, crowds were not down at Crowley, despite mandatory quagga mussel inspections for those with boats. Nor did angler numbers noticeably dip throughout the region, despite a troubling economy and gas prices above $4.00 per gallon at stations alongside U.S. 395. “You could not stop me from coming here,” said Jim Petty, a Lancaster resident fishing June Lake with son Kyle, 14, and friend Seth Wolf, 17.

They mitigated high gas prices, Wolf said, by sleeping in their Suburban.

At nearby Gull Lake, beneath a backdrop of snow-streaked slopes, country music poured from patio speakers while chef Ethan Brizzi served bacon-wrapped shrimp and smoked trout to anglers strolling up the docks.

Most were burdened by stringers of small rainbows. But jaws dropped when Craig Fournier sauntered forth with four monstrous specimens, topped by a 7-8, caught on Thomas Buoyant lures from the south shore. That would later be topped by a 9-4 caught by Scott Olafson of Garden Grove.

Farther north, anglers on Bridgeport Reservoir were battling rainbows and browns, though landing nothing extraordinary.

Nearby, at Upper and Lower Twin, the famously large brown trout did not cooperate and nor did too many rainbows, though each lake yielded a 6 1/2 -pounder.

Then there was an altogether different dynamic at locations such as Sabrina and South lakes above Bishop Creek Canyon.

Anglers readily pulled small rainbows and some browns through the ice. Patti Apted at Lake Sabrina Boat Landing said as many as 75 people were on the ice by mid-morning, and most left with five-fish limits.

Ice fishermen at South Lake landed rainbows to five pounds.

A bit lower at Intake II reservoir, some could not wait for first light. Marlon Meade and Charlie Halsell, of Anaheim and Sacramento, embarked just after midnight -- the first legal hour in Inyo County -- and teamed to catch and release more than 100 trout.

They used glow-in-the-dark mini-jigs, which Meade subbed with regular mini-jigs at daybreak, whereupon he continued to fish until early afternoon.

“I have not been to bed yet,” he said, adding that he’d been up since 6 a.m. Friday morning. “I went all the way through.”

Then he mumbled something about going ice fishing at South Lake on Sunday, but the enthusiasm just wasn’t there.

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pete.thomas@latimes.com