Well, a number of things have happened since the Desolation Wilderness Fishing Guide was published. First, The US Forest Service and the California Department of Fish and Game are cooperating on the management of fishing -- including the study of Yellow-Legged Mountain Frogs. A side-effect of the frog studies has been accumulation of a lot of information about the status of fish in the Desolation. In the future certain areas of the Desolation will be set aside for the study of frogs and a number of areas will be maintained as they have in the past as planted and wild trout fisheries. Second, I have decided to let loose a few pieces of information not in the original guide.

One lake I kept off the map is probably safe to publicize -- Lake No. 3. It turns out that the State Trout (the Golden) can reproduce in the smallest of inlet or outlet streams. Before I published the guide I visited this lake during the drought years in early spring when rainbows and goldens spawn. Well, there were a number of spawners in the outlet as well as in little snowmelt streams. If you go downstream from the lake there are a lot of small fish. This stream goes for miles through desolate country and probably has fish in pools. Now, one other thing that is interesting about this lake is that according to Wood (p. 148) there is a cross-country route across the saddle between Red and Silver Peaks that links Lake No. 3 with the Leland Lakes (more goldens). Oh, and one thing I almost forgot was the DFG found some 2 lb. brookies in Lake No. 5. I haven't gotten one yet. And also, there is a lake that had some "Inadvertent" DFG plants 1.5 miles due west of Onion Flat (Rubicon Reservoir) and almost 2.0 miles NNE of Highland Lake. This lake will not be planted again, but I my last journey up there I heard reports of some 16 year old anglers that they caught "lots of 15" rainbows" there........

Last fall I took a long one-day hike up to Triangle Lake from Lily Lake -- and continued on with help from Wood's guide cross-country to Heather Lake. Triangle has lots of very pretty Eagle Lake put and grow rainbows. It gets busy there at times and people should know how to get to Lost Lake (you need a map-- a well-named lake). The best way is described in Wood's old guide: just when the trail to triangle makes its final descent to the lake, do not descend but follow the granite over to your left. Taking the "Sierra Sidewalk" gets you there easily with a map as long as you pretty much do not change altitude. Going down to Triangle and up the outlet of Lost Lake is much harder. In any case, Lost has many brookies that need culling so that we get some up to size. It has also gotten golden plants but I have never seen one there.

At Heather I confirmed a few things: Heather is well-known for large browns. Problem is finding them. Thing is that every afternoon there is a good wind from the northwest across the lake. This brings in a lot of insects and terrestrials. The best place to find these insects is on the southeast shore (where they are blown by the wind across the lake). On this particular lake you actually sit at a high point on the southeast shore and watch for fish. Also you can use streamers for the large brookies that are also found in this area. One last thing is that there is a channel right at the outlet with another observation point on the opposite side from the trail (as well as from the trail). Large fish move up and down this channel looking for the red-side minnows on which they feed. I have yet to fully explore the inlet area of the water that comes in from Jack's Peak -- rather swampy but landed a nice fish from the boulder field on the other side of the swamp from the trail. See map:

One more lake that I put on the map in some more detail is Top Lake. This lake has some very large brookies. It also received golden plants and according to recent a DFG survey they survive. I have been pretty skeptical of this in the past -- but I guess they have found them alive there. In my recollection of the lake there is a granite shoulder that provides casting access to its lower portion where the large brookies are. On calm days in early and late season the will be seen leisurely taking midges.

A negative side of publicizing good spots is that they can suffer. At my last trip to Susie Lake I got skunked at my sure-shot entrance spring noted in the guide. There should have been fish there. Hope all the big ones have not been cleaned out -- I doubt it.

The information is in from the latest DFG/USFS trip into the desolation. Thanks to book purchases we were able to fund the packers to the tune of $450 to help bring the crew in. Well, what kind of information did they come up with this year?

They camped at Susie Lake to examine a region on the eastern side of the Wilderness for the first time. As I had the feeling from my trip to the area last year, Susie Lake has had its brookie population stunted. They found no fish over 12". This is down substantially from past findings of fish above 16". Stafford Lehr DFG biologist recommends fishing Susie heavily. "... the more fish taken the better especially those in the range from 8 to 10 inches. We have found that by cropping the population of medium sized fish the larger ones will do better on the numerous forage fish (Lahontan redsides)."

The good news is that Heather is still packed with large fish up to 3 lbs. These fish are tougher to get as I have said in the past, but there are large brookies and browns to be had. One of the biggest problems for flyfishers remains the difficulty of access with a float tube so I think these fish will probably be safe. They also looked into LeConte, the lake above the inlet to Heather, and found medium sized brookies and rainbows. Jabu, despite my lack of success there in the past still has medium sized goldens.

Another piece of good news is that Half Moon Lake has a population of large brookies. The difficulty with this lake is that it has large shallow edges with a deeper center. The fish are not at the edges but along the drop offs into the deeper water- usually some 100' offshore as I recall. This is only going to be accessible by float tube- but I would suspect that these fish would be rather naive. Given the difficulty of reaching them, this resource should be safe.

