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(L-R): Mammoth High School Fly Fishing Association ambassadors Freddy, Jacob and Carlos. (Photos: Leonard)

Every weekday morning at 8:45 a.m., 25 young souls stroll into the classroom with the expectation to engage in a meaningful discussion of global learning which could include anything from the comparison of the European exploration of Kenya in the 1400s to that of the 1800s, to a look at the difference of definition of dialect to the meaning of language, to peeling off every layer of the onion of the human cultures which compose Southeast Asia.

It’s my intention for that class to produce global travelers, to give them the taste of international adventure which sank deep in my soul several moons back. So far, I think Freddy is eating it up. He was stoked to learn that a bowl of pork and vegetable soup only costs 20 cents in Hanoi.

These last two weeks, we have moved along from analyzing the lives of the Hmong people living in the Vietnamese highlands, to inspect a country which I have great personal experience with: Italy. “Non si scherza del cibo nel’italia.” What’s that translate to in English? I’ll give you a hint, as I’ve joked with Lorenza Walker, one of the only other Italian-speakers in town, quite often, “Non si scherza della neve a mammoth.” ”Cibo” translates to “food” in English, as “neve” means “snow.”

“Mammoth,” by the way, is intentionally not capitalized because location names don’t take capital letters in Italian. In any event, as we cut through this free-of-charge Italian lesson, you can likely guess towards what I am alluding to, as did everyone one of those scholars correctly did on the quiz last Monday, that, “One doesn’t joke about food in Italy.” And, “One doesn’t joke about snow in Mammoth.” It’s fun stuff, that Geography class.

So, here we are, in Classroom #9, deep in the muddy trenches of Mammoth High, and Freddy and friends are learning about the global impact which the Italian Civilization had on the world during: 1. The Ancient Roman Empire. 2. The Renaissance Period. And, 3: Contemporary Times. After the lesson, right before the end-of-period-bell, he picks up on the announcement made to class that I would take any one of them fly fishing after school if desired.

Two weeks back, we returned to school from Spring Break. Along with the excitement of another glorious round of STAR tests, graduation talk for the Senior Class, and the sweet taste of summer freedom lingering right around the corner, all of these kids heard directly from their teacher that any and all of them were invited to come along for an after-school experience of fly fishing. Yep, fly fishing. It is a far cry from a lesson about Scotland, although we owe it to the Scots for inventing the pastime of fly fishing.

The news of this extracurricular activity rang a bell with seven of my students. They were ready for me after school.

So, eight of us loaded into a school district van on a Thursday, and headed down to Hot Creek for a two-hour unofficial science lesson. I call it a “science lesson” because when I approached the the school administration with the idea for a Fly Fishing Club, I buried his hesitation towards starting it up with the truth that the kids were learning more about nature than just hooking trout. That it was, as it is, after all, a lesson in hydraulics, ichthyology, insects, biology, climate changes, etc. and so on.

Unofficial science lesson: checking the underside of rocks to “match the hatch.”

Freddy, like his six other counterparts, naturally assumed that they were off only to catch trout. Little did they know that they would also be looking under river rocks for bugs in their nymph stage of life, witnessing sparrows feeding off Caddis, and learning of the physics of fly rod casting. Subliminal instruction, we shall call it.

Creekside, I tied a size-16 Beadhead Scud on the rod which Carlos was busily casting. He hooked a trout. He didn’t land it, but he hooked it nonetheless. First time ever. Jacob Port? That kid crushed it. First day ever fly fishing, and he landed both a rainbow and a brown. Size-16 Flashback Pheasant Tail. Good job, Jacob. And then, there is Freddy. On the end of his rod was a size-22 BWO.

Freddy was standing on the shoulder of the creek, his smile bigger than the Eastern Sierra, casting with every hope of landing Moby Dick. Suddenly, from 50 yards away, I hear the breaking of silence with an electrifying scream, “Mr. Leonard! I have a fish!” It’s possible the trout in Twin Lakes heard his scream. It was that loud. I came running up with net in hand, past the other boys, ready to help the scholar of World Geography land his first trout. And, with less than 10 paces to be by his side, I hear the second scream, “Duh-oh!,” that Homer Simpson cry we’ve all heard at Hot Creek. It means, “It … spit … the … hook.” I felt like Freddy’s whole world came crashing apart. But, he looked up at me with a grin twice as big as the one on it moments before. He didn’t catch another trout that day. He was so close.

Friday, the day after … the 8:45 a.m. bell rings. Freddy gets out his notebook as he prepares to engage in a conversation about the regionalism of Italy. But, before I can mention a word, he asks me, “Mr. Leonard, when are we going fishing again?” I responded with a question, “You want to get that trout, don’t you; it’s personal now?” His predictable response: “Yep.” And with a smile, the conversation turned back towards Europe.

