Travel: Enjoying the Wonders of the Tuolumne Meadows Backcountry - Yosemite 2006, Part III

Fishing Tips

Am not a expert fisherman but I have a friend who loves trout fishing. Thus, before setting off to Yosemite, I got his advice for a simple approach to what could be done right out of the backpack.

I got a "pack rod."

I bought a 5'6" rod that broke down into four pieces from Troutlet.com. Specifically, I got this one.

I got a budget reel. If you poke around the Troutlet.com site, you can spend 10x more money!

My fisherman friend recommended 2lb test line from Maxima. He said, trout can see heavier lines and get wary so going with 2lb will improve your chances.

Lastly, I picked up four lures at Sport's Chalet. I used a Rooster Tail but got it snagged after a few casts and lost it! I then tied on the Super Duper. While at Fletcher Lake, Leonard and I caught about four trout with this lure!



Here is one of the little guys we caught and released. We think it was a Brook Trout?

We went to Townsley Lake and continued to cast with the Super Duper and I landed this trout.



Is this a hybrid rainbow-golden trout?

On the light tackle, these trout put up a good fight!

The Super Duper got snagged and was lost.

The following day, we did some fishing at the Lyell Fork. I tied on the Kastmaster with treble hook. After several casts, I got a little too energetic and got it snagged on a tree and lost it!

We were down to our last lure, the Panther Martin spinner. The lure landed six trout and didn't get lost to snags!

I have no idea how to read a stream but I figured I looked for deep pools and cast downstream and retrieved the lure right over the fish. Got several hits this way. I also looked for some fast channels. With my sunglasses on, I noticed some trout darting up the channel I suppose looking for some food floating down. So once again, I cast downstream into the channel and it was amazing to see the trout follow the lure and strike it.

These trout ranged from 5 to 7 inches. The colors on them were vibrant! It was amazing to see the yellow spots and sometimes blue rings around red spots and some had deep orange colored bellies! All good fighters.

Saturday 19 August

We packed up our gear at Fletcher Lake and set out east.

We saw Evelyn Lake and filtered some water there.

Click here for the panorama photo of Evelyn Lake at 10,334 feet.

Besides big lakes and tall mountains, there are colorful flowers to enjoy.



We got to Lyell Canyon where we did some fishing to pass the afternoon which I described above.

For the evening, we enjoyed a campfire as we were below 9600 feet. Fires aren't permitted in higher elevations due to wood scarcity and potential resource damage.



Sunday 20 August

We packed up our stuff and before we took off, I took a few last photos of the waters.



Of course, I had to do a digital panoramic of the Lyell Fork of the Tuolumne River.

Part I
Part II
Part III
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