Eastern Sierras
 

Spent the last week in the Eastern Sierras fishing Rock Creek Lake with a few friends. Most of the campgrounds were very uncrowded in advance of the Labor Day Day weekend.
http://i568.photobucket.com/albums/s...o/IMG_0794.jpg

Fishing was steady all week with lots of stockies in the 10-13" range. Breakfast, Day 1.
http://i568.photobucket.com/albums/s...o/IMG_0770.jpg

Campsite on the lake.
http://i568.photobucket.com/albums/s...826_142727.jpg

http://i568.photobucket.com/albums/s...826_142724.jpg

http://i568.photobucket.com/albums/s...826_170106.jpg

The launch at Rock Creek Lake is very easy and there are sand beaches on either side of the launch. Lots of parking too.
http://i568.photobucket.com/albums/s...o/IMG_0842.jpg

We managed to get a half dozen good sized Alpers. Most fish were caught on Kastmasters, Thomas Buoyants and Mepps Spinners. Others had good success with a variety of flies.
http://i568.photobucket.com/albums/s...o/IMG_0788.jpg

http://i568.photobucket.com/albums/s...o/IMG_0792.jpg

Hold the fish closer to the camera!!:D
http://i568.photobucket.com/albums/s...o/IMG_0784.jpg

By day 3, I was pretty tired of eating trout, but our designated chef and his wife whipped up some pretty tasty trout tacos with black beans, scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon, cheese, avocado and Tapatio. Cooking the trout in bacon grease didn't hurt either!
http://i568.photobucket.com/albums/s...o/IMG_0809.jpg

Chef hard at work!
http://i568.photobucket.com/albums/s...o/IMG_0808.jpg

http://i568.photobucket.com/albums/s...o/IMG_0805.jpg

Misplaced my fishing license and had to make a run to Convict Lake to get a replacement. Views of Convict.
http://i568.photobucket.com/albums/s...o/IMG_0763.jpg

http://i568.photobucket.com/albums/s...o/IMG_0767.jpg

Made a couple of short day hikes to surrounding lakes and released a few small rainbows and brookies.
http://i568.photobucket.com/albums/s...o/IMG_0837.jpg

http://i568.photobucket.com/albums/s...o/IMG_0833.jpg

http://i568.photobucket.com/albums/s...o/IMG_0838.jpg

This guy had the lake to himself for several hours.
http://i568.photobucket.com/albums/s...830_100852.jpg

View of Mt. Thomas and John Muir Wilderness in the distance.
http://i568.photobucket.com/albums/s...o/MtThomas.jpg

Hit some wild weather on the way home with T-storms, lightning and high winds. I was hauling two x-factors and had a tense moment when one of the J-bars broke. I'm really glad I had the bow tied down securely.

All in all a great trip and already looking forward to next year!

That's my favorite kind of fishing, there! Nice fish!

awesome trip,
thanks for a great report!!

The Aspens are starting to change. Love that yellow color they turn.

Awesome report and Pics. Thanks for sharing :cheers1:

Those are some beautiful pictures, with great clarity, and it both looks and sounds like a great trip. Nice campsite, and view of the lake, too.

We went to surrounding areas, and over to Yosemite a few years back on our last great camping adventure. Your story and pics, made us "jones" to go again :D, ASAP, which will probably be next year, at the earliest.

I can totally relate to getting burned out on eating trout. As a young kid my Grand-dad, made me eat a lot of trout on camping trips to Idaho. His rationale, "You catch & keep it, you gotta be eating it". I/we live by that now with everything we keep, although we occasionally give some fish and other seafood away to family and friends.

On occasion, we fish in the winter at Lake Poway, since they stock quality trout. A great fight on light tackle, what we keep, we usually smoke, and there's one other method of cooking, which I find tolerable. Those trout tacos sounded pretty decent with all the ingredients and how the trout was cooked. But, if I never ate trout again, that would probably be too soon. In fresh water I'd rather eat catfish, crappie, bass, bluegill, etc. In salt water, I can think of probably 50 or more species of fish I'd rather eat, just off the top of my head.
Aaron

x2 if you've never seen it, you should. Convict lake in color is pretty awesome.

That's where I put in my time before hitting the inshore - Eastern Sierras. Rock Creek has always been my go to. I love fishing the creeks as well. Beautiful pics - thanks for sharing - brings back memories.

Ahhhh... Convict looks stunning. Been several years since I've made it up there. Before I had a kayak even. I need to make a return sometime soon with the yak. Awesome pics and nice going on the trout.

^this...is why we named our daughter Sierra.... thanks for the pics.

Thanks for report. I just got back from June Loop. Hit Gull lake and Silver on the yak. Not too many fish, but I'm never disappointed with a trip to the Eastern Sierras. Hopefully hit Twin Lakes Bridgeport in the fall.

In another life, I'd move up there, work in the warm months and come back down here or AZ in the winters...

Thanks everyone for the positive comments.

Wish I'd thought about smoking some of the bigger ones while I was up there. Smoked trout is pretty delicious and versatile.

I took my 7 yr. old son to Convict lake in early August for 4 days of camping and fishing. Although it was hot and the fishing wasn't so good, our first trip without Mom and the older brother was nothing short of awesome. God's country up there......