The Mammoth High School Fly Fishing Association is at it again, one trout at a time. Tight lines, Freddy. By the way, your homework assignment is to translate into English for me the line, “Non si scherza di pescare a hot creek.”

A more detailed report can be found at http://kittredgesports.com/fishing_report.php. Leonard guides for Kittredge Sports. Call 760.934.7566.

Fishing opener at Convict Lake (Photo: Henschel)

From the outsider’s perspective, fly fishing is a mystifying sport. There is angler, standing thigh-deep with waders in running water, completely oblivious to the world around him or her.

“Why would anyone want to spend all that time simply trying to catch fish?” they ask.

While there are plenty of non-angling folk who perceive it as mundane and humdrum, there exists a small number of spectators who wish to try it out at some point, purely out of curiosity’s sake, but they don’t know which direction to step towards to start.

I do hear from the occasional person who exclaims, “Man, that looks cool!” And, it is. To me, it is a spiritual practice. What whirling dervishes experience in Egyptian mosques, hemp-smoking yogis in Hindu temples, and powder junkies skiing off Chair 22 on a stormy day, I find on moving water. It is so unbelievably absorbing, standing in the river for three-and-a-half hours, naïve to everything else. The only thing you truly think about, is, catching fish. It is my professed religion.

However, it is not my intention in this week’s report to proselytize. I don’t have a strong opinion one way or the other that everyone out there who hasn’t fly fished, needs to cast a rod. Probably better if not, or the rivers would look like the 405 freeway. But, in all fairness to the world, I do believe that the words found here can serve a useful purpose: I wish to clarify ten of the greatest misconceptions about fly fishing. This is one of those “don’t judge it until you try it” lessons. Here listed, running in hierarchical order, as I believe, from the least important to the most extreme, are the ten greatest misconceptions about fly fishing:

10. Trout can “outsmart” an angler. This is about the stupidest thing I have ever heard. We hear that statement from bait, spin, or fly fisher, after getting skunked. “They outsmarted me.” No, they didn’t. Trout have brains the size of a green pea. The angler malfunctioned somewhere along the path of selection of: fishing hole, fly choice, test size, etc. Some guides in town argue about who can put their clients on more trout. That’s like demanding the blue-ribbon for winning the 4th grade spelling bee competition.

9. A fly angler must have a fly box filled with fifty different patterns. Nope. As the late Sherwin Anderson stated in The Curtis Creek Manifesto, “Any crafty angler can catch a trout with a size-16 Hare’s Ear.” Yep. Add an Elk Hair Caddis, Parachute Adams, Woolly Bugger, and Scud to that list, and you will catch plenty of trout. Fly anglers generally just like to overcomplicate the very simple.

8. Small flies only catch small trout, and big flies catch big trout. Very large fish feed on very small insects. Harry Blackburn explained to me a few years back that a large trout is better caught on a tiny size 26 or 28 fly, since the hook is so small that it cannot cut a larger hole in the mouth of the trout thus allowing the fish to spit the hook. Less is more, especially in The Eastside.

7. Don’t talk because you will scare the fish. It is so totally obvious where this one came from. One day, a father took his two boys to the river after work. He was tired, and didn’t want to think at all. So, when his boys started asking him questions, he turned to them and said, “Don’t talk because you will scare the fish.” All he wanted was peace and quiet.

6. Fly fishing is a “sport.” Nordic skiing is a sport. Soccer is a sport. Basketball is a sport. You must break a sweat, in my opinion, for an activity to be actually classified as “sport.” Golf? You didn’t make the cut either.

5. Fly fishing is only for retired white dudes who earn $350,000 annually on their dividend payments alone. Yes, it is true that fly fishing isn’t free. You need gear, and flies retail for generally two bucks a pop. But it’s not expensive, either.

4. All fly anglers practice zero limit. Let’s be realistic here, the term “catch and release” can be better applied in my walk-of-life to refer about former girlfriends, than trout. I throw back about 99% of the trout that I hook, but, I will occasionally eat one, and, enjoy it. I am all in favor of catch and kill if DFG regulations allow. It is the cycle of life. Fly angling generally starts with bait angling.

3. Fly fishing is a waste of time. No, it isn’t. As good friend and resident of Bishop Ron Oriti once told me, “The good lord doesn’t count time in field and stream against you.” So, it is not a “waste” of time, it is all “free” time that is tacked on the other side in the end. You have to experience to understand.

2. If I fly fish, I will save money on meat. Holy cow. I spent a grand alone on my gun safe alone which houses fifteen firearms which are in the garage because I once said the same thing about duck hunting. How many fly rods do I have? Not enough, maybe twenty. As another good friend who lives in Bishop, Bob Wallace, once told me, “You can accessorize yourself to bankruptcy fly fishing.” I’m not there yet, but have worked hard trying to get there. I have an Orvis Visa Card, and a Cabela’s Visa Card.