Another lake surveyed was Gilmore. According to the reports they found a lot of rather stunted (eel-like) 18" lake trout. There were few of other species. Others have reported large fish out of this lake in the past but the survey could not verify any bigger ones. Reports from anyone who fishes the lake would be appreciated. I would remind readers of the direct approach to this lake mentioned in my book and in detail in Wood's Guide. Stafford still believes there are large fish here best caught with sink-tip lines and minnow immitations off float tubes.

On my own trips, we went up to Floating Island Lake and Cathedral and did very well in October. The goldens in Cathedral were taking terrestrials on the surface and scuds on a sink-tip. Fish were up to 10". These fish are very hard to catch except in the fall. It seems they become easier to catch just as the lakes start to ice-up and this of course is right when we get our first snow and the trails become impassable. There were also a lot of stunted brookies in Floating Island Lake. This was not a good year for the fish with a short growing season due to the harsh winter last year. This is a lake to hit and reduce the population of smaller fish. Many fish are found near the inlet area- largest was 13". The fish also cruise the shore across from where the trail comes next to the lake. There were a ton of small fish in the center of the lake. This lake is only awkwardly fishable with a flyrod without a tube. Since many fish are near the edge it's better to be in the middle and cast towards the edge. Nonetheless, you can do well roll-casting off the shore. If you do not take a tube, watch-out for the marshy edges near the inlet as you'll get your feet wet.

Finally, I did my own scouting about in the Rubicon River area above the Reservoir in September. Flows were down to a trickle in the stream but it was still quite pretty especially when it comes over granite slabs in many places. Caught a number of rainbow-golden hybrids up to 12" in the river's pools. The goldens drop down from Clyde Lake and the rainbows move up from the reservoir. I also fished the Reservoir but did not do well. This place is probably better suited for spin equipment. I saw just one large fish in the inlet area- there may be more when flows are higher- a friend went in the following week and the fish was still there and he landed it. Next time I'm going to bring a small inflatable boat that I got at a sale from Orvis. Weighs less that a tube with all its requirements, e.g. fins waders etc. Tune in next year.

The information is in from the latest DFG/USFS trip into the desolation: "We (Stafford Lehr et al.) surveyed lakes in the Meeks Drainage: Lake Genevieve, Crag Lake, Hidden Lake, Shadow, Stony Ridge, and Rubicon Lake. Genevieve, and Crag had good sized (some in the 14 to 15 inch range) RT's, BN's, and BK's and believe it or not Lahontan Cutthroats (don't know how they got there). Forage is primarily redsides, tui chubs and speckled dace along with the assortment of small caddis and midges. The BN's and RT's are self sustaining. Hidden had good sized RT's and CT's. Shadow had BK's but not much size. Stony Ridge had good sized LT and RT's (one RT exceeded 3lbs). Forage for the larger fish are the numerous non-game fish mentioned above. Rubicon Lake had the typical assortment of BK's. I recommend for all of the lakes with larger fish that a minnow pattern, sinking line stripped slowly along."

Also have two reliable reports that Lower Phipp's Lake is fishless. Too shallow. Two parties have suffered the bushwack in there and cannot confirm earlier stories of lunker brookies- maybe winter kill got them as the lake is very shallow.

Finally, in mid-September took an overnight to the Velmas. I tested the theory of Heather Lake out, i.e. that the wind blows the terrestrials over to the downwind side of the lake. To make a long story short, there are a number of outcroppings of large rocks on the northeast side Middle Velma. There were several rainbows crusing and I landed some 14"-16" on hoppers. I'll not be too specific on the spot, but theory is more important than location -- remember the wind can shift.

Well, given the snow cover last season, I only manager one trip to the backcountry and no new ground covered. However, John and Judy Wakabayshi made it back to Gilmore Lake. As you can see from the photo below, the Lake Trout are alive and well. This looks like a good place to go for dinner- according to DFG, there are lots of these fish in the lake and some are getting stunted, hence does not hurt to take a few out. This one, though looks anything but stunted. John has now set up a web site with more info.

Seems like I just do not get back into the backcountry as much as I used to and have been relying on reports via e-mail for updates. Bottom line is that there is a lot of good fishing going on. Some of the lakes that have appeared outstanding recently are Heather and Gilmore for larger fish. Several reports of large browns being taken from Heather including a near miss on a 24" specimen. Lyons Creek on the west side seems to be repopulating after losses during the drought years. I have taken a number of nice brookies out of Floating Island but Catherdral has seemed fishless for a couple years. I have heard negative reports about Susie Lake that I had so highly recommended in the book. Had a nice report about fishing down the Rubicon from Clyde Lake as unchanged to better conditions than I have seen in the past.

Well, the Wakabayshis have done it again. Clearly this is the largest fish I have heard in recent history coming out of the Desolation. Measured at 32" with 18" girth my formula comes out with a 12-13 pound fish. So, Gilmore Lake strikes again. The fish may be as much as 20 years old. Also important news from John is that the shortcut in Wood's guide seems to be operational and with good ducking of the trail after you get to the rim. I went up there with a fish finder and discovered that the lake is at least 195' deep, but did not have John's success. I think that I need to bring my shooting heads up there now. BTW, a DFG gillnetting party some years ago found a 10 pound Brown in the Lake also. John still has a web site with more info.

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