We got out for the day to fish the southern half of Inyo County on Tuesday. We did well in two out of four creeks. Here's the rundown. First the snowpack is only about 19% of what it should be and the creeks are running real low. The temperature in Lone Pine yesterday was in the middle to high 70s and a little breezy.
We started on Lone Pine creek in the Alabama hills and walked the creek for a mile. Saw one other angler who had 3 fish. We didn't see any other fish. The DFG might have stocked the sand trap at the LA aguaduct but we did not fish there.
Went on to George's Creek and did ok. There were four other vehicles along the area we fished. I didn't catch any trees or fishermen with my backcast, but did manage to bring 3 fish to hand. Mike landed 2.
We went on to Independence creek and after another hike of close to half mile we were again skunked.
We gassed up at Fort Independence and headed South to Lone Pine for lunch. Learned that Frosty Chalet is operating seasonally and will not open until May 1 so we ate at a local beanery and headed down to Cottonwood Creek as our last spot before heading home. Didn't have to hike much there as we found several pools with fish close to the Cottonwood Canyon trailhead. Here I also found several trees that ate a few flies on the backcast. Stuck with a rollcast and landed a few fat fish. Mike brought about 5 or 6 to hand.
On the way home around 5:O'clock and about 5 miles south of Little Lake we had a tire separate. We flipped a coin to see if we changed it or called AAA. Fortunately AAA won the toss because the spare (the original 2002) was badly cracked around the top. Fearing another separation, we opted for the tow and were glad of it. Mike has premium AAA policy so he can be towed up to 200 miles. It was a 119 mile tow. That got us home safely by 9:00pm.
The cool part was we didn't hardly use any of the gas we bought. Looking forward to going back soon. Jim