Fish & Trail Report

9-12-22

Bishop Creek Canyon

 

Labor Day has Come & Gone, Hike & Fish & Party On!

 

What a killer start we’ve had to September!!! It started it off with a bang as the folks visiting for Labor Day weekend gave us one more taste of summer with eager crowds of anglers, backpackers and hikers making it up in the kind of numbers we usually see in mid-July. Mother nature also go into the summer spirit and gave holiday visitors a SUPER warm summer weekend – it was flip flops and shorts for this guy. There were kayakers and paddleboarders cruising around, families and groups of friends relaxing and fishing from motorboats and pontoons boats, and word has it the backcountry was hot enough that some hikers were enjoying a refreshing dip in the alpine lakes to quell the mid-day sun.

Of course, when Labor Day weekend is over, the un-busy season arrives. The best kept secret that nobody is trying to keep, is that arguably the best time of the entire season are the few weeks between the holiday weekend and the last week of September when the color really pops and the leaf peepers arrive. The weather is cooler but generally beautiful, the crowds are light, the fish are active, the trails are open, the mornings are cooler allowing for later starts and a little extra sleep before the day’s adventure. It’s far and away my favorite time to be out on the lake or out on the trail and yet many miss out.

 

I wish I had more of a trail report but it’s pretty easy right now – the trails are open, quiet, and waiting. The biting critters are mostly gone. Just bring a smile, water, a camera, good footwear, something to pack out your trash in, and finally – a hankering to explore – we have 5 trailheads and 3 of them split into multiple directions…we have a LOT of hiking available, more than you'd likely want to do in a single trip.

 

We've had a few questions about smoke....um.....what smoke?

I woke up one morning last weekend to cook to some unexpected haze but by the afternoon the rain had come in and that was that. Haven't even thought about it since.

 

With regard to the fishing specifically, WOW have we had a good run this past month at the lake with fish stocking. You may recall that we had a nice batch of Idaho fish arrive the 3rd week of August to go on top of several thousand pounds of state fish put in at the end of July/early August timeframe. Then last Wednesday the 7th, we were pleasantly surprised when a California DFW truck from the west side of the Sierra arrived with 400lbs of rainbows, and a decent grade of fish at that. Then to cap off this past week, our 3rd batch of 1200lbs of Idaho fish from Wright’s Rainbows arrived in the wee hours of the morning on the 9th and our crews spent a couple hours stocking aprox 400lbs in Lake Sabrina and 800lbs all up and down the Middle and South Forks of Bishop Creek and adjacent ponds.

 

These co-op Idaho stockings are an awesome way to juice up the bite periodically and this year it’s really worked out great as we’ve been able fill in the gaps in state fish stocking with these beautiful fish from Idaho. This program is paid for by our local canyon businesses including Cardinal Village Resort, Parchers Resort (that’s us! ), Bishop Creek Lodge, Creekside RV Park and Lake Sabrina Boat Landing (that’s us too! ) in conjunction with funds provided by the Bishop Chamber of Commerce. These stockings are no cakewalk to coordinate but between our friends at Wright’s in Idaho, our excellent Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce Tawni Thomson, the California DFW permit folks, and our excellent crew up in the canyon we manage to get the fish in the water regardless of what time we have to wake up or how late we need to stay up. It’s a tough job but somebody has to do it hahaha.

 

The next thing everyone wants to know is whether or not we have water in the lake. The answer since the spring runoff (and before that actually) is yes! Currently the level is up on the concrete launch ramp a bit and we have our docks in loaded with pontoon boats. We’re renting most of the motorboats from the beach with the kayaks so it’s easier to load the larger groups in and out of the pontoons. Given the dry winter we had we are stoked that the water is where it is and has stayed as high as it has. It has gone up and down and back up over the past month but over the last 10 days its dropped a few inches. We have had some periodic rain over the past few days on and off, thanks to the wayward hurricane to our south so that may even bring the water back up a little, hard to tell until it happens. At any rate, from what we’ve been told by water managers we expect to have enough water to keep renting pontoon boats, kayaks, and motorboats right up until mid-October if the weather holds up and we don’t see any major changes in required releases.

 

Hot Spots – Dam/Spillway (shore anglers), Pontoon Cove, Cookie’s Point, Dingleberry Inlet

 

Hot Stuff – Crawlers, Thomas Buoyants, Grasshopper mini jigs, Powerbait, Panther Martins, BWO or Adams during hatches late in the day, bead head nymph droppers, Wooly Buggers stripped or trolled.

Fishing has slowed down at North Lake and Intake 2 but there are still fish to be found. Both forks of the creek are worth a look but to keep the water up at Sabrina the flows on the middle fork have been reduced so some areas are hard to fish that would otherwise be productive with more water in the creek.

 

The South Fork on the other hand has a lot of water as they’re actively pulling water from South Lake to make up for what they’re holding back at Sabrina. In some places this makes for too much water but in my opinion the So. Fork fishes way better at this level and the fish will be very active as they have freedom to move around. So that's a blow-hards way of sayin saying the creek fioshing on the So. Fork is fantastic.

 

Long story long…..the people who really dig creek fishing will have fun in the BCC right now. Fly anglers will also score some Browns and Brookies along with the Idaho Rainbows which were anywhere from ¾ of a pound all the way up to the 2 to 3lb range.

 

LAKE SABRINA BOAT RENTAL SCHEDULE

FALL HOURS

8am – 6pm Til October 17th

Boat reservations recommended - we’ve still been selling out weekends when the weather is favorable and the pontoons can even sell out on weekdays…with the Idaho fish we’ve dropped and more coming, reservations are even more highly recommend.. www.lakesabrinaboatlanding.com

 

You can also call or email for availability. Current fleet is 8 pontoons, six 8hp motorboats, three 15hp push-start motorboats, 4 kayaks, 1 Canoe.

 

THE WATERFRONT CAFE & LAKE SABRINA

KITCHEN & BEER COUNTER (Full Menu)

Fri – Sun: 8am – 3pm

COFFEE, PIE & BEER COUNTER ONLY

8am – 6pm the rest of the time

(Now Serving “Fat Trout” coffee by local coffee roaster Black Sheep)

The full menu includes breakfast burritos, scrambles, flapjacks, burgers, steak sandwiches, loaded potato skins, SUPER COLD BEER, and the BEST FROM SCRATCH HOMEADE PIE UP HIGH!

For Cabin Rentals visit our lodging website at Parchers Resort www.parchersresort.net WE STILL HAVE OPENINGS THIS WEEKEND SOMEHOW?!

 

The Parchers Store on the South Fork of Bishop Creek is open daily from 8am to 6pm. We have a great stretch of creek adjacent to the resort so fish the creek and stop in to say hi!

 

Weather Updates and Forecasts for Our Specific Longitude and Latitude Can Be Found at www.LakeSabrinaBoatLanding.com and clicking the puffy little cloud below our phone number.

 

Not only is the fall fishing & hiking insane right now, don’t forget the fall color is coming…in fact it’s already started in some areas above 9000ft on the South Fork.

 

FALL COLOR REPORT COMING THIS WEEKEND on www.ParchersResort.net

Book your lodging & boats now y’all.

 

Cheers,

Jared (author), Seth, Austin, Kerry, Leslie and the rest our Parchers Resort & Lake Sabrina crew