We had a great opening weekend this year. The weather was a little chilly in the 50’s but very comfortable. Evenings were cold but the daytime made up for it.
The road to South Lake was closed just past Parchers Resort and those who walked up from there were surely disappointed. I did not hear of any fish caught and only a few that even had bites. There was a little ice to fish on over by the rockslide area but most fished back by the inlet. The good news is the work crews are laying the new covering for the dam right now. They have made a few repairs to the wood and are stretching the new material on the far side of the dam.
Bishop Creek was very good for fishing. The water level was a little high but not bad. The Calif DFG stocked real well and there were some Alpers thrown in for good measure. Most anglers who fished the creek did well with Nightcrawlers or Powerbait. One angler was in for a bloody mary at about 9:ooam and had already caught his limit of nice fish with pink Powerbait.
Intake Two was extremely good with a lot of people catching nice sized Rainbows. The Pete Perez family from Southern Calif. had a sink full of fish with several over 2 lbs and a couple close to 3 lbs. He will email me some pictures as I only saw them after cleaning. I think there will be pictures in Western Outdoor News. Most anglers used Powerbait and did very well. There were a lot of float tubers casting red-gold Thomas Buoyants and someone even had a boat!
Lake Sabrina was ridiculous with most anglers complaining about not being able to get deep enough because the half pounders were hooking up before their Nightcrawlers could get to the bottom. The ice fishing was tremendous. Everyone was catching fish with most keeping 4 and having to throw back limits of fish until they finally kept the last fish to take home. Nightcrawlers and jigging with a gold or silver Kastmaster worked very well. Quite a few limits brought out with Powerbait!
The first tracks into North Lake were made by the Jeff Smith group and they were very happy with the results. After drilling their holes, they caught fish after fish using almost anything they took with them. They finally came out with limits of very nice sized fish.
Anyone who missed this opener, missed a very nice time. The fish were here and anglers just had to move until they found the areas and almost all went home with full ice chests.