Bruinfootballfan
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First off let me say that the weather was perfect and the area is unbelievably awesome and the smoke colored LIP RIPPERZ is the best color! That was the good part, fishing was very slow compared to all my past sierra trips. A guy at Crowley told me it was due to the full moon since the fish were feeding all night long.

On the way we stopped off Wed. Afternoon for about an hour of fishing at little lake, hooked up a nice one on a smoked colored lip ripperz, but lost it at the shore.

First day:

Fished owens above Benton crossing, first cast hooked up a nice looking rainbow on a smoke lip ripperz on a jig head. After that a few hits here and there but nothing. moved on to an area of the owens above the Alpers ranch, saw lots of nice trout in the creek/river but no bites. We moved on to Lake Mary, caught released a few smallies on smoke lip rip. Got this new Gloomis rod so decided to give it a try at this lake, (note it has one of those reel holders that just slides together to secure the reel) anyways as I was pulling the rod out of the rod holder on my tube, my brand new straight out of the box Shimano stradic 1000fh comes loose and falls into the lake. This lake is shallow so I could still see my reel. I tried sticking a rod down to pick up the reel but still couldn't reach it. Along comes these two LA city fireman, he has a large net with an extened handle on it so I was able to retrieve my reel. After that decided to head out and finish the day at Upper twin lakes in mammoth, what a pretty place. Lots and lots of weeds, kinda pain in the @$$ to fish jigs but I Caught a little stocker again on smoke lip rip. A few cast later hooked what felt like a pretty good size fish, but lost it when my 2lb line snapped. Nothing else, but short bites on a chartreuse lip rip the rest of the day. It started to get real windy and freezing cold so we decided to head in. After two of us got out and went to the truck, the 3rd guy in our party gets to the ramp, seconds after he walks to the truck to drop off his poles and fins, 3 lil cubs decided to sniff around his tube, my other buddy starts to walk to the restrooms right next to the lake and here comes mama bear running towards her cubs. The 3 of us back off to my truck when all these other idiots come running towards the bears with cameras flashing away. mama bear doesn't look too happy. The bears walked over and jumped up on to a car trying to ck out what's inside doing some nice damage to the paint job. Finally they took off. I couldn't believe this one lady with a video camera, she walks down the boat ramp directly in between the path of mama bear and the cubs. We yelled at her to get out of the way since mama bear was coming back towards her. Thankfully she moved back. Anyways it was cool to see the bears. Tried to get pix but of course the camera the wife gave me had a dead battery.

Day two: started off at Gull lake, first cast caught a small stocker on lip rip smoke color. A little while later caught another small stocker while reeling in my NC to ck the bait. Tried using my 7'6" Kencor, not sure if I like this rod, can't really tell sometimes if I've had a hit. Anyways nothing for the next few hours so we decided to move on. My buddies are big fly fisherman so they headed to Hot creek. I heard there were still some nice Alpers in upper twin so I headed back up there to finish the day. Arrived about 2:30, ran into a guy leaving the lake said he must've c/r about 30 fish, said the hole in the middle of the lake was goin off. I headed out, first cast with a smoke lip rip, pole goes bendo, fought the fish for about a min and line snaps. After that got one hit on a chartreuse lip rip and nada for the next 2.5 hours. I tried everything and could not get a bite. Some family with lil kids came out right next to me and threw out rainbow pb and must've caught 10 in the next 30 min. I hate using pb so I guess I wasn't goin to catch anything for the day.

Day 3: Started off at Crowley (mcgee bay), first time I've ever been to crowley, what a pain in the @$$ to trek through all that mud in my tube. Anyways first cast with a smoke lip rip, my reel starts buzzing, after about a 5 minute fight I saw the biggest trout I've every personally hooked up, as I reached for the net, again my line snapped. I'm either a real barni or this 2lb line stuff really sucks. I must've lost 4 good size fish due to my line snapping. That was my last smoke lip rip (this was by far the hottest color worm!!!!). Nothing for the next 3 hours, we decided to kick in, so we threw lures on our way in. I hooked up a smallie on a Thomas Bouy and my buddy hooked up a nice 4-5 lber on a gold/black Panther martin. Moved over to convict (damn pretty lake and dark blue water) stayed there for 2 hours, caught one stocker on an inflated night crawler. Lots of shore fishing going on, most catching small stockers with rainbow pb. Finished the day at Mamie, fished all colors lip rip, nothing but short bites. tried the fly an bubble, got an instant hit but no hook up, everyone said it was kinda slow, but the fish were feeding on the surface all around the lake. Another bear came down to the water around 6:15 as I was getting out of the water, scared the crap out of this couple.

Overall weather was great, scenery was awesome, fishing was very slow unless you fished power bait. I tried to make this trip strictly artificial baits except for the occasionaly nc. Best artificial was by far the smoke colored lip ripperz!!! I'm definitely gonna restock on those. I'll probably get rid of all my 2lb and stick with nothing less than 4lb tired of losing fish. Anyways thanks Bryan for those small lip ripperz you sent me!

I promise future post won't be so long and boring!
!!!