Went up to the Eastern Sierras last week and camped at Silver Lake in June Lake Loop. Fishing was very slow until Saturday and I heard they had stocked either Thursday or Friday.
I was using night crawlers while everyone else had powerbait. I knew I had to keep the worms off the bottom so the fish could see them so I was inflating them with a syringe. This worked very nicely and I was getting bites almost every cast. When I reeled in, I either had half a worm or the worm wasn't floating.
I was using circle hooks so I could let the smaller ones go but the fish were inhaling the bait and only one actually was hooked in the lip. Made for a quick limit.
I did catch one unusual trout with darker coloration and blue eyes and a blue tint on its lower lip.
(https://i.postimg.cc/JzNcJBx2/20250621-170043.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
The fish were being brought in from other states due to a lot of the California hatcheries having to start over due to an infection. The load which came the following week came from Oregon.
(https://i.postimg.cc/htVWdMHR/IMG-1092.png) (https://postimages.org/)
Also put out Crayfish traps and got about 2 dozen. This was one of the biggest.
(https://i.postimg.cc/rppjkwGZ/20250621-091548.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
Claws were a good 2 inches long.
(https://i.postimg.cc/4NbQH9BF/20250621-091531.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
To see the scale of the lot, the largest one above is in the bottom far right of the group.
Had some wind as usual and spent a couple days in Yosemite. All in all a great trip
- Keith
Cool trip! Crawfish boil at your house???