Leaving for a pack trip to Mineral King in Sequoia National Park area. Our final destination is Bullfrog Lakes headwaters to the Little Kern River. I am looking for personal experiences there as far as the Bullfrog Lakes and some of the others that are surrounding the Mineral King valley like Mosquito Lakes, Eagle Lake, White Chief and some of the others. We are looking at hiking about 4-7 miles our first day and outposting from there for day hikes. Any info would be much appreciated.
Seege
Hi Seege,
I?m not sure what type of experiences you are looking for?area is breathtaking, we are in a drought with only 29% of snow pack this year, and streams will be low, firewood mostly non-existent at Bullfrog, because of the location in relation to Mineral King (etc.) you can expect to have other hikers in your area now that schools out?is there more you need?
John
Just wanted to know what the fishing would be like at the lakes itself thats all.
Seege
Mornings are calm and cool. Fish can be really touchy if the lake surface is smooth. Winds pick up around noon, and they can get to blowing about dusk. Expect afternoon thunderstorms, followed by mosquitoes. I would take the following fly patterns with me: black or olive mohair leech reg and BH #8-14; GHRE BH soft hackle #14-20; scuds #16-20; flying ant #12 and 18; and a generic dry such as a parachute Adams or Hare?s Ear #14-20. If you can, fish downwind, as the trout will be moving upwind when it starts to blow; and don?t use your graphite pole in a thunderstorm, unless you want to become a statistic.
Hope that helps,
John
It’s been years since I’ve hiked that area. I once did a trip from the east side of the Sierras to the west. We entered the mountains just west of Independence and exited in King’s Canyon. I did fish Bullfrog lake when I was there and caught my limit pretty quickly.
My gosh, that was at least 30 years ago.
It’s a beautiful place for sure. Not knowing about fly fishing back then I probably walked past several amazing trout streams.
Are you hiking over Kearsarge Pass? I found some great photos on line here http://www.kickbully.com/hikes/kp/kp.html
Look at the photo with bullfrog lake in the distance. Looking at the lake from that side there is a boulder just under the water at the lower left corner of the lake. It’s about 10 feet out from the bank and it drops of just on the far side. We were casting to the far side of that boulder and caught a bunch of rainbows.
It’s a great hike. Enjoy it!
The trip is completed. The lake that you mentioned is Bullfrog Lake on the Norhtern part of the park. The lakes ('s) that I am referring to are Bullfrog Lakes in the GTW up and just over Farewell Gap. To all thanks for the info and help.
The trip started from Mineral King Valley up and over Farewell Gap which stands at 10,587. Our final destination was the next valley over and Bullfrog Lakes to the North which is the head waters to the Little Kern River.
We struck out as there is not one sign of trout in the lower lake. We could not hike to the upper lake due to snow and a very questionable route. They must have been killed during winters or just fished out. We even asked the ranger when getting our permit if there were fish there and he said yes. Oh well, the scenery was gorgeous and the fishing back in Mineral King vally was outstanding with brookies and rainbows (possibly hybrid with GT). Some of them had orange bellies that were unbelievable. All the fish were in the 12" and under class.
Thanks again,
Seege