Secret Brown Trout Lake 8/3
I hiked 10-days provisions and equipment weighing something like 75 pounds on my back six miles up and over a 10,000-foot ridge to Secret Brown Trout Lake in the John Muir Wilderness but caught no fish. This is because I resolved a few years ago to only target big ones in the lakes of this drainage and as it turns out – and I already am familiar – trophy salmo trutta are somewhat wary and not easy to entice.
The usual tactic is to cast large Rapala-type stickbaits during evening prime time six ’til 10 PM. Historically this is when I have hooked the largest browns from my lake up to six-and-a-half pounds, albeit since 2015 I have only caught one- to three-pounders, if any, each trip.
I needed to come up with a new offering. The Storm WildEye Sardine five-inch in green looks so good and works so well for inshore saltwater predators, last year I brought a box of same size brown color to the lake. I cast to the deepest shoreline at various depths and within an hour, after a countdown to 15, at noon on a Thursday, I hooked and landed a healthy specimen that weighed exactly 5 pounds.
This trip I fished the WildEye five hours in deep water during daytime while 4 fish were on the watch and a Bomber Long-A reflector pattern in the moonlight four hours shallow every evening all eight days for a total of 64 hours but again… nothing. On the watch, when the bars are at the ends of the graph, that means the moon is straight down. That's supposed to be the prime time for fish and game activity.
Now I need to read up on other brown trout techniques outside of trolling from a boat. I’ll figure it out and return next year.
*****
The weather this time was perfect. A little breezy the first six days but no big deal. A few clouds in the afternoons but no rain, unlike last year when it poured day and night the first five days. The best news was, after all the intense hike training the previous five months, when I strapped on my pack at the trailhead it did not feal heavy at all. I spent a leisurely eight hours hiking the six miles and felt no pain or strain. When we were kids, it seemed all 66-year-olds were giants who could barely get off the couch.
On the trail in and out there were mostly day-wanderers who hike in, fish for an hour then hike out. In the 10 days I was camped at my lake, the whole time I saw only three other people flyfish from the beach in the wind for an hour then disappear through the woods. Other than that, nobody else was there.
Concerned onlookers were curious about the record winter snowpack. On the trail there is only one patch of snow, if any, stuck to the same slope every year. 2023 it was larger than usual but it’s a hundred feet away from the walkway. I went roaming around one day to lakes in the higher elevations, which had plenty of snow lining their banks but nonetheless access was wide open.
After a wet winter the summer will always produce more mosquitos. Last year I counted maybe 3 all week. This trip there were 10 - 50 buzzing around you all day and night. I dressed properly and used 100% DEET and had no problems with the bugs.
Obtaining a wilderness permit was sketchy this year for the first time. I usually order one six months in advance but according to Recreation.gov, most trails for John Muir were already booked. I have never seen such a thing before. It’s always wide open at that time. After reading the propaganda, Inyo Forest says they dole out 60% of the available permits six months in advance and then open the other 40% two weeks before your first day. From February until July I watched my trail and four weeks before my trip a slot opened and I jumped on it, even though it was one day later than I had planned, meaning I hiked in on Tuesday instead of Monday. Not an issue. Sure enough two weeks before the desired Monday, plenty of permits for all trails in John Muir were available.