Fishing the JMT 2018
Days 4-6 – August 3-5, 2018
McCleod Lake, Convict Lake, & TJ Lake
Since I had to leave the John Muir Trail yesterday due to thick wildfire smoke conditions from the Lions and Ferguson fires, plan B is to fish the local lakes around the Mammoth Lakes region. I scaled down my pack, leaving the overnight gear at my motel, and packed food for each day’s separate trip.
My first hike-in lake would be McCleod Lake. I passed the junction for this lake 3 days previously when I was headed over Mammoth Pass, so I decided to check it out first. Only a short 1 mile hike to the lake itself, I fished the entire perimeter of the lake throughout the morning and into lunchtime. Within 10 minutes of casting, I caught my first Lohantan Trout on a Panther Martin blaze orange spinner. The bite slowed to nothing for the rest of the morning, but I was happy to catch a species that I haven’t had on my line before. I packed up my fishing gear at around noon and hiked back out to Mammoth Lakes for lunch.
For my second day, I took a short road trip down the 395 to Convict Lake. This easy-to-access and well-known lake had been on my mind after passing by it over the previous 3 summers. With a 3 mile trail around the perimeter, this is a perfect lake to stretch your legs and enjoy the scenic beauty of this lake. I fished it hard from every shore, but unfortunately never landed any of the stocked trout in this lake. Nearly every inch of fishable shoreline had day visitors occupying it, and fishing pressure was high from the many boats out on the water as well. I was skunked, but it was a beautiful day nonetheless.
My final day of exploration takes me to TJ Lake, a less-visited lake in the Mammoth Lakes Basin just south of Lake George. I short 1/2 mile hike takes you to this gem, with rocky outcroppings around more than half of the lake but with a sandy inlet on the southern side. I was fortunate to catch 4 rainbow trout here, along with 2 brook trout. Fish in this lake are relatively small but very active and hit on flies on my Tenkara rod as well as various spinners on my casting setup. After fishing the entire perimeter of this lake, I took a side trail out the inlet and down to Lake George. This alternate exit route follows water flowing from the lake and also passes by a couple of natural springs coming directly out of the rocks. My hike out of this trail was a surprising reward to my final day of fishing in the Mammoth Lakes area.
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After hiking on the John Muir Trail over a 3 year span since 2015, I decided to go back to a favorite area of the trail to fish in some of the trout-rich alpine lakes and streams. I also was back to close an 11.5 mile gap that I bypassed in 2015, completing the section between Shadow Lake and Red’s Meadow. The plan was to hike for 6 days from Mammoth Lakes to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park, but the wildfire smoke greatly increased on day 2 and I made the decision to exit the trail on day 3 at Shadow Lake. I took advantage of the next 3 days by hiking into local lakes just above Mammoth and still getting a chance to fish for the rest of my time off.
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