The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

Planning a trip and thinking about fishing Heather, Susie, Velmas, and Clyde lakes and was wondering if anyone had been up there or heard any reports. Don't need anyone's secret spot, but I'd like to find lakes that still have fish. Thanks!

Paul,

I'd think Clyde Lake must still have trout, since the goldens that used to be planted are said to have spread down the Rubicon River below the lake, so they have spawning grounds available. Years ago I fished Middle Velma fairly early in the season for an hour or two, and caught a wild rainbow. The outflow stream there was also accessible to trout, and full of water (see the stream on Jerome's website below).

But your best source for info must be Jerome Yesavage, who wrote the excellent 'Fly Fishing the
Desolation Wilderness Area', the second edition of which came out in August of 2008, not long after planting stopped in the Wilderness. Go to his website, and at the bottom there's an email address, where he says he'll answer questions;
http://www.stanford.edu/~yesavage/Desolation.html

Finally, please do me a favor in return; I'm working on a second edition of my guide book, 'Fly Fishing the Tahoe Region', so information from your trip will be valuable to me too. Thanks, and the best of luck!

Stephen Rider Haggard
http://fly...ginmargins.blogspot.com/

Stephen and anyone else who might find this information helpful,


Thanks you very much for your information. I appreciate your response and I hope my information is helpful. We hiked the length of Desolation from Echo lake to Meeks Bay, fishing where we set up camp for the night or any place that looked promising.

Heather Lake - Saw a couple nice brookies (12-13" cruising a bit, but otherwise fairly dead (few rises)

Susie Lake -- A few rises in the pm and am and one 10" brook.

Both lakes were full of small (2-3" fish that were not trout. Looked like squaw fish to me (forked tails, big black stripe down the body. Both lakes held brook trout, but they did not seem to be there in large numbers.

Gilmore Lake - Fished for a few minutes in the afternoon and landed a 10" brook. Grad students researching the impact of trout on Mt. Yellow frogs were netting trout here. Looks like quite a few trout inhabit this water. Also heard reports of good size Mackinaw down deep. I know this lake is well known for Macs and we ran across a couple guys who had success there.

Upper Velma -- Decent number of brook trout working midges in the pm and am. Brook trout to about 12" were also on a nice early afternoon callibaetis spinner fall. Most fish 7-9"

Upper Velma outflow to Lower Velma -- Packed with both brookies and rainbows. Brookies outnumbered rainbows 5:1. Most fish 5-7 inches, few around 9-10", largest around 12".

Didn't see any surface action on Middle Velma

Craq lake -- A couple rises in the pm -- did not even fish. Saw a few nice looking fish working the pond area above the large lake (can't remember the name) below Rubican lake.

Spoke with a ranger to find out what was going on at Gilmore lake and she told me that the current research indicates that out of 100+ lakes in Desolation only 6-7 do not have self-sustaining populations of trout. Research at Gilmore and other lakes was to determine whether or not the lakes had self sustaining populations.

Finally, for anyone heading up:
1) Expect company (I actually really enjoy talking to people on the trail)
2) DEET up, I mean really DEET up
3) The Trail from Phipps pass to Rubican lake contains a very DANGEROUS traverse across a snow bank. Foothold have been established on about a 30' wide section, but the bank is packed snow/ice on about a 70 degree slope. The bank is about 200' long and one mis-step and you are dead (or probably wish you were).

Paul,

Thanks for the fine report, and especially for the trail condition cautions.

Reminds me of ten years ago......

Thanks again!

Paul,

A really detailed report, and very helpful, thanks, from all of us.

Did you by any chance contact Jerome Yesavage at all? You might send him a link to your report if you didn't, and have a moment. It will probably pay dividends in getting you info for future trips.

Stephen Haggard