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A Pair Of Lunkers - Another successful trip for angler Vince McGuiness

As a family, we were in Mammoth Lakes California a year ago and chanced upon the Million Dollar Trout Stock, a fund raising fishing tournament for the critical Hot Creek Fish Hatchery. Our oldest children were hooked from the first day. As a fly fisherman, trained in the free stone streams of Idaho, I was not a big lake fisherman and I knew even less about bait and spin fishing for trout in lakes. But we gave the inaugural tournament a strong effort. After a great educational weekend, fishing, learning, then catching; we all became excited about fishing the Mammoth Lakes basin and participating in the great cause—supporting one of the critical fish hatcheries in the Eastern Sierras. We left the tournament without a tagged fish, but the folks with Lip Ripperz had taught us about “trout worms”, the folks at Rick’s Sporting Goods had told us about fishing the lakes in the local area and some friends turned us on to the fun of renting a boat from Barrett’s Marina on Lake Mary—especially the fun for the whole family (all six of us) on a pontoon boat. We were determined to once again return for the next chance at a million dollar trout.

This year we returned for our last two weeks of summer to hike, bike, swim, and play in the High Sierras. But for our oldest son, Nick (age 11), it was to prepare for the 2006 Million Dollar Trout Stock fishing tournament. Together we began to scout out the lakes and try to find some new honey holes for our days of fishing the tournament. Although the tournament expanded to include 19 lakes this year, we decided it would be best to focus on a single lake and find the cut edges, hidden boulders and deep holes near which we could picture tagged trout.. Our selection was Lake George. Ron Kluth and the other staff members at Lake George set us up with a nice little rental boat. (As a dad with young children, fishing from a boat removes many of the opportunities for tangling with the trees and bushes on shore. It gives me back my own time for some fishing. Note, I did not say it eliminates those tangles, but it does significantly reduce them. The boat also makes it easy to pack up and move as the sun and wind changes through out a day on the lake.) Lake George is smaller than some of the other lakes and we had found it quieter than the other lakes in the basin during the days before the tournament. We thought it was a perfect set up for us. We had new tactics and strategies, we had live bait, power bait, and our newest bait to try –trout worms--both Lip Ripperz and Berkley Power Worms. We had a supply in several colors. Big Dave at Ricks had educated us a little more on terminal tackle set ups and locations to try. We set up on Lake George for the first time the week before the tournament started.

It was August 26th, a beautiful High Sierra morning. The sun was rising and we found our way to the back of Lake George, we had friends with us, three boats total and a lot of children. Our son Nick and daughter Kennedy were with me as we pulled up and dropped anchor on a transitional shelf near one of the lake’s inlets. Nick chose the orange and white Lip Ripperz worm, once rigged, he cast to a deep hole and hooked up right away. It was a good omen; a trout on the first cast is always a nice way to start the morning. The other boats were not having the same success. The power bait, although easier to rig and fish with young children was not attracting the fish on this morning. Nick continued to work is rubber worms, trying different return actions, jigging, fast retrieves slow retrieves, etc. When POW!! Nick hit upon another species of fish, or so he thought. He was using an ultra slow retrieve when he hooked up. It was not an outrageous fight. The fishing was not stripping line, just moving slowly, almost as though it did not know it was hooked. The light four pound set up Nick was using did not have the leverage to move the fish much. Happily it was making its way towards the boat, in just a few moments the fish was close enough to make a quick dip with our net and the fish was landed—a 7.25 lb rainbow trout, not a different species, but definitely in a different class. I was with my two oldest children, on a beautiful lake, the sun was warming the high mountain air, and our son had just landed a trout close to three times larger than any trout I had ever landed in 25 years of fly fishing. Nick made the cast, worked his bait, set the hook and landed his first lunker. We had a great morning on the lake, we felt we knew some special holes, caught more than a few fish, and possessed a growing confidence in trying new tactics for trout. To top it all off Nick landed a Lunker—7.25 pounds worth. A special fish to take home to Mom, a trout I would fillet rather than clean. I had not thought about it before, but in all my years in preparing fish for the supper table, up until this point I had never filleted a trout.

We did not fish each day prior to the tournament, but we fished enough to learn more about Lake George and believed we knew we had some holes ready to fish during the tournament, and we had two different Lip Ripperz that seemed to be working on a consistent basis. Finally the tournament had arrived. Both Nick and Kennedy were excited to fish the tournament again and participate in some of the extra activities planned by the tournament staff. They were more inquisitive this year about the Hatchery and its importance. We even decided to make a visit and a self guided tour of the Hatchery just south of Mammoth. My daughter Kennedy, the creature keeper in our family was interested to find out how much they sold the fish eggs for, and if the public could buy some and raise trout, after all, if she could raise tad poles into frogs she was certain she could raise fish.

