Well I guess I should talk a little about my annual trip up to Mammoth Lakes, for our fishing trip. The last weekend in July is our "church's" annual fishing trip. I say "church" because while it's sponsored (mostly) by the church through bake sales and other things, it's not much of an actual church related trip. Other than the before meal prayer we don't have anything to make us stand out as a church group.

So Wednesday we start prepping for everything. I say Wednesday, but realistically we start up whenever we have a chance. It's a bit easier since my mother doesn't work in the summer (she works for a school) and my brother is unemployed. This year my bro was busy dog sitting right up until we left, so he had to prep really early. I prepped as much as I could in the week before, putting new fishing line on my brand new reel, getting tackle, getting all the other fishing gear, cleaning/packing clothes. The hard part was that this year I couldn't take Wednesday off before we left on Thursday morning. Usually I try to get out early on Wednesday so I can go to sleep early, before our 5am wakeup. Well this year I worked until 11:45 pm, then went home to finish getting ready. Fortunately I was mostly packed on Tuesday (having stayed up until 4:30am to do laundry), so I just had a couple of things to take care of before I tried to go to sleep early. i say "tried" because I am used to going to sleep around 5am, and suddenly trying to go to sleep at 1am isn't easy. In fact it's just about impossible... so I fall asleep around 1, wake up at about 2:30, go back to sleep for about 45 minutes and wake up at 3:30. At that point I attempt to sleep more, but the body gives up that fight and I'm stuck awake. So for those of you counting that's about 2:15 of sleep, with a 5 hour drive coming up that day. The drive itself was pretty uneventful, my bro rode with me as usual. I actually had to have him take over just before we got into Mammoth because I was falling asleep at the wheel.

So we get up to the campsite, start setting up the canopies that cover our food prep area, get everything unloaded from the truck, set up most of the food prep area (stoves, putting food away in the bear lockers, etc) when it starts to sprinkle on us. It was pretty light and it only lasted about a minute, so I sat back down in my truck, laid the seat back a bit and knocked out. Then it sprinkled again a bit, which woke me up. In the time I was asleep, the others had set up tents and stuff that they'd be sleeping in (I sleep in the truck) and were thinking about going fishing. So we packed the gear and headed to Convict Lake. As we show up to the lake it's really cloudy, but it wouldn't be the first time we've fished in the dark. We stretch out on the beach side we always fish on in the mornings and realize that the wet winter coupled with the late thaw in the mountains has produced some rather "interesting" results. The water line of the lake had risen about 4-6 feet from where it was previously. So we cast in and wait... and wait... and wait... and then it begins to rain... We're there less than half an hour before it begins to rain... lightly at first... but then heavy... then hail. After about an hour of on and off rain (mostly on) I packed it in, got the van keys from my dad and packed my stuff into the van and took a nap. My bro, John and Anthony quickly followed as they were tired of the rain as well. After my nap, my Dad showed up about half an hour or so later, the rest of the fishing group gave up with no fish. We headed back to camp to have dinner, just as the rain stopped.

The next morning was our trip to my favorite/most hated lake, Crowley. I say favorite because it generally has big fish due to their fishing rules late in the season, making it easier for fish to get bigger and eat more for the next season. This also produces a fish that fights heavily when on the line, it's a different experience fishing a trout that fights like a bass. I say hated though because we have to fish from a small boat on the lake. Sitting out on the lake from 6am to 9+ am gets quite hot... and quite boring if you're not catching fish. The lake is finicky, and sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't. I haven't had luck at Crowley in a few years, although I had 2 bites this year where the fish hit, but didn't take the hook into it's mouth so I could reel it in.

After going back to camp an having breakfast we though of new places to fish. We usually go Convict Lake, hike around the lake to the backside where the inlet for the river is and fish from there. Well with the excessive amounts of water running through the river, that side was pretty much unfishable since there was no beach to stand on. We tried Lundy Lake, which a customer at work had recommended to me. It was a long drive to it, but the lake itself was beautiful. Then we get to the lake and realize that it's pretty flooded too, by a good 7 feet or more. Fishing spots were at a premium, but we rented a boat and ferried people across the lake to a spot we felt could be good. Well it wasn't that good for most of us. Norman caught limit though, 4 smallish rainbow trouts and one good sized brown. Anthony hooked a rainbow, but didn't realize it until we reeled it in to go back because his line had hooked a log.

Saturday morning we decided to head to Lake Mary, which is a close by lake. It was nice and quiet, cool breeze blowing (OK... a cold breeze at 6am), but again the water level was a good 7 feet higher than normal. So we fished from the tree line. My dad and I were casting lures out, trying out luck. He caught a small rainbow pretty quickly. I kept casting for a while before I hit a small snag. Well I thought I had snagged a rock on the bottom of the lake bed, but as I reeled in my line it began to swing right on me and I realized I had a fish. So I pulled in about a 10" fish, not bad, I didn't strike out, that's all that matters.

On Friday Diane had mentioned that the hatchery truck was near the condo dumping fish into Mammoth Creek. So after Lundy a few tried their luck there (I lost a lure). So after Mary we decided to head back over there since it was a short 2 minute drive back to camp for breakfast. We scouted up the stream, knowing that a lot of the fish would have swum up by then. We found a few good fishing holes with a lot of cover. I dropped another lure in and let it slide back under a tree, letting the current keep the lure up and swinging. After about 5 minutes of that, Erin comes by and asks how the fishing was going. I told her nothing yet and she walked away. Not even 30 seconds later, I get that familiar tug of a fish. So I caught 2 for the day before breakfast. Unfortunately I have no pics of my fish, I wasn't concerned with taking pics of them, I was too busy eating breakfast at camp when we got back.

Not much else to report, our day fishing in Saddlebag Lake wasn't too good for me, I didn't even get a bite. Eric and Diane caught about 3 each, Kyle got 2 and my dad got another fish.

Sunday we packed up and drove back to LA, an uneventful drive back down, we were back in LA by about 7, which is pretty early for us, but we left camp early and the roads were nice and clear for us.