Adventures of Johnny United: FAT 2014

Way before the Miracle Squad, there were just JU and MM. This Fun Anniversary Trip (FAT) marks the 25th year that we promised each to the other until death do us part....

Sunday, July 27th.

Two ordinary citizens from the planet Sacramentian said their magic words: "Fish on!" They were then transformed to Johnny United, the Ultimate Fisherman, and Mrs. Miracles, the Adventurous Gal, ready to conquer the undiscovered country side of the Sierras.

Actually, it was a 4-hour drive non-stop from Sactown to Virginia Lakes Resort :-) However, we stopped by Costco in Carson City, NV, to gas up and stock up for the week; thus, our ride took 6 hours. We were beat by the time we got to the cabin and checked in.

"Fish on!"

Bam. MM and JU.

"She ain't heavy, she's my..." Is there already a similar song?

JU power, don't fail me now.

Single bed cabin overlooking Little Virginia Lake.

View from our cabin.

Monday, July 28th.

Refreshed from the previous night's rest, we hiked around to discover our surroundings. Little Virginia Lake (LVL) is at an elevation of 9,727 feet. It's a small natural lake with Mt. Olsen (elevation: 11,086 feet) on the far side. Walking around LVL, we first crossed over the wooden bridge over Virginia Creek. Proceeding south, we came to the opposite side from our cabin. We were at the foot of Mt. Olsen. We saw lots of fishermen. Most of the time there were double or triple hookups. Fish were jumping all over the place. I had to mustard all my JU discipline power not to run back to the cabin and get my pole, that and the magical attraction to MM held me back.

After a few pictures, we went back to the Virginia Lake Resort - Cabins, Restaurant, Lodge and Tackle ("The Lodge") to ask for directions to Big Virginia Lake (BVL). We discovered a short 0.2 mile hike to BVL. So off we went. BVL (elevation: 9,805 feet) was situated at the foot of Black Mountain (elevation: 11,794 feet). The entire vicinity was a nature photographer's paradise.

After enjoying and taking in the breathtaking view, we decided to trek back. We took a slight detour and ran into Trumbull Lake (elevation 9,688 feet).

Of the three lakes, we observed that LVL was the most frequented by fishermen while Trumbull Lake was the least frequented. Fish were jumping at all three lakes in broad daylight. Wahoo!!! We were told by the lodge owners that all three lakes were stocked with rainbow trout every week by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW); additionally, the Mono County stocked Alpers rainbow trout in the 3 to 10 pound range once a month in LVL and BVL. All three lakes had native brown and brook trout! Double wahoo!!!

Gathering enough intel for the day, we headed back to our cabin to launch the Ave Maria. To our pleasant surprise, we found out that most fishermen clear the LVL by around 7 pm. The owners informed us that fishing was legal until around 9 pm. Thus, after supper, we took the Ave Maria out for a spin. Except for worms, I brought all the tricks to catch trout. Lo and behold, in our first outing, we caught and released too many rainbows to count!!! We decided to keep 4 for breakfast the following day.

When does the adventure begins?

Little Virginia Lake looking West.

Our cabin is on the north side of LVL.

The lodge.

Virginia Creek, the section between BVL and LVL.

Critters like this one can be seen all day, including deers, bears, wolf, etc...

A very short hike to BVL.

Big Virginia Lake looking north.

Popular trailhead to other lakes and mountain tops.

A few hundred feet north of the lodge hides Trumbull Lake.

Trumbull Lake, looking south.

Too many to choose from...

Breakfast for two. Notice that there are no fishermen on LVL at 8 pm.

Tuesday, July 29th.

Another thing that I noticed was that before the sun shone on LVL around 6:45 am, I had the entire lake to myself. My neighbor in the next cabin usually was the second person on the lake with her float tube. When she showed it was my exit time. Thus, for the remainder of the trip, I fished from around 5 am to 7 am every morning. MM would let me know if she had awaken by opening the curtains to the kitchen of the cabin, which I could see from the lake. I paced sixty times to get from the door of the cabin to the Ave Maria!!! Every waking moment sitting in the kitchen, we either saw fish jumping all over the lake or fishermen landing fish from their float tubes or row boats. You know it was a sleepless night. I did not need an alarm clock to wake up everyday at 4:30 am!

My first time out on the lake by myself in the morning around 5 am, I saw fish jumping 3 feet from the Ave Maria. I cast the Z out and was able to land a couple of fish right away. They were only 9 to 11 inches and were released. When I could see clearly without the aid of a flashlight at around 5:20 am, I launched. I switched between the banana Z and the silver Thomas and found out that the Z was out fishing the Thomas 10 to 1. After this, I used the Z exclusively if I was serious about catching. By around 6:45 AM, I saw my neighbor and started heading back. By this time I had released too many to count! I was beginning to row in when I saw a big rainbow swimming underneath. I waited a few seconds for the water to calm down from my rowing. I then cast out the final cast for the morning. Wham!!! Fish on, baby! The drag started to scream and my heart was pumping faster and faster. I fought it calmly while reaching for my net. Finally, the fish was boated. It was a fat 19 incher! I took it in to the lodge and the owner told me that I was the first one of the day worthy to be listed on the board in the lodge with my name next to it. What a great blessing on our actual Wedding Anniversary Day!

