Eastern Sierra Trout Opener this Saturday

Chunky brown trout can be caught early in the season.

After over six months of waiting, the Eastern Sierra Trout Opener has finally arrived and San Diego trout anglers -along with trout heads all over the west coast - will be flooding the region for the opener this Saturday, April 25.

While there are opportunities for trout fishing along the highway 395 corridor year around in towns such as Lone Pine, Big Pine, Independence, and Bishop, other waters up the hill close for the season from November 15 until the opener each April. These newly opened areas will include Crowley Lake, Convict Lake, the June Lake Loop, basically all the lakes and creeks below 8,000 feet.

Sources in the area have indicated that all the lakes below that elevation are currently ice free, and the Department of Fish and Game will be stocking the area with some of the nine million trout that they will be distributing statewide in 2009.

Sources have also said that roads to the higher elevation drive-up lakes such as Lake Sabrina and South Lake near Bishop, along with Rock Creek Lake all the way to Virginia Lake near Lee Vining will all be good to go for the opener. Tioha Pass Road (State Highway 120 W) is closed at the rear entrance to Yosemite National Park, but it should be open as far as Ellery and Tioga Lakes. The lakes in the Mammoth Lakes Basin will remain closed until around Memorial Day, and the target date to open the road to Red's Meadow is the second Saturday in June, and Saddlebag Lake usually opens around mid-June as well.

"There isn't a whole lot of snow at Parchers right now which means that access in the Bishop Creek Canyon should be excellent for the opener barring any surprise storms which wouldn't be unheard of," said Jared Smith of Parcher's Resort on Bishop Creek.

The weather is certainly something to be prepared for at this time of year, as veterans of the annual event know that it could range from t-shirt weather to blizzard conditions, so while the fish will be hungry, it is best to be prepared for anything. If you have never ventured up 395 for the opener, be advised that this is an event in which some families attending annually has become a tradition for generation after generation, so it might not be the get-away-from-it-all experience you are looking for. Later in the year, anglers can flee into the backcountry lakes to find some solitude, but those lakes are still  frozen, and in some cases, may be unreachable anyway for a couple months, but if you have had that Sierra trout itch for the last six months like many people do, make your way up highway 395 next week and kick off the season.