And, that brings us to our last, and greatest, misconception about fly fishing: 1. It’s relaxing. No, it isn’t!!! Inside the mind of every fly angler is the hysteria of thousands of questions one asks oneself in three minutes alone: “Is my fly the right size???!!!” “Is that toad I hooked yesterday in the same hole today???!!!” “Why is my 5X tippet constantly breaking???!!!” “If I reach the rod enough with the forward cast, can I get just enough slack to create a two-second delay before the current takes the line downstream???!!!” If you think fly fishing is relaxing, you haven’t tried it. It is sadistically nerve-racking and can send anyone to the loony bin.

Hence, that mostly concludes our “fish report” this week. What do I have to report of practical applications?

Hot Creek is fishing very well. Usual tiny nymph patterns. Scuds are taking trout. BWO’s. Even the occasional terrestrial. The Upper Owens is murky and brown. A sink line with a streamer will hook trout though. Rush Creek? Parachute Adams. On Rock Creek, toss Royal Coachmen.  The word on Crowley from opener is that Whiskey Creek is the place to be. Go forth, and spread the truth!

A more detailed report can be found at http://kittredgesports.com/fishing_report.php. Leonard guides for Kittredge Sports. Call 760.934.7566.

The author and his catch

I’ve told the story three hundred times. Only because I’ve been asked as much. It’s the answer to a question doled out over small talk while standing creekside in muddy wading boots, the trademark inquiry one angler asks the next, “So, what got ya into fly fishin’?” We all have that story to tell. Mine? It’s a fun fish tale to share, and an appropriate one for the inaugural 2012 Sheet fish report.

I moved to Mammoth in August 2004. The tipping point in my decision? Chair 23.

All I knew about Mammoth before getting hired by the school district was that the skiing and riding just rips. The winter prior, I had friends from Switzerland out visiting California. We had seven days of incredible riding that winter of 2003/2004.

I was only returning a favor. I had lived in Europe and rode the Alps, so it was only appropriate I play the host to my European copmrades and return the favor. Doubtless, they flew back across the Atlantic towards home, after an ecstatic few days, in absolute disbelief, of the quality of skiing in a state better known for blockbuster Hollywood productions, and sandy toes with surf, than knee-deep powder. California glissade snowboarding at its best. Yep, we all know how good the skiing truly is here.

’04-’05 was my first year as a resident, and led to a 500% increase in number of ski days per season. And, yes, I got plenty of laps in on Chair 23. So, come that April of ‘05, I asked myself, “Now what?

I counted the fishing outfitters in town, took note of fishing guides, glanced at the Inyo National Forest Map with a shocking alarm of the number of high country lakes and mountain streams in the area, and I was quickly hit with the epiphany that the number of trout in this region clearly outnumbers the human population, by the millions. Not having cast a fishing rod since middle school years, I began bait and spin fishing again, and became immediately drugged with the sensation which the human body feels standing next to a moving water for three or four hours. Every afternoon, after school, I would beeline it down to Warm Springs in Bishop with telescoping bait rod, canister of Powerbait, hip waders, polarized sunglasses, and the goodhearted intension of feeling the sunlight reflect directly off the rippling water, feeding my skin with Vitamin D, therapeutically calming every nerve in the body, as I listened to the constant sound of water running over rock bed as it heads downstream. At the time, I was killing trout every excursion, eating fresh baked fish for dinner nightly. I will never forget one Period Four AVID class when students Mara and Sarai looked up at me, when I was delivering some academic assistance of sorts, and one of the girls said, “Eeeewww. Mr. Leonard, you smell like fish.” I did. My loving mother hinted to me that I should change jeans between fishing and teaching. Advice I have yet to put into actual practice.

One afternoon on the water in Bishop, a mallard landed at my feet. I looked at the two trout on the stringer in the water, glanced at the bird on water, looked again at the trout in the river, and then decided I was going to duck hunt the next season. Coming from an anti-NRA family, I got plenty of blank looks from other family members when I announced that I was going to get a shotgun and start blasting innocent birds. That first hunting season was great.

So another winter came and went, this one filled with face shots off Drop Out and widgeon folding mid-flight above the river after filling them with steel shot. Hence, the natural transition from spin fishing to duck hunting to fly fishing took its course. Truth is, fly fishing has more in common with duck hunting than it does with spin or bait fishing, since fly fishing is essentially “hunting” trout. You aren’t  standing on the corner of a creek pumping holding waters full of size-2 steel shot from the Remington pump action (though this thought has sickly crossed my mind), but you are presenting trout with a decoy species of a natural food source, hoping they hit. It is what a duck slayer would call, “Dec(oy) ‘em in.”  I’m gonna call it “cross-season training.” One thing led to another. The jump to start fly fishing was such a large leap, I began taking the local youth out with me after school, and with the help of a dozen guides in town, I learned the ropes of fly fishing.

