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Sierra Nevadas - Cottonwood Lakes - July '06
Thought I'd post some pics and a little TR on our recent trip to the Sierra Nevadas to fish for some Golden Trout. We go every year in the second week of July. It seems to be the best time since the the lakes just finished thawing and the fish are hungry.
Cottonwood Lakes is about 4-5 miles south of Mt. Whitney outside of Lone Pine in California. We started hiking from Horshoe Meadow at about 9,000 ft and finish at Cottonwood Lake #3 at 11,100 ft. We usually stay for 4 nights and five days. On this past trip we averaged about 30-40 fish a day. As you'll see in the pics they are all the elusive Golden Trout which in my opinion is the most beautiful of them all and can only be found in the Golden Trrout Wilderness inside the John Muir Wilderness. The average size of the trout was about 8-12" with a the real small ones down below in Horseshoe Meadow and the big ones (up to 18"-24") up in Lake 5. There are 5 lakes surrounded by granite peaks. We each took one fly rod and one spinning rig. The fly rod is fabulous in the evening and for the creeks in between the lakes, while the spinning rig allows you to probe the depths for the "mobies." The temerature ranged from 38 at night to about 73 in the day. We had a great time and really enjoyed the beauty of the place.
Enjoy.
