The Lone Pine Creek drainage has brooks and rainbows. Doug Sr at the portal store told me that the DFG has stocked Lone Pine Lake this summer. These would be rainbows. The fish I see at the log crossing are rainbows. Outpost Camp has held a very few brooks since a flash flood in the early 80's nearly filler in the several foot deep pond that was once at the lower end of Bighorn Park. I have occasionally seen brooks spawning near the point where the trail starts to climb from Outpost. Mirror Lake has good populations of both brook and rainbow trout. The CA-DFG claims rainbows in Consultation Lake.
This is a good time of year to look for brook trout spawning in the creek that feeds Mirror Lake. Look for (usually lighter colored) depressions in the gravel 8 to 12 inches in diameter, occupied by one or two horny trout.
Brown trout are also fall spawners. A good place to see both brook ans brown trout spawn is the creek that enters North Lake, sometime between now and the end of October. There will also be browns in the Owens Valley streams when their temperatures drop low enough.
This was Nov. 7, 2006 down on the valley floor. The larger fish is probably the female, about 24". The smaller fish to the left and back is probably the male.
Dale B. Dalrymple