That brings us to today. This Saturday is Fishmas 2012. If my math is correct, this begins my seventh (maybe eighth?) season of fly fishing, with a hopeful fifty to go still. That’s a lot of trout beached and released since the day that mallard landed at my feet.

For you fly anglers, Hot Creek has been fishing very, very well. Tiny nymph patterns are your best bet. Run size-22 or 24 WD-40’s or Flashback PT’s through holding waters. For dries, continue to go small. BWO’s, Parachute Adams, E.C. Caddis. The Lower Owens has been on fire when the air temps are warm, and the wind is low. “Migrating Caddis,” is the talk of those lucky enough to be there when the bite is turned on. The East Walker has been crazy fun all winter, and it is only going to get better.

Spin and bait anglers, be thankful. There are hundreds of thousands of hungry trout in Crowley Lake waiting for your worms. Better than that, weather looks very promising for the weekend, and it is going to be a glorious opener on Crowley. One of the few when it doesn’t snow. Grant Lake is another stillwater which I’m willing to bet is worth hitting this weekend. For that matter, any of the lakes in The June Lake Loop. Lots of trout in those waters. On the moving waters, go with Salmon Eggs. Mammoth Creek in our part of Mono County, Rush Creek in June Lake.

Hence, we are off and running with the start of another fishing season. It’s going to be a great one.

A more detailed report can be found at http://kittredgesports.com/fishing_report.php. Leonard guides for Kittredge Sports. Call 760.934.7566.

Only a few short weeks until the 2012 Fishing Opener.

George Westbrook of Newberry Park caught this 2 pound 10 ounce rainbow using YUM dough bait. (Submitted Photo)

Each autumn the shoulder season arrives as a mixed blessing; on the one hand, locals get the town and county back to themselves, but on the other, lack of tourist revenue creates a gauntlet local businesses must run annually from Labor Day to Thanksgiving.

This year Mammoth Lakes Tourism Executive Director John Urdi and the Eastern Sierra Fishing Coalition have come together to find a solution to that problem: a “Second Summer Fishing Derby” running from Sept. 6 to Nov. 15. The Derby is sponsored by Mammoth Lakes Tourism and Mono County Tourism in conjunction with Western Outdoor News, which ran a major supplement in its paper, and Ronnie Kovach’s Fishing Adventures Radio show on KLAA 830 in Los Angeles and his television show on Fox Sports West. Mammoth Lakes Tourism and Mono County Tourism have pooled a total of $10,000 to make the event happen in the hopes that it will drive business during a typically slow period of the year.

Participating lakes in the Derby include Convict Lake Resort, Crowley Lake Fish Camp, Walker Country Store (West Walker River), Bridgeport Reservoir, Sliver Lakes Resort, June Lake Marina, Grant Lake Marina, and Lake Mary Marina. On Sept. 6, three specifically tagged 2lbs + trout, paid for by PRADCO Fishing, were planted in each of the lakes, as well as an additional 20 tagged trout of various sizes. If caught, these fish qualify the fisherman for an instant win prize and a raffle ticket for up to a $500 shopping spree at Lurenet.com.

Instant win prizes include an Okuma rod and reel combo, BOOYAH “Flipsta” casting games, a 1 year subscription to Western Outdoor Magazine, $250 Gift Cards to Sport Chalet, Seaguar Flourocarbon, Panther Martin Lures, Wiley X Sunglasses, Global Fish Mounts, Sea Eagle Inflatable Boats, Thomas Bouyant, Lowrance Electronics, FoodSaver, Yakima Rooster Tails, lures, tackle boxes, and gift certificates from local retailers.

The grand prize by raffle is a fully rigged 14’ Gregor boat with a 15hp Mercury Motor and an EZ Load Trailer.

Andrew Jones, co-owner and operator of Silver Lake Resort, said so far the investment in a “Second Summer” is paying off. “We’ve had more responses to this fishing contest than any other we’ve participated in,” he said. “There hasn’t been a day go by that someone hasn’t called to ask about the contest.” He also reported reservations made by guests specifically to come up and participate in the contest. “I would participate in this contest again in the future,” he said.

Lake Mary Marina owner Don Barrett was more cautious in his assessment of the benefits of the Derby. “To be honest, it’s hard to tell if it’s helped business,” he said. “It may have improved slightly.” Business is up at the Marina by at least 5% this Sept., after a summer with less business than last year, “so it could have to do with the contest,” he said. But Barrett also explained that in his opinion “usually the first year of this type of derby, people are just catching on. It takes about three to five years to see results.” Either way, the Derby is “definitely a step in the right direction” for Mammoth, which Barrett thought hasn’t done as good a job as Convict and Crowley at establishing derbies thus far.

Once the Derby has wrapped, Urdi said he plans to measure the overall success by the number of tagged fish caught and the response from people to the marinas and tackle shops.

