Smoke, smoke and just more smoke has plagued the Eastern Sierra sky-line for the past week lessening the visual beauty of the scenic corridor. But the good news is that Alpers were planted last Monday, and DFG came up with 500lbs of  ? to 1 pound trout for the holiday anglers. What! Where were the anglers, definitely not here, most likely staying close to home in case fires kicked up around their area.

The first day of clear skies was Saturday and hopefully some of the fires around the state have been or close to being contained. We have been unable to get a good fire report on the White Wolf fire on Highway 120 over Tioga Pass and it has been closed for 4 days now, but Hwy. 108 is open. They are about 35 miles apart, and will drop you about 15 miles north of Bridgeport on US 395, it's not a bad drive, just don't ride your brakes coming down toward the Marine base.

Fires may have slowed the traffic, but not the bite. The catching has been terrific, and I would never fabricate fishing news regardless if I keep my door open or not. DFG gave a report at a Fish and Game Advisory Commission meeting two weeks ago in Bishop. We have a great guy running our area, Gary Williams and he was very positive regarding what will happen with Fish and Game in the near future. The report will be on this site shortly.

Biggies for the week were caught by Steve Stewart of Orange caught a nice 2lb 3oz, Ryan Russell of San Diego used a Buoyant (brown edge) on his 2lb 10oz, Robyn Takeshita age 12 of Laguna Niguel caught a 3lb 6oz on Salmon Peach power bait, Roger and Cathy Bearden of Carson City NV caught and released a couple nice Alpers over 2 lbs on Flies.

Garlic power bait sales could probably bring the economy out of the hole and might be an alternative for gas powered cars. I guess no one has thought about that. That's my late night thinking about tying flies and working on the economy.

Stay with power bait, power worms (are they going to make garlic power worms or what), crawlers, red/gold Thomas Buoyants, fire stripe Hot Shots, silver and gold prism 1/8th oz Kastmasters, and black Rooster Tails. Black ants, black gnats, grey hackle yellow, olive elk hair caddis (naked), and Hornbergs, wooly buggers in black, burgundy, rust, dark rusty brown, and orange. Oh Yeah, I forgot the It's all good. See you on the water.....carolyn