High Sierra Trip Report

[Skonig]

I recently got back from a six day trip to the high Sierra with my dad. Our destination was a rugged bowl that holds Colorado Cutthroats. When we finally got over the pass we were met with some pretty spectacular views. We decided to spend the night up by the lake right off the pass as some thunderstorms were rolling in. In between storms I did some fishing and caught a good sized rainbow.


Looking back at the Owens valley

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Pass

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Views from the pass


The lake at the pass
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The next day we decided to climb on of the 14er's around. When we got up to the top it was hailing and as we were descending the mountain the was some lightning and thunder.

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After we descended in cleared up and we descended into the bowl. We only found one way down to the largest lake everywhere else was a couple hundred foot cliff. You had to follow a cliff around the bowl until you came to a sand and rock slope which you could slide right down. Ill try to post some pictures of the bowl and large lake from the camera a little later on.

My dad and I had heard that the largest lake was fishless and only the lower lakes held the Colorado Cutthroat. But when we got down to the largest lake we saw 5 fish that were a thick 12"+ sitting in the outlet. We set up camp and started fishing immediately. It was some of the best fishing I have ever experienced. Every fish from the large lake was a fat Colorado Cutthroat 12"-15". We probably caught around 60 fish combined in this size range. We caught them on buggers and drys all day long. I personally enjoyed fishing a brown conehead woolly bugger. Just cast it out over the drop off and strip it back in. The cutthroat would come off the bottom and slam the fly from beneath. They fought really hard on my fiberglass two weight.

They had some awesome colors

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The next day we just relaxed. We dropped down another 7-800 feet to get to the lower two lakes. The fish were definitely overpopulating the lakes. All we caught were 10 inchers but they still looked pretty healthy. It was pretty much a fish every cast. We caught probably around 100 fish each. Fly patterns did not matter. In fact the flys would be chewed up and unwrapping but the fish still hammered them.

Average sized fish for lower lakes
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A small little guy
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The next day we did the other 14er in the region. It was sunny with a nice breeze. We followed the wrong chute up and hit a dead end. It added about a 1000 unnecessary vertical feet. We made it to the top and could see every 14er in the sierra. Awesome views. I still need to get the summit photos from off the camera. But here is a couple shots climbing a chimney to the summit plateau.

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Our last night we had an awesome view.
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It was an awesome trip. Got to back some time and go hunt for some large goldens in high sierra.

[Fly Guy Dave]

VERY nice! Great pics! I fished those lakes back in 2006 and the catching sounds like it hasn't changed since then. Quite some hiking dues to be paid to get into that basin, eh? Congrats on being able to catch some genetically pure Colorado cutts in the only place you can in the whole state of California.

[johnsquires]

Scenery, solitude and great fishing. Hard to beat that.

[Jeff F]

Awesome report, Skonig! Can you shed a little light on why there are Colorado Cutts in those lakes? Are they a safety blanket for the species or something? It would be interesting to know why the DFG planted that particular species in those specific lakes and nowhere else in CA.......and IN California to begin with.

Thanks.

~Jeff

[John Sv]

Ralph wrote an chapter on them in Sierra Trout Guide.... Ralph? Paging Ralph!?

[Skonig]

Awesome report, Skonig! Can you shed a little light on why there are Colorado Cutts in those lakes? Are they a safety blanket for the species or something? It would be interesting to know why the DFG planted that particular species in those specific lakes and nowhere else in CA.......and IN California to begin with.

Thanks.

~Jeff

I believe that in the 1930's California traded Colorado Golden Trout eggs for Colorado Cutthroat eggs and then raised the cutthroats in a hatchery. Then they planted them in the lakes.

[cdevine]

I believe that in the 1930's California traded Colorado Golden Trout eggs for Colorado Cutthroat eggs and then raised the cutthroats in a hatchery. Then they planted them in the lakes.

Your dad must be a badass and you must be fairly young. Great report and adventure.

In July 1931, the Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery and the Colorado Fish Commission traded 30,000 Colorado River cutthroat trout eggs for 25,000 golden trout eggs. The resulting Colorado cutthroat fry were planted in remote High Sierra lakes at very high elevations. Over the following 50 years, the population in Colorado became endangered due to habitat destruction and interbreeding with other species of trout. The cutthroats now living in California remained pure. In 1987, California and Colorado cooperated to transplant 50 genetically pure cutthroats back to a remote lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, where they thrived.[3]

[Morgan]

Your dad must be a badass and you must be fairly young. Great report and adventure.

In July 1931, the Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery and the Colorado Fish Commission traded 30,000 Colorado River cutthroat trout eggs for 25,000 golden trout eggs. The resulting Colorado cutthroat fry were planted in remote High Sierra lakes at very high elevations. Over the following 50 years, the population in Colorado became endangered due to habitat destruction and interbreeding with other species of trout. The cutthroats now living in California remained pure. In 1987, California and Colorado cooperated to transplant 50 genetically pure cutthroats back to a remote lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, where they thrived.[3]

that is too cool.

Great report skonig! pretty amazing there is still snow up at the top of the highest peaks.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Wonderful photos.....hard to believe it is in California.