The Conway Ranch survey discussed in The Sheet’s recent article “Floating in limbo” is now available online. Check out the survey to learn more about local fishing and to lend your voice to the sport’s future in Mono County. Survey results will be presented to the Mono County Board of Supervisors.

Survey participants will be entered into a drawing to win one complimentary Trophy Float Tube session at Conway Ranch. Simply click here to check out the survey.

There is no turning back … Dan Molnar’s got a fishing problem. (Photo: Leonard)

There’s a bumper sticker somewhere out there which reads, “I’m a drinker with a fishing problem.” It’s obviously a play on words, a joke on oneself, an angler who admittedly drinks way too much, but isn’t quite at the stage of life to face the drinking problem head on. Unsurprisingly, there are a few in these parts. I used to be one myself.

In short, without going into any major personal detail and throwing all of the skeletons out of my closet, I can definitely say I have a “fishing problem.” Dang, I’m proud of it nonetheless. As for the coldies on or off the creek, I used to be a heavy drinker, somewhat of an understatement, but I wised up August 9, 2009, and came to my senses.

I realized I’d be better off if I rid myself forever of hangovers, risk of DUI, being 50 pounds overweight, and so on. Happily, I kicked the habit. I don’t miss it a bit.

But fishing? That’s different. Yes, folks, my name is Chris Leonard … and  I have a fishing problem.

Other fisher folk: “Hi, Chris.”

With those cards thrown out on the table, I probably have the best career in town since there is no better way for an addicted angler to calm one’s obsession in the summer in the Eastern Sierra than to be a high school teacher with two months off to bang at some large bows and trophy browns. The beauty of it is, since I’m not waking up hungover anymore, I’ve got a lot of free time to clearly cast flies, which allows me to share this passion with a few good folks who come along with me.

Last winter, I developed a strong friendship with Denise Domaille Molnar. The two of us have known each other since I moved to town seven years ago, but we spent more time chatting and getting to know each other while coaching alpine athletes on the mountain.

Denise served in the Peace Corps, like I did, though she lived in a mud hut in Africa instead of a communist bloc building in Eastern Europe. Denise is also my competition this Saturday in the June Lake Triathlon; we ride a bit together. She also serves up the best fresh mango tacos in the world at the Whoa Nellie Deli. And she’s married to a really cool guy: Dan. Until this past Wednesday, I didn’t know Dan all that well, other than hearing some secondhand stories of backcountry skiing experiences all over the Sierra.

Next winter, I’m cutting down my Mighty Mites coaching commitment to every other weekend, namely so I can truly begin to explore the life of a backcountry ski bum. Trout bum? Ski bum? It’s really all one of the same. So, I have reason to get to know Dan as well as Denise.

Hence, when Dan sent me a random message on Facebook last Tuesday asking me if I’d take him fishing on Wednesday, there was only one obvious response. Here we are in a situation where a trout bum who wants to become a backcountry ski bum wants to make a backcountry ski bum into a trout bum, and a backcountry ski bum is well aware that the potential to become a summertime trout bum is all too possible. It’s poetic.

Wednesday, Dan and I headed down to Hot Creek. No surprise … the waters were flowing at around 200 cubic feet per second, and we were doing little more than practicing casting for an hour. Rivers are and will continue to be hard and heavy for a couple more weeks still. Joined by my good friend and very experienced fly angler Chris Meyers, none of us were catching a dang thing.

I told Dan we were off to another creek. Chris elected to pass and bail for home. I cannot mention the name of this creek in this publication, or the guides in town will run me out of here with hatchets and handguns, but I can say that it was a wise decision to make. What happened on this creek-that-has-no-name?

For three-and-a-half hours we caught fish. Just the two of us out there in the middle of the day in the middle

in the middle of a meadow with water and grasshoppers everywhere. Dan got on a few trout. I showed him a hole just stacked with fish. Man, did we have fun. The flies of choice were grasshopper patterns, but any big dry fly seemed to work fine, as trout found more off the beaten path are less selective.

Suffice to say we did well.

I didn’t need to ask Dan back at the truck after fishing if he is feeling the trout bum character creep on. He said to me, “I gotta be careful not to let this become addicting or I will rock climb less.”

I laughed, personally understanding the balance of addictions. I have wisely and craftily chosen which addictions will and will not control my life. All I asked Dan was, “What did you learn today about fly fishing?” Fumbling with his rod, he responded with frustration, “I learned that I can’t get my rod apart!”

The innocence of a learning fly angler is rich. I chimed quietly that the graphite rod heats up during the day and the connecting pieces expand, and simply rifling the rod apart will do the trick. It did. I also know that he learned more than he could answer in one sentence. It was a great day.

Dan is going to return the favor to me in mid-February while I’m lost in confusion in what is apparently obvious to everyone else while standing on a snow-covered alpine peak about to descend fresh powder above the rivers in which we fish.

