---

Literary accounts of fishouts in the recent past,
to make you sorry you didn't go.

Mammoth Fishout
By Kent Hull

The Mammoth Lakes 2004 Fishout was a great success. This year, it went two weeks, with about a condo full the first week and two condos the second week. The fishout began with hope for warm, sunny autumn days. Instead we were greeted with cold air, howling winds and snow flurries. Most of the group headed down to the Bishop area (4000' lower). It was warmer but the wind continued to howl. Elaine Cook, Ralph Berman and Tom Pelikan went for a blow around in their tubes in Pleasant Valley Reservoir. By Tuesday the weather began to warm, and the rest of the fishout was quite pleasant.
Early on, Tom and Mark Bradley had their first experience on Crowley and with Elaine Cook's help were quite successful. Ralph Berman and Tom Pelikan did well too. Kent Hull hooked a monster, but it won.
Deanna Raudman and her trusty (four legged) sidekick Molly had a great day on Rush Creek just south of Mono Lake, as did several others. John Cook took Tom and Mark Bradley to the Owens River Gorge to try their hand at dry fly fishing for the first time. With John's expert tutoring, they each caught five browns. However John's efforts at teaching them how to cast left a lot of room for improvement.
Later, Elaine Cook broke her toe but (what would you expect?) continued fishing. It wasn't until the fishing shut down that she went into the local ER still in her fishing gear.
Fly tying was a nightly event where ideas were shared and the flies tied successfully fooled many trout. On several occasions, Doug Severin rushed in during the day, whipped out three or four flies, and rushed back out to fish them. And he gave quite a few to others who had great success with them.
The most remarkable part of the fishout by most accounts was Betty Rentz and what came to be called The Bobber Brigade. Betty had mastered the rather arcane art of indicator fishing in Crowley with two midge larvae and a lot of patience; even more impressive was her skill and generosity in teaching many others the successful techniques, dubbed by some wag, "bobbicating." She first showed Doug Severin and Elaine Cook the techniques at the north end of the Six Bays shoreline at Crowley. Many 15" to 19" fish were caught, some of them taking line out into the backing. Nearly every morning, the Bobber Brigade was seen at Crowley, with Betty teaching a few more club members how to do it.

Favorite parts of the fishout for some of the members:
* Harry Petrakis - Being introduced to the top part of the upper Owens - it's a beautiful spring creek with big meandering bends.
* Lois Robinson - Having a private bedroom and bathroom
* Walt Robinson - A day golfing on the highest elevation course in the state. ("Well, I've done that, no need to do it again.") And learning to bobbicate, a new way of fishing.
* Kent Hull Sr., and Jr. - Spending a week with each other.
* Jon Bowman - Meeting new people.
* Doug Severin - Betty Rentz teaching bobber fishing.
The fishout will be remembered as a lot of great camaraderie (helped by a lot of great food) and a lot of great fishing (and some great catching, too!). It seemed as if everyone took time to help another with some part of the outing, and everyone was helped, too, by others. The theme throughout the fishout, as John Cook said, (begin background music) was "People helping people."

The usually "hot" fishing on these ponds was more of a challenge for all of us this time around. A low pressure system that moved in over night brought some stiff winds to the mountain ponds by morning. The fish were hard to tempt with our home-made poppers and flies. They stayed deep and inactive for the most part, but a few larger ones were still caught by Ed McLellan (newest member to SCFF) with his creative colorful flies: yellow foam bodies, red 'n black polka dots, chartreuse wiggly legs and grizzly tails. It is written that bass have very good memories and will not forget a fly on which they have been caught. Well, these bass at O'Connell never saw Ed's flies before and he had pretty good success with them. Elaine Cook, who suffered from a fractured foot incurred during the Mammoth trip, was able to gear up and float tube the ponds without too much discomfort. During the later part of the day she had better luck catching bass when she resorted to a purple and black wooly bugger variety. Tom Pelikan found his catching improved once he switched to a black Dalberg Diver imitating the many frogs he saw leaping near the muddy shores. His son, Daniel, on his first outing with the club also had success using the wooly buggers he tied. Elaine got a photo of Tom's large bass caught along the cattail reeds. Mike Phinn had a good time in his float tube from Thursday evening's raffle. There was concern with the wind causing him trouble for that large size tube, but Mike managed it without any trouble and he stayed high and dry AND he caught lots of fish. I think Lee caught some fish, so she says, but nobody saw her...
Those present on this trip were: Cindy and Mike Phinn, Tom Pelikan and son, Daniel, Tom Deetz and son, Kevin, Ed McLellan, Lee Fitzsimmons, Elaine Cook, Dick Stipes and myself. We awarded Cindy Phinn a little award (thanks to Tom Deetz) for having caught her first bass on a fly rod. We enjoyed a barbecue lunch and had a relaxing day.

This year's Delta Fishout was, once again, lots of fun with 15 club members participating. The members who arrived early on Thursday and Friday enjoyed great weather and eager fish. On Friday, Betty Rentz caught the largest fish, which was approximately 10 pounds. Many other members caught several fish weighing in between 3-7 pounds. On Friday night, the wind came up, making Saturday a much different day from Thursday and Friday. Conditions on Saturday were tough and the fish were very shy.
In spite of the weather, there were some 3-5 pound fish caught on Saturday, but not many. After fighting the wind on Saturday, several members decided to call it quits and headed for home. There were a few hearty souls who fished on Sunday, but the wind came up again mid-morning. A few 3-5 pounders were caught, but the fish weren't eager to bite. With the wind and the expected rain coming on Sunday, most gave it up by mid-day.
The weather could have been better for us, but the company was outstanding. The fish were there, they just didn't want to cooperate as we would have liked them to do. But, there are always stories to tell and memories to revisit, so a successful trip was the outcome for this yearŐs Delta Fishout.

Back to Table of Contents