High Sierra Topix

Excellent report, Herm! Feels like I was right there with you.. oh wait, I was..

Wish we could have stayed longer at Mesa, and maybe shared some Pasta Puttanesca and 151 with you, but we were on a Mission (my TR to come). Glad to see you got some nice fish out of Mesa. Upper Desolation is not dead, btw. The south side off the points East of outlet were hot with 14" fish. We hooked up on them with both fly and lure.

Now, tell us more about this Frog biologist you met.. As it turns out, we met a DFG fish survey team on the other side of Carol Col, and had a very interesting discussion.

Great to see you posting..

Russ

WOW...where did this come from....teach me a lesson. Great report first of all. The pics are worth 1,000 words. Now aren’t solo trips just the best? Nothing like having to depend on yourself in the wilderness. Looks like you kept well and had a good trip. Thanks for sharing.

Now where in the heck are the rest to the TR for that area (Russ)....Im waiting! Someone must of caught a hog....because the boards are too quiet for as many folks visiting French Canyon this fall.....

Bad Man From Bodie wrote:Now where in the heck are the rest to the TR for that area (Russ)....Im waiting! Someone must of caught a hog....because the boards are too quiet for as many folks visiting French Canyon this fall.....

Tell me about it.. the suspense is killing me!

Russ;
Nice meeting you out there at Mesa. As I said in the original report, I caught the first fish right around 11AM, just as you and Paul(?) were cresting the ridge on your way over to the French Canyon side, and I could even hear your voices from up there. Two more nice fish came from right in front of where you were camped. I bet your Pasta Puttanesca would have been better than the black bean (paste) tacos that I ate that evening, but I will take a good zinfandel with dark chocolate over the booze any day. I am sure the company would have been nice, though. Concerning Upper Desolation, you must have had the good fortune of little or no wind, because when I stopped there on the way out Monday, the wind was absolutely howling, and the smoke was choking me. Glad you did well there.
Regarding the frog biologist - on Monday morning, I was slowly packing up, standing there without a shirt so I could clean my stinky armpits, and up walks this guy (tall, lean, dark hair streaked with gray, early to mid-50's I'd guess), and a much younger man (shorter, maybe early 20's), both with backpacks. The older of the two did all the talking, asked me about the fishing, and I told them pretty much what I laid out in this report. He said something to the effect that you never really know when or what they are going to bite, then said he has been telling the DFG for the past 30 years that Mesa is strongly self-sustaining, and that any efforts at air dropping that particular lake are a waste of resources. I asked what he was up to, and he said he was a frog biologist out doing a survey of Humphreys Basin, with a basecamp at Mesa Lake. He told me that Wedge Lake and Square Lake were fishless due to being too shallow, and the Tomahawk Lake had a good population of "fish" but wasn't specific. Then he left to set up camp, and I put a shirt on.


Bad Man From Bodie;
Thanks for your comments. I really enjoyed my first solo trip, and will definitely go solo again. One of these days I want to start eating some of what I catch, but with the campfire ban, my options are limited. Learned a few things that will be useful in the future.
Cheers,
Herm

Seems that when i leave an area, the fishing get's good.. sigh.. Glad you threw that Kastmaster.

Tomahawk has fat brookies. If i wasn't targeting puppet, one could have a great 5 day trip just with Upper Deso, Mesa and Tomahawk. We ate fish one night at Paris.. pan fried, covered in foil, and after the last turn, a squeeze of half an orange.. Two pans worth.. yum.. a side of carmelized onions.

Wind was howling at Carol Col and Puppet on the 12th and half of the 13th after we left you. Upper Deso wasn't howling when we caught the fish on the 15th. there's a great deep trough between two of the points on the south side about 1/8 mile east of the outlet. The lake is so big, it was hard to categorize it. It seemed that there were two big fish per 100 yds of shoreline. Instead of waiting till the last day (16th) to leave puppet, we decided to move up and out to Deso so we could get out and home at a reasonable time on the 16th, and hit the Jolly Kone in Bridgeport for the second time on the trip.

Besides the SS discussion with the Frog guy, did he find any frogs? I didn't see any tadpoles or frogs anywhere. I know there's BD (fungus) in the puppet basin.

Russ;
I didn't talk with the frog biologist for more than five minutes, and that was as he was on his way to set up camp - so no discussion beyond what I stated earlier. I never saw or heard any frogs on this trip.
At Upper Deso, I think I fished the same area on the south side east of the inlet - hit it both coming and going, but for nada. However, there was some good looking water there. On a trip there in September 2006 where I spent one night camped further east along the southern shore, did not even attempt fishing because of the wind. Scooted back over to Muriel, where I had limited success for brookies.
This is the third time I have backpacked in Humphreys Basin, and I will go back there again - much to explore.
Cheers,
Herm