It’s why we live here, how we operate in these parts, and why we fish; at least it’s why I fish. We have fun together.

Last week, in five hours, I made possible the potential of a trout bum addiction setting into yet another Mammoth local.

Dan, I’m sorry, you’re done and there is no turning back at this point. More so, ‘cause I know your wife is out to out-fish you, as well as she is out to beat me in the triathlon today. You will have that bumper sticker which reads, “I’m a backcountry ski bum with a fishing problem.”

Then again, better order two … one for my truck, also.

A more detailed report can be found at http://kittredgesports.com/fishing_report.php. Leonard guides for Kittredge Sports. Call 760.934.7566.

There’s no place better than June Lake, our very own European-style Eastside fishing treasure

Summer. Ah, it’s finally arrived. The aspens are waking up and coming alive with green, swallows are busily constructing their mud dwellings and we’ve all dug out those sandals, which were buried in the back of the closet for months on end. It’s June, and there are few places better to enjoy it than June Lake, Calif.

“Little Switzerland” is a treasure of a place in the Eastside. Whether you are breaking a sweat with the dog while hiking up the trailhead to Parker Lake — one of my favorite short hikes around these parts — or simply killing a pint of Golden Trout at the Tiger Bar, June Lake merits a few hours this weekend.

Angling on the lakes throughout the Loop is turning on. The warming temperatures are waking up the fish all around here, as we see a more active trout going after bait, lure and fly alike. The kids have finished school for the year, and get to sleep in every day, as the trout calculate that it’s that time of year to get up a bit earlier.

Speaking of which, my lucky fishing hat goes off to the fantastic graduating class of 2011 at Mammoth High School. What a great group of young adults … at least a few of them are also a great group of young fisherfolk, too! I will miss them dearly and wish them all the best of luck … and tight lines in future days.

Reports on Gull Lake and June Lake are that bait anglers are whacking them with Powerbait in Chartreuse or Rainbow. Trolling Needlefish, Thomas Bouyants, and Taz Devils with four or five colors are working well. A five-pounder reportedly came out of Gull last week. My guess: it won’t be long until we hear of a double-digit pounder, wall-mountable trophy trout taking the bait at Gull. If you’re the lucky one to catch it, you owe your friends fish tacos with fresh mango at the Whoa Nellie Deli just up U.S. 395. As for fly anglers looking for “The Big One,” strip Green Krystal Flash Woolly Buggers. There are trout all over the place at Gull. At June, try the reeds near the marina or at the swim beach.

Silver Lake is chock full of trout, and a great place to kick a float tube around. Arguably, it’s also equally as good a place to get breakfast. Trust me, you’d do well to consider starting your fishing day with some biscuits and gravy at Silver Lake Resort.

Troll with Rapalas or Thomas Bouyants. The one-and-only Rainbow TB pattern will work wonders. Fly anglers stripping Olive Matukas are likely to get hits. Water temps are still a bit cold, so put your neoprene waders on. Breathable wear will leave you shivering in no time and isn’t recommended. Kick around on the far end and admire the majesty of the surrounding mountains.

Water levels at Grant Lake are back at full levels. It is a beautiful lake to look across, whether you are angling, road biking, or road touring. Those souls wishing to catch dinner should dunk nightcrawlers at either the inlet or outlet. Fly anglers stripping an Egg-sucking Leech where Rush Creek flows into the stillwater fishery will do well.

Rush Creek, in my opinion, is one of the greatest fishing fun spots on the Eastside, right up there with Hot Creek and the East Walker River for fly anglers. It’s a pretty special place to me, and a little sentimental … it’s where I taught myself to fly fish six years ago. I love it.

Fly anglers looking to get away from it all can get into some healthy trout below Grant Lake. Tossing Parachute Adams, Royal Wulffs and Royal Coachmen will get surface hits. Little Elk Hair Caddis Patterns will also work.

The sagebrush hasn’t exploded yet, so manipulating around the creek is still fairly easy. Look for the calmer pocket waters and stalk your prey. Between the lakes, run Worm patterns below a Hare’s Ear or Zug Bug. Stripping streamers in the faster moving currents will also produce large rewards.

If you look to fish a bit closer to Mammoth, Hot Creek is still fishable though the water levels are noticeably rising. A cup of java and chow at Stellar Brew, three hours of tossing Scuds and Zug Bugs at Hot Creek, then lunch at Giovanni’s … makes for a great day.

Perhaps the grandest thing about this part of the world is that you can start your day in Mammoth, end it in June Lake, ask yourself which locale is better, and never really come to an answer to that question.

But who cares? It’s June … school’s out. No more pop quizzes. Enough test questions. Time to just fish … and fish … and fish.

A more detailed report can be found at http://kittredgesports.com/fishing_report.php. Leonard guides for Kittredge Sports. Call 760.934.7566.

