The Mammoth Report
July 3-5, 1998
July 3
– Departed from LA in my just-picked-up vehicle and pick up Brother Ken at 6AM in West LA. In an attempt to use modern technology to our benefit, our party of 8 in three cars coming from a plethora of different directions employed the use of cellular technology to hook up in Mojave at approximately the same time. Sherwin left LA about 15 minutes after us and we arrived in Mojave at the same time. Alric, Linda and Clare left about 30 minutes after us, so brother Ken and I made a pitstop at the Sylmar McD’s for a little AM grease. Why were we trying to meet at the same time?….well, there’s this little fable about a creek near the town of Independence…a creek so bursting with fish that one could lasso a trout with a noose of monfilament. Tales like these are usually verbalized immediately after the words, "My brother’s friend’s cousin’s father’s friend’s uncle’s daughter’s boyfriend says that…." But, since this info was first hand coming from a person who was actually on the trip (Clare), we figured it wouldn’t be fictitious.
Well…it wasn’t totally fictitious.
The creek was actually a class 6 (unrunnable) rapid. Any trout that were once in that creek were likely blown 30 miles into the exo-atmosphere. We gave it the old college try, but made a hasty retreat after about 20 minutes. I got a bad vibe after losing two hooks in two drifts…..my FIRST TWO casts, mind you!!!!
Pulled into mammoth around 2PM, got the condo and the local scoop on fishing from the manager. 17# brown pulled out of some lake nearby. Good fishing at Convict, lots of snow at the Mammoth Lakes. We powwow and head out to the Owens River.
The Owens was running high and the mosquito population was hovering around 20,000,000. I put on the waders and walked about 100 yard before the Mexican Air Force began it’s strafing runs. Twenty feet later, I was a pint short of the Merck Manual’s recommended volume of human blood. Fortunately the infamous Owens Valley winds picked up and blew the MAF off the plain.
Fish was quite good. Al and Ken got four. I picked up three, unbuttoned one and busted off another. Not a stellar day, but it was satisfying.
July 4
- After getting a hot tip from a friend, Ken, Al and I headed straight to the wrong place at Crowley to fish. We wasted only an hour, pulled up stakes and headed to where we thought there may have been fish. At the spot, there was already a large contingent of buddhaheads fishing. We set up a few yards down from them and almost immediately Alric had a bite. I threw out my line and picked up what turned out to be the smallest fish of the day. For the next two hours, it was very steady. I was done fishing by 9AM. Al and Ken had 4 each and were rushing to get to their limit before Poppa O showed up and started poaching.
I went back to where we told everybody we’d be fishing and saw the rest of the Oishi clan looking for us. I rushed back after telling them where we were (in complete fear of Poppa catching my limit for me!!). They all set up around us and we had about 10 folks fishing in our group. Poppa busted out the 15’ rod and was casting clear across the lake. Momma O was red hot and seemed to be hooked up every time I looked her way.
Poppa immediately struck up conversation with our neighbors, one of which was apparently from Hawaii.
We took to cleaning out fish…all bright orange meat in the fish. Poppa came ambling over with a stringer of about 10 fish and pulled the, "hey….do me a favor and clean these, willya?" I looked at Ken, Ken looked at me, and all we could say was, "yes sir."
Ken and I decided to vacate around noon and get a little rest.
After we left, Nate-dogg, after getting up from a nap in his car, hooked what turned out to be one of the biggest fish of the trip. An egg dropping 3.5# beauty of a rainbow trout. Poppa O immediately stripped the fish of it’s eggs….why???…..nobody knows!
Lundy was on the agenda for the afternoon. Unfortunately Lundy wasn’t being very agreeable. Ken got a nice one and Al got a nice one….I caught a lil’ brookie and let him live to see another frying pan. Defeated, we headed home to get ready for the fireworks show over Crowley Lake.
July 5
– After getting some much needed sleep (I was running on 2 hours o’ sleep from the night before), we had a delicious homemade breakfast at Momma O’s condo and hit the hotspot at Crowley again….but only for 2 hours.
Poppa O was up at 6:30 and caught his 35th, 36th, 37th, 38th and 39th fish that morning….including a nice rainbow that may have gone 4#. He graciously gave us the remainder of his crawlers and some jars of Supa Zeke’s and we were off to Crowley.
This time Ken was ON FUEGO!!!!!!!!!!!! Seems the trick was using a huge egg sinker and casting out as far as you could. Trouble was, the sinker was so heavy, it’d break the leader when the fish picked it up. Plenty of hits, but lots of fish busted off!! Anyhow, he limited out in two hours and caught a nice Perch to go along with his cache. Al and I were having a little trouble. I was struggling…Ken had 3 by the time I caught my first one. After a quick flurry of activity, I had four fish and was a lot happier. Al pulled two out of the spot, but it did nothing to make him happy.
The buzzer sounded and we had to leave to meet the rest of the group in Bishop. Picked up our Schat’s cheesebread and headed back to hell.
Another trip in the bag…..hey….uh….you guys busy on Labor day??