Heavy Snowpack Augurs a Wild Trout Opener

El Nino or not, it feels like spring outside.

And with a season of warmth and sunshine apparently close at hand, thoughts are turning from rain to rainbows--the kind that go darting about at the end of a line and fry up so deliciously in butter and garlic.

Hard to believe, but the Eastern Sierra trout opener is only six weeks away. It’d be even harder to believe if you were up in the mountains, where winter is showing no signs of an early meltdown.

What this means, of course, is that the thousands of people heading up for opening day of the general trout season are probably in for a wetter and wilder opener than usual.

Sure, a lot can happen in six weeks. But consider this: In the Mammoth Lakes basin, there are 10 to 20 feet of snow piled onto lakes covered with ice at least a foot thick. The last time this much snow fell, in 1995, campgrounds around lakes Mary and George didn’t open until the Fourth of July.

Twin Lakes probably will be accessible, but unless you’re into ice fishing you had better plan to fish elsewhere.

“The advantage Mammoth has is that they’ll still be doing good business on the ski slopes,” said John Frederickson, concessionaire at June Lake Marina and Crowley Lake Fish Camp. “They might be skiing into August.”

At June Lake, Frederickson said, there are about four inches of snow atop an ice layer a foot thick. The same is true at all of the lakes on the scenic loop.

“I imagine it’s about the same at Crowley,” he added. “But there’s not as much snow at Crowley. Right now it looks like the June Loop and Crowley will be OK for the opener. I can see the top of the docks for the first time in weeks. Of course anything can happen. It’s all up to mother nature now.”

They won’t be seeing the docks for some time at the popular high-elevation lakes that feed Bishop Creek. Susie Olson, who with her husband, Gary, runs Bishop Creek Lodge on the upper section of creek, said South Lake is covered with at least 10 feet of powder. Accessibility might be a problem there, it will be a problem at North Lake and, while you probably will be able drive into the parking lot at Lake Sabrina, you had better bring an auger if you want to fish there.

The best bet figures to be Bishop Creek itself, which will be heavily stocked and, unfortunately, heavily populated with anglers.

“We’re booked solid,” Olson said.

At Convict Lake, a splendidly scenic body of water carved by a glacier and nestled at 7,500 feet amid majestic peaks, access to the parking lot will not be a problem, but anglers won’t have the luxury of fishing from snow-free banks as they did last year.

Fortunately, though, because of prevailing winds whipping through the canyon, the lake is rarely iced over for the opener and boaters will be out in force trying to get their hooks into the large stocked rainbows or the whopping browns that, for the most part, have eluded anglers for years.

As usual, the lower-elevation lakes in the Bridgeport area will be accessible and probably ice free, while high-mountain fisheries such as Virginia Lakes figure to be inaccessible for some time.

RAPID TRANSIT

So much snow has rafting companies and white-water enthusiasts anticipating one of the longest and wildest seasons in recent memory. Perhaps too wild.

“If it gets blistering hot and that’s followed by a warm rain, we’ll get a much faster melt, some of the rivers that aren’t dam-controlled could be too high to run,” said Bill McGinnis, owner of Whitewater Voyages, based in El Sobrante in the east Bay Area.

One of these rivers is the Upper Kern and the always ferocious Forks of the Kern, which nobody wants any part of when the river’s up. “It’s possible that the Forks will be too high to run during May and June,” said McGinnis, who has two of six permits to run the Wild and Scenic Kern. “But regardless of how fast or slow the snow melts, we’re looking for basically an above-average fantastic whitewater season.”

ISLE BE SEEING YOU

Southern California’s only deep-sea fishing barge, the Isle of Redondo, a fixture in South Bay waters for nearly two decades, is moving on.

The once-popular hulk of a fishing platform, on whose deck flopped more than a million mackerel over the years, has been sold to a Florida-based company that reportedly is considering towing the barge through the Panama Canal into the Gulf of Mexico and turning it into a floating casino. Its new name: Grand Illusion.

SILVER LINING

Silverwood Lake might as well have fallen off the map as far as fishermen are concerned, thanks to an extended drawdown construction project that depleted the San Bernardino County reservoir’s largemouth and striped bass populations.

But things are looking up, thanks to the Southern California Bass Council’s recent court victory that requires the State Department of Water Resources to restore the fishery.

“The Department of Fish and Game studied the lake before drawdown and indicated that 65% of the fishery has been lost and that it could cost over $3 million to bring the lake back to pre-drawdown levels,” Bass Council attorney Patrick J. Marley said in a statement. “What a great victory for Lake Silverwood and the people who enjoy this valuable water resource.”

WHERE THEY’RE BITING

Locally, the most exciting event is the sudden abundance of squid in Redondo Canyon, which should spice up an already decent halibut bite in the Santa Monica Bay and could trigger a white sea bass bite. . . . If you’re considering a trip to Cabo San Lucas to get in on the fantastic striped marlin bite, think again. The fish suddenly have become line shy and a 90% catch rate has dropped to 60%. Top catch, a 480-pound blue marlin by Cynthia Jansen of Orange. . . . The recreational ocean salmon season from Pigeon Point in San Mateo County south opens Saturday, with a bag limit of two and a minimum size limit of 24 inches. It’ll be interesting to see how far south the fish travel this spring. El Nino probably will keep them from venturing south of Santa Barbara, if they even get that far.