By Chris Leonard

At this time each year, I have my English Language Learners research on the Internet about Mule Days. There are two hopes to this lesson:  The first is that the students learn a bit about the traditions and history of Memorial Day Weekend on the Eastside. The second, that they actually turn off the Playstation 3 and get out of the house and head down to the Fairgrounds to partake in some entertainment the old fashioned way: socializing outside. There seems to be some success to this lesson, as every year a few of the students come back to school on Tuesday with a couple of stories of what they enjoyed, or not, at the event.

Last week, on the Mule Days website I learned how the celebration has continued because “the outfitters and packers of the region wanted an event to start off the packing season.” In a somewhat cynical manner, like everyone else around here, I wondered, “What packing season with 650 inches of snow?”

Theoretically-speaking, Mule Days is the marking of the change of the seasons, as we roll from winter, into our two-week spring in Mammoth, along into summer.  I think though, in a conspiracy theorist way, that MMSA CEO Rusty Gregory has a deal worked out with the guy upstairs. He offers the Big Cheese a 15% holding in the company if we can just roll one winter into the next. This works well for both shareholders, as the CEO of the ski area will save tons of bucks on snowmaking, and the dude whose painting is found on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel gets

a penthouse suite in The Village, right above Lakanuki. How does this connect to Mule Days? Simple.

This year, I vote that we scratch the 20-Mule Team led by Bob Tanner as the Grand Marshall and replace it with Glen Plake heading up the 20-Mule Bobsled Team. We don’t need to re-create Mule Days for a high-country packing season that will foreseeably never open this summer; we just need to reshape it. We’ll toss “Chariot Racing” as an event, and replace it with “Park Rat Racing.” In this event, snowboarders tie a 50-foot rope to the back of a mule, and the athletes race around a snow-covered Eastern Sierra field.

I always love “Mutton Bustin’.” Watching 5-year olds sporting Kevlar vests holding onto a sheep for dear life as it sprints across the dirt is just classic. This year, we simply move to higher grounds, and put the young ones on bighorn sheep. We start at the top of Dade Couloir, and the first junior to reach the bottom wins!

As for the fishing, as I am reminded by Lunch that my “fish reports” have to occasionally have at least a little bit of information about actual “fishing,” so here goes …

I continue to spend a lot of hours throughout the week at Hot Creek. With the colder temps still prevailing, the major snow runoff has not yet hit, and the fishing is surprisingly very good. Even with the colder temperatures, it seems that the trout are getting anxious and biting more each day. Last Tuesday at the Creek, I felt colder than when I’m shooting ducks in the dead of winter, but I nailed tons of trout. BWO Emergers are red hot right now. Micro Midges. Scuds. PT’s. Any of these nymphs will work just fine. I haven’t been doing much dry fly fishing, as personally I’m down at Hot Creek in the afternoons when it is slower, but I do understand that morning dry action is somewhat decent. BWO’s seem to be the ticket. As for a different moving water fishery for fly anglers, I understand The East Walker is fishing well right now. The same patterns at Hot Creek should work in the North County as well.

For the bait anglers, kids at the high school are telling me that trout are being caught in Mammoth Creek. Powerbait and Salmon Eggs. I understand that Convict Lake and Crowley Lake are waking up a bit, and the trout bite is picking up on these aforementioned fisheries. For those of you who simply can’t get enough winter in your life, the ice fishing up at the Lakes Basin is decent. I took the dog to Lower Twin two weeks ago and dunked Powerbait. No hits, but if I managed to click into my skate skis and get some exercise out of the process, heading further up the road with my ice bit and drill, I would have likely fared better.

I’m gonna talk to Bob Tanner this weekend, see if I can’t hustle myself one of his twenty jackasses. It’d be super cool if I could ride one of those up to the high country lakes to ice fish through Labor Day Weekend. That’s kind of the “summer” I think we all envision having.

A more detailed report can be found at http://kittredgesports.com/fishing_report.php. Leonard guides for Kittredge Sports. Call 760.934.7566.

A few of the fishermen of Manzanar’s decendents: MHS Fly Fishing Association’s Manny Ramirez (left), Gregory Oliver (center) and Ethan Ramsey at Hot Creek this week.

Friday, March 11. You’re a sophomore at Mammoth High School. The 12:35 p.m. bell rang 15 minutes ago, and you find yourself in World History Class. You review your notes about Dec. 7, 1941, our country’s “Day of Infamy.” Your group partners peruse their notes on September 11, 2001. The assignment: compare the two events. Mr. Leonard wants a comprehensive final project including identifying potential motivating factors which led up to the respective attacks, and an outline of consequences and reactions of the events which shattered and forever changed life in America. It’s a full-on immersion in World War II and how it compares to the present-day “War on Terror.” One thing’s for sure … before long, you know more about Emperor Hirohito than you ever imagined.