The first day of the tournament finished with some nice fish released, but no tags. We did not even see any fish that were tagged. But what we did notice was the dramatic change in fishing pressure. All the rental boats were out on the lake with fisherman, the shore seemed to be alive with fisherman in every open piece of shoreline. The good news, the tournament was doing well, 25% more fisherman had entered the contest from the prior year. The bad news, although nineteen lakes were in the tournament this year, many fisherman had opted for the Mammoth Lakes basin. Crowds and pressure do not get me excited, but it was great to see the number of families (with multiple generations) fishing.

From my years of fly fishing, I had enough experience to know that the pressure was going to make the remaining days tough. Lots of lines in the water meant the fish would be spooked, frightened and tough to catch. I explained the situation to Nick, but he was up for the challenge. We had scouted the Mammoth Lakes basin, and we were unfamiliar with the other 14 lakes in the tournament. Of the five lakes in Mammoth, we now knew Lake George best. It was our decision to fish Lake George for the remainder of the tournament with the knowledge it would be tough. Nick and I decided to fish only the optimal times of the day based on our experience in the previous days—the early to mid morning. At about 10:00 am on September 3rd we had only released one or two fish, not a great start for our second day, our expectations were being met, it was a tough day. Nick began to focus on a cut bank a simple casting distance from our boat. However, the overhanging trees made it a challenge for Nick. He lost his last orange and White rubber worm. A solid orange would have to do. He continued to cast towards the bank, working his retrieves several different ways in each targeted location. Once again on a slow retrieve, his worm stuck and his rod bent deep. Then his line began to move away from the bank, I could see a monster sized shape move from the shadows into the sun. This fish was bigger than the other caught a week earlier. Again, the fish did not react as I had expected. It swam strong and moved at will away from Nick’s pressure, but again it was not stripping line. Like the other, I thought it might be a relatively quick fight. I grabbed the net and once again prepared myself as deck hand for my 11 year old son. The fish neared the boat, then it happened—ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! It saw the boat, and the light weight set up was not going to stop it. To make it worse, we were not only worried about losing a big fish, but we had not been able to confirm if it was or was not one of the tournament’s 500 tagged trout. For all we knew we had a chance at a giant fish and a million dollars. Nick’s poise was amazing. From our salt water fishing experience, Nick knew he needed patience. He allowed the fish to run while he used the rod tip to maintain pressure. When the fish slowed he began working the rod tip up, and winding down. He began to replace line on the spool, but to no avail. Several times he built the line up on the spool, and the fish would again strip it out. As his dad, I was proud, excited, and nervous. I had worked hard to expose Nick to fishing in a way I thought he would enjoy it most. To be honest, I would look for low pressure, hot bite situations. Today we had crossed over to a new realm. Nick was on his own, enjoying tough fishing conditions and fighting a great fish. I smiled, watched, and relaxed. I realized for the first time that our son was out fishing me. He was rigging his own equipment, untangling most of his own snags, identifying his target holes, casting his line and hooking monster fish. I was a proud and happy father, I have a new fishing partner after all, one that has as much or more determination than myself. While I was being the proud father, Nick was gaining ground on his fish. Once again I was the deck hand assisting the fisherman. Once netted, we knew we had a special and beautiful fish, but we also knew there was no tag. The fine condition of the fins and tail indicated that the fish had probably been in the lake much longer than four days. We now had a decision to make—release the fish or keep it. Nick had learned throughout our fishing experiences the importance of catch and release fishing--especially with wild fish, or fish we were unable to eat. But we had also both learned that the joy of fishing in the Sierra’s was greatly enhanced by the keepers of the State Hatcheries and men like Tim Alpers and his private hatchery. Hatcheries that allowed us the pleasure of taking a few trophies home to show mom and the enjoyment of a young child able to feed his or her family.

The fishing pressure can be great at times—especially in lakes like the Mammoth lakes basin. But the pressure is great, because it is a true and awesome wonder to take children fishing. But we can place too much pressure on these fisheries and significantly diminish the fishability of these waters. I believe every boy and girl should have a chance to try there hand at fishing. They should be able to decide from first hand experience whether or not they enjoy the challenge and satisfaction to succeed in catching fish. But with out the state hatcheries like the one at Hot Creek, future generations may not have the chance to enjoy great fishing. Nick, Kennedy, and I had a blast fishing in Mammoth this year and hope to return again next year for the Million Dollar Trout Stock, who knows perhaps we will even get a tag. This year was Nick’s year with a pair of Lunkers to his credit, but I am sure it was a great event for all the fisherman and fisher women. The weather was fantastic, the setting is gorgeous, the extra events are family friendly and the memories will last forever. And now I know I have a new fishing partner and perhaps a few more in the making.