Eastern Sierras: Oct 11-18

[YellowYaket]

I am new to kayak fishing and to this forum. I appreciate all of the valuable information shared here, and the help provided by Andy and Roman at OEX in Sunset Beach to get me out on the water. Since purchasing my kayak, I have peddled around Newport Harbor and off of Dana Point to get the feel for the kayak and to test out the bait tank, fish finder, and GPS. What a blast!

My wife and I just finished our first significant fishing trip with the kayak to the Eastern Sierras. We spent 5 days camped near Virginia Lakes at ~9500 ft. Lows as low as 14 degrees, highs in the 40s. Fishing at Virginia Lakes was uncharacteristically slow, with very heavy fishing pressure for such small lakes. At one point, I counted 11 float tubes and 5 yaks on Big Virginia, plus a countless number of shore fisherman. We also fished Little Virginia (from shore) and Lower Twin Lake from the yak. Although we caught a few fish, it was generally slow everywhere. Regardless of the slow fishing, it was absolutely beautiful everywhere we went. We enjoyed every minute on the water. Fishing from the kayak is so peaceful ... such a great way to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

We moved camp to a lower elevation to thaw out for the second part of the trip, and we fished Lake Crowley and Convict Lake. According to the GPS, we covered 7 to 8 miles trolling around Crowley, which was a good day for us newbies. Special regulations are in effect at Crowley; barbless hooks, 2 fish limit, 18" minimum size limit. We picked up a few shorts that measured about 15", but had a blast regardless. Fishing remained slow at Convict, but the enjoyment of fishing from the yak remained high.

Here are a few photos from the trip.

Setting up camp at 9500ft.


Virginia Creek in the process of freezing over.


Fishing on Lower Twin Lake (beautiful weather, beautiful fall colors).


15" trout from Crowley (released).


Another 15" trout from Crowley (released).

[Saba Slayer]

Wow...that looks pretty damn cold...
We were up at Trumbull campground in July and it was beautiful, except when the smoke from the fires moved in.
Did you try fishing Trumbull lake? The BFEF from Bridgeport was stocking this little lake pretty heavily early in the summer...we caught about 6 fish between 5lbs and 3lbs and lots of stocker size trout too.
Little Virginia was just too crowded for me and Big Virginia only seemed to be holding small trout.







How was the fishing at Convict...? The views up there are outrageous and the restaurant up there serves some pretty good meals.

Thanks for your first post...

[YellowYaket]

Originally Posted by Saba Slayer

Wow...that looks pretty damn cold...
We were up at Trumbull campground in July and it was beautiful, except when the smoke from the fires moved in.
Did you try fishing Trumbull lake? The BFEF from Bridgeport was stocking this little lake pretty heavily early in the summer...we caught about 6 fish between 5lbs and 3lbs and lots of stocker size trout too.
Little Virginia was just too crowded for me and Big Virginia only seemed to be holding small trout.
How was the fishing at Convict...? The views up there are outrageous and the restaurant up there serves some pretty good meals.

Wow, very nice fish! The Trumbull campground was already closed, along with the gate at the entrance. Several cars were parked along the main road, so they either walked in to fish or were hunting bears (I think they were hunters because I heard a couple of shots go off when I was on Big Virginia, although I couldn't really tell where the shots came from). Since I couldn't get my kayak onto Trumbull, I didn't try to fish it. Actually, in all my years of fishing in the Virginia Lakes area, I have only fished Trumbull a couple of times. Based on the monsters you caught, I might need to rethink my strategy! Little Virginia is always a zoo.

Convict was slow, not only for me but for the other float tubers, power-boaters, and shore fisherman that I talked with. One guy fishing from the shore told me that he had been fishing there for 3 days and he saw only 1 small fish caught the whole time.

Regardless, the beauty of the Eastern Sierras more than made up for the slow fishing. I might not wait until mid-Oct next fall, but rather shoot for mid September to improve my odds of getting warmer weather.

Darren