Friday, April 30. You are Mr. Leonard. It’s 8 p.m., and you’ve found yourself at Whiskey Creek in Bishop for a Fishmas Eve dinner hosted by the Bishop Chamber of Commerce. You are representing The Sheet at the industry event. There are many familiar faces. Tim Alpers is there, as is Sean Turner, assuring that everyone’s pint glass stays full, and the folks from Hot Creek Hatchery. Conversing with reps from Berkley Fishing and Western Outdoor News, there’s no mention of Stalin or Hitler. Little do you realize, you are about to learn a lesson about one major consequence of Pearl Harbor. The lesson has its roots right here in the Eastern Sierra, and involves the two middle-aged Japanese-American fellows at the table next to you: Cory Shiozaki and Richard Imamura. You don’t know these two gentlemen yet, but after listening to them, you wish that you did seven weeks back, so you could share their stories with your World History students.

Shiozaki is the producer of “The Manzanar Fishing Club,” a feature-length documentary that was written by Imamura. The two were invited that evening to present a short preview of the film, whiich is scheduled for release this coming September. Its story is simply riveting. There was no formal “fishing club” at Manzanar, but the tale is one rich with the history of angling in the Eastern Sierra.

Shiozaki asked everyone in attendance why it is that the Eastern Sierra draws such a large number of Japanese-Americans every summer. A fantastic question. For those of us who spend enough time on the water around here, it’s evident that the fishing community has a strong representation amongst Japanese-Americans.

As Shiozaki pointed out, fishing has always been present in the Japanese community, long before immigrants came from the island-nation to the shores of California. But the inspiration for the film came about six years ago when the producer asked himself, “Why the Eastern Sierra? Why do so many Japanese-Americans fish in the Eastern Sierra?”

It all started when 353 Japanese fighters approached Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941.

We all are, or at least should be, familiar with the history of Manzanar, one of America’s self-inflicted political black eyes. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, there came an immediate backlash reaction against 120,000 innocent Japanese-Americans who were immediately deemed as enemies of the state, rounded up and sent to “internment” camps to wait out the war.

It was arguably as much of a crime in this country to be of Japanese blood, as it was throughout Europe to be Semitic. Being sent to a camp in the U.S. wasn’t as life-threatening as in Europe, but there was fear of being shot and killed if an internee came too close to the barbed wire fence. Nonetheless, about 350–400 Japanese prisoners interned at Manzanar tested the boundaries of their rifle-enforced encampment, and managed to escape into the local mountains for a few hours, sometimes even days at a time, to feel the freedom found exclusively in the form of fishing.

The film tells the incredible, true tale of what several internees did at risk of life and limb. Imamura interviewed several internees, who recalled climbing under barbed wire fences and sneaking out of camp in the middle of the night, dodging the tower searchlights and risking being shot. The prisoners-turned-anglers disappeared into the mountains for a brief spell to catch rainbows and goldens with fish line, hooks and worms dug from the ground, all tied onto a willow.

Under the harshest conditions, hundreds of Japanese internees fell in love with fishing in the Eastern Sierra. They passed that passion along to their offspring, who in turn again passed it along to theirs. There is a very deep and rich fishing history here which has led to events such as the Shogun Fishing Derby, which uses much of the same worms that camp prisoners found in the soil next to Independence Creek during World War Two.

This story is a testament to the human soul’s ability to rise above the terrors and turmoil of war, and find sanity and serenity by a stream, simply by spotting a trout and catching it. These prisoners weren’t fishing for food. Oh, they ate what they caught, but they were after something else as they dipped line in Independence Creek: the taste of freedom.

A couple of my World History students learned a bit more than just history this last week. Both Tuesday and Thursday, the Mammoth High School Fly Fishing Association kicked off its first week with some fantastic angling. The group explored the waters of Hot Creek and did fairly well, beaching and releasing some pretty healthy trout. Waters at Hot Creek are still pretty clear, and the fishing is constantly good. You can run small, black PTs and Midges through the currents to get hits. The trout are also taking WD-40s. There is some surface action going on now. Callibaetis and BWOs are getting strikes.

Crowley is still a bit slow, but definitely not shut off. Water temps throughout the Eastern Sierra are about five degrees cooler now than they were this time last year; hence the metabolism of trout is still coming up. You can catch trout out of Sandy Point using Red Barons and Midge Patterns. The fish still seem to be scattered everywhere, so be patient. I fished the East Walker a week ago, and it is still pretty slow right now. Running streamers through the pools is your best bet.

Whether you catch fish or not, reflect upon the freedom you have to be on the water.

Check www.fearnotrout.com for more insight on The Manzanar Fishing Club. A more detailed report can be found at http://kittredgesports.com/fishing_report.php. Leonard guides for Kittredge Sports. Call 760.934.7566.