BY MIKE STEVENS
CROWLEY LAKE – The breeze was constant but manageable at Crowley Lake on Opening Day of the Sierra trout season, and overall, an angler couldn’t have asked for better conditions. The wind picked up a little on Sunday which kept kayak anglers in sheltered areas, but boaters continued to fish the next day and into the week that followed with little resistance from Mother Nature.
“Fishing was really good at Crowley today,” Berkley Pro Staffer and kayak guru, Gil “Rockit” Hernandez told Western Outdoor News. “No big sizes for me, but the pink Flicker Shad and the rainbow/chrome Flicker Shads were the stars of the show—sizes 4 and 5. Leadcore wasn’t very good, maybe only picked up 2 or 3 fish on it. I was over the 20 mark on trout though, solid footballs in that 1- to 2-pound range.”
Hernandez said the biggest fish he caught on Opening Day was about 3 pounds, and all of his fish were caught in the North Arm past Alligator Point in about 40 feet of water.
While leadcore didn’t set the lake on fire for Hernandez on Saturday, it was certainly in play on Crowley as always, and plenty of anglers scored that way. WON was on the water with Berkley pros Fred Hicks and Aaron Garcia on Sunday of Opening Weekend, and the trio landed about 12 trout (rainbows, browns and cutts) trolling Flicker Shads exclusively on leadcore in just a few hours of fishing. Hicks was on the tiller and working a back-and-forth course between Chalk Cliffs and Christmas Bay, and various colors of Flicker Shad (including the new Jester pattern) was sent back on anywhere between 2 to 5 colors of leadcore.
Hernandez did get back in touch with WON after another session on opening Sunday, and leadcore did produce under breezier conditions that day.
“The next day I had 12 nice ones, and I only fished 3.5 hours,” said Hernandez. “They bit the leadcore on Sunday right out front of the Marina. Troll anything pink or orange like Flicker Shad in copperhead and the new Jester color worked as well on the surface while gold or chrome worked deep. Thomas Buoyants also worked well that day.”
Generally speaking, trollers were working the entire lake while boaters sitting on anchor congregated in McGee Bay, and the best fishing was found all over the North Arm.
Among the non-trolling boaters was Estevan McDonald of Golden State Fishing who pinged WON after putting together a “Crowley Slam” (brown, rainbow, cutthroat) by a little after noon on Monday of opening week. He was using Golden State Fishing Mini Super Tubes when he caught the rainbow near the McGee Creek Inlet and the other two near Sandy Point.
Shore anglers got into the Opener action at Crowley Lake as well. One of the most popular and productive areas for shore pounders was Whiskey Bay. Victor Hernandez of Trucha Spoons was working that bank with Darius Rodriguez, and they told WON they piled up “nothing but 3 to 5 pounders” on Trucha Spoons and Gordito’s Custom Jigs. Most of their haul consisted of browns and cutts, and all were released.
Opening Day came to a close with the awards ceremony for Berkley’s Crowley Lake Opening Day Big Fish Contest which awarded $1,500 cash for first place, a 2-night stay at the Wayfinder hotel in Bishop for second and a Berkley prize package for third. First place went to Santa Clara angler Vince Hernandez who bagged an 8-pound, 4-ounce rainbow on the troll.