Hi

I'll be climbing again on June 2nd on a 3 day overnight trip via Whitney chute and have always stopped by the lakes to check out the beautiful trout (especially the golden trout at mirror lake). I have always been tempted every year to bring my collapsible rod and reel plus a few rig setups but just out of curiosity, have any of you fished these lakes? I know they stock the portal pond but do they even stock these lakes, especially Lone Pine? Be nice to get some experience in. Thanks

I'm sure they don't stock those lakes. Lots of trout in those lakes, but probably mostly small native trout in LP and Mirror. I've caught fish in Lower Boy Scout on the MR. I've also seen some pretty big trout when I've camped above Consultation, as the larger trout showed themselves chasing small trout to the shore. Always wondered how big they are. As a note, on LBS, eggs and other things weren't working, so I took a tiny piece of bread and fished with that... worked well.

I once saw some good-sized fish as I hiked past UBSL. Didn’t expect to see them so high.

I've seen cows at 14,800 ft in Peru, so life adapts.

I once met a Vietnamese Pot Bellied Pig as he left the summit of a Colorado 14er.

This is a really naive question but how did the lakes of the high sierra get populated with fish? Can't imagine they are native.

My plan this year is to fish Consultation and UBSL and not bother with the mountain since I have already done that, but there are no longer any walk up permits so I may not get to those lakes after all. Funny how almost everyone on that trail is there exclusively to summit Whitney with no other purpose but that. All the lakes that have fish are as a result of stocking but the conditions are such that they continue to spawn and thrive, They don’t have the same fishing pressures as other lakes to in the eastern sierra but I suspect there was a time in the distant past when more fishermen visited the area than just mountain climbers. With all the huppla to summit the tallest mountain in the lower 48, the fishermen have gone elsewhere, but I’m still interested and trying to dial in the on-line reservation site so I can score an overnight ticket on the main trail or the north fork.

On all my trips on the trails up MWMT and North Fork of LPC I've seen people who are there to just visit one of the lakes to boat or fish and have no plans to go further. I've seen a couple carry a plastic kayak up the E-ledges to visit LBSL. There have even been two guys who have scuba dived Lake Tulainyo -- although I did not see that in person.

Also, it's my understanding that walk-in permits to trails other than MWMT are still available.

There is hope on the walk-in permit situation. Earlier in the week, I emailed my Inyo N.F. contact about the no-shows being available online. Rec.gov was blocking out current day and next day permits then.

Now, I see that tomorrow's overnight permits are online and available! -- this is for the Main Trail, so Consultation Lake! So if this continues, you should be able to grab a next-day overnight permit in the future.

I'm not sure about the North Fork Lone Pine Creek -- there are a max of 10 overnight permits, but don't know if no-shows are made available online, or if walk-ins are still on the program. You should call the Wilderness Permit number and ask how that works for this season: 760-873-2483

By the way, the easy way to get to rec.gov for the Day Use and Overnight Whitney Zone permits, just click on the Lottery Info link (Feature Topics box at the top on the left). Top of that page, you can follow steps to get into those permits and to see what's available.

Many years ago, I saw a plane dumping what I’m sure was fish into Third Lake (North Fork of Big Pine Creek). I would guess that this was once a common practice.

On the other hand, last summer, we met two people at Lamarck Col. Their job for the summer was to net and kill as many trout in high altitude lakes as possible. Somebody had decided that the trout were screwing up the ecosystem.

there are 11 species of Native Trout in California, and stocking, which started in the late 1800's, and continued by the Sierra Club and DFG, via truck and airplane for high country lakes, has decimated the Native Trout species. Appx 50% of those Native Trout could become extinct in the next 50 years. Golden Trout, the State Fish of California, is a Native fish.