Virginia11ph

VIRGINIA LAKES OUTING REPORT
By Jeff Howard

    Last weekend 23 of us camped and fished the Virginia Lakes area. Most of us camped out, but four opted for more comfort (they missed the excitement)in cabins and Bridgeport Inn. Dick Angus, Russ Heckley, George, Don Wallace, Dad (Gary Howard) & I got there early enough Thursday to get setup and fish the evening on Big Virginia Lake. We had heard Alpers Trout were stocked the week before. The top fishermen for the evening were Dick,Russ with 8 or 10; Russ using dries for Brookies and Dick getting his Rainbows on Sheepscreek and Renegades; the rest of us got a few that night. After fishing till close to dark we visited by the fire. John Daniels rolled up late and said he missed Monitor Pass turn - OOPS! Before going to bed we hit the potty; entering camp Trudy YELLED
"something got into the food". About that same second I heard a strange hissing sound and lifted the lantern to find the food thief standing eight feet from me. He stood towards me hissing and head shaking, finishing off the Won Tons he had removed from the bear box. I banged on the BBQ with tongs and yelled at him to no avail. He wasn't budging till he finished grubbing down Mom's Tasty Won Ton's. I put the rest of the disturbed food back in the bear box and stepped back with the others till he left. We knew he would be back (probably mad that he didn't get to finish the baklava) so we slept in the trucks. He was laying across the street till he finally came back to make more of a mess, He turned over the Roadtrip Grill and ice chest to drink (or at least puncture some Club Soda and vitamin water), leaving a coke untouched?? Sleeping was going to be a challenge. Neighbors were nice and offered their motor home and a 45 after the second round. Note to self "never leave the Bear Box open ,even if its only three minutes. The Bear is 30 feet outside of camp somewhere. So we got a late start in the morning (had to clean-up). Dad and I walked to the Frog Lakes and Dick and Susan stopped at Cooney Lake. Frog had some small fish rising but we didn't spend a whole lot of time there. We had seen bigger fish at Cooney. By the time we got back there Dick had caught a bunch and we were fishing the worst part of the day. Dad got a few and Dick caught about the same as the night prior. John D, John C., Rick, Ed, Meloney, Brandie, Russ, George, Don, and Craig all fished the two Virginia Lakes and Trumbull lake. The fishing was a little slow for most. I believe both Chuck and Frank fished the East Walker near Bridgeport with some slow fishing as well. Saturday morning John D., Frank W., Don W., Chuck H., Ed K., Brandie H., Meloney W. and myself went to fish the East Walker. John and I went over indicator fishing 101 for everyone and then we went fishing. At the end of the day John had six (one eighteen inch) Frank Williams caught his first ever on his new fly rod. Ed had one thirteen inch, Don had two thirteen inch, I landed three of the ten I had hooked and Chuck had five with one super nice 21-1/2 inch brown trout. Brandie and Meloney headed back because we were all about to leave but then we started hooking fish like crazy. We just needed to be a little farther down stream where they got less pressure (about a mile and 1/2 or so). I think everybody had a great time fishing the East Walker. John D thinks we should do this as a winter outing sometime.
     The rest of the fisherman fished the Virgina Lakes area and basically had the same luck. While we were out fishing Melanie H, Trudy L., Donna?, Debbie H and Susan M and of course Shadow went to Bodie Ghost Town and lunch in Bridgeport, they all had a great time.
     It is a good thing our club practices catch and release because the bank fisherman at the lakes had the daily event of the bears coming out of the woods
and taking their stringers full of fish. One young boy caught a 4 pounder on Sat. and almost tried to retrieve his stringer from the bear. The only thing
saving the boy was his dad who told him to let the bear have his prize trout. The bears at Virginia Lakes are too brazen and should be relocated.
    The other scary thing to watch out for at Virginia Lakes is the shower Nazi. She monitors the showers like the soup Nazi on the old TV program.
     Saturday evening we had a wonderful turn out at the group potluck. There was plenty of good food and fellowship. The weather was perfect. As usua l we had a ton of great food and deserts. We had a nice visit around the campfire until late evening when everybody retired to their own campsites. Next morning everyone broke camp and made their way home safely.
     Thank you everybody for your help with everything and great food. If you get a chance thank Carolyn for the flies and good fishing info. We can do this next year if there is enough interested, but a month later.