The next day my thoughts turned to Lake Crowley, or rather, the trophy trout of Lake Crowley. On the way south I marveled at the spiritual beauty of Mono Lake. Lee Vining is one of my favorite towns in the eastern Sierras. I thought how fortunate it's residents must be to wake up each morning to that broad body of pastel blues stretching endlessly to the horizon.

Mammoth Lake was another story. The yuppy ambience, upscale restaurants, and general size of the community seem to deprive the town of the character of the previous stopovers. It's essentially an alpine version of Carmel. Mammoth seemed to have more fly shops than the Bay Area. I learned that Lake Crowley was off this fall and so, proceeded to Hot Creek.

My last recollection of Hot Creek had been one of a summer evening 30 years ago where I proceeded to drink an enormous quantity of cheap red wine that stayed with me for the next 2 miserable days. The water directly upstream from those hot springs has some excellent fishing.

I was amazed at the richness of Hot Creek. Rich, luxuriant weeds covered the entire bottom, often reaching to the surface. You could see large trout scurrying for cover as you walked the banks. Mule deer waded every evening down to the water and foraged on the submerged flora. Clark's nutcrackers swooped down from the junipers to drink the clear water. And the swallows were everywhere during the hatch.

The hatch was rich and diverse. Blue winged olives came off daily from 10AM to 2:30PM, giving you the opportunity to fish dries for a solid 4 1/2 hours. After numerous changes a size 20