Before sunrise

Boated at 6:35 am.

Mrs. Miracles has a knack for making the fish look bigger than me. I love you, baby.

My first tagged fish. Don't ask me what it means because I honestly do not know.

Since this was our actual anniversary day, we decided to celebrate in the nearest big town called Bishop, 60 miles away. Little did we know that we would be blessed with so many side trips along the way. We visited the Mono Basin Visitor Center and found out so many interesting facts regarding Mono Lake. It was a huge lake fed by natural springs and streams, but had NO outlets! Thus, Mono Lake was full of salt and alkaline. MM got me to sit down and we watched 20 minutes worth of documentary about the lake.

Continuing on towards Bishop, we took a detour through the famous June Lake Loop that I had heard so much about from my fishing buddies. I didn't pay attention to how long the loop was because we stopped by just about every visible lake that we saw. We had a picnic lunch by Rush Creek between Grant Lake and Silver Lake. Eventually, we made it to June Lake Beach and back out to Highway 395 and on our way. We passed through another loop called Mammoth Lake loop. We passed through the Owens Valley and arrived at, of all places, K-Mart in Bishop. I walked out like a bandit with more fishing supplies. This town must be big since it has K-Mart was our reasoning. However, as we looked up restaurants on my GPS, it showed the nearest decent eatery to be Denny's. It was Providential because I first proposed to MM at a Denny's in Vallejo, CA, near Marine World overlooking the town. MM had steak and I had salmon. We asked and, according to the waiter, the town of Bishop has a population of 11,000?!?! In California? As compared to Sactown where the population is over a million, Bishop was not big at all.

Overlooking the Mono Basin.

One of the best visitor centers that we have visited.

Looking north of Mono Lake.

Beautiful art on the outside of the visitor center.

June Lake Loop at Grant Lake.

June Lake Loop at Silver Lake.

June Lake Loop at Gull Lake.

June Lake Beach.

Facts regarding the Owens Valley.

No, I am not hitch-hiking. I just saying, "I'm happy!"

Overlooking the Owens Valley.

All the above were less than a buck each!!! Gamakatsu siwash hooks for 99 cents?!? Kastmaster for 63 cents?!? I couldn't resist...

After dinner, we got back to LVL around 7 pm. We went to catch breakfast for the following day. Four fish was too much this morning, let's just keep two for the following morning said MM.

Breakfast for tomorrow.

Wednesday, July 30th.

In the morning run, I was able to trick a native German brown to take the Z!!! I decided to keep two more rainbows for dinner.

Victims of the Z!

Native brown

More hiking for the rest of the day. We went back to BVL, then hiked to Red Lake, Green Lake and Blue Lake. Along the way, I was able to take a picture of a brookie that was caught by one of the regulars. I caught an 11 incher the first day out on the Ave Maria in LVL, but released it before taking a picture for fear of killing it. It was a beautiful fish! Note for the future: they love worms!

Romantic picnic table at BVL.

Wetting the lines at BVL.

Red lake--only native trout here.

Brookie at Green Lake.

Blue Lake.

Thursday, July 31st.

During the morning run, I kept one 13 incher. The rest were thrown back. Note: the the banks were filled with fishermen by around 7:30 am.

Lone keeper of the morning.

Today, MM decided to go back to Trumbull Lake to fish. I had brought some worms from the lodge for the occasion. WORMS are lethal to trout!!! We caught left and right using worms, 3 feet from the bottom. We slowed things down to kill some time by using the pink Berkley floating power balls. Not as lethal as the worms, but lethal nevertheless.

A newly retired couple (1 year into retirement and traveling around in their camper) to the left of us, were wondering why we caught so many so fast. They were using power worms and power bait and were not having any luck. The wife said she had never caught a trout in her life. I gave the husband/wife team some pink power balls and soon they were landing fish too! We caught our limit and gave them our jar of pink power balls and left.

Trumbull Lake.

We are in the fishing zone.

That evening, we had a delicious fish fry!!! Seeing no one on the LVL, I setup the Ave Maria for trolling as taught to me by the Pro! We were using the crank bait that we normally use for steelies in the American River. Before long, MM landed her first trout trolling crank bait. It was a Kodak moment!

View from our cabin window.

First rainbow trolling!

Friday, August 1st.

During the day, we went back to BVL for some R&R; and in the evening after our dinner, we fished in LVL using sinking floats with a 3-foot leader. Fish were easily caught. The unfortunate thing about using worms was that most of the fish had to be kept because they swallowed the entire hook.

Water falls into the ground, then comes out into BVL.

Standing on top of the water spring?

This one will survive.

Saturday, August 2nd.

In summary, I brought a lot of lures and techniques to use for catching trout. However, only a handful of tricks were employed. The worms were successful during daylight. Early morning and late evening, the Z was the most lethal. I have now caught native rainbow, cutthroat, brown, and brookies on the Z!!! The next goal would be to get some native golden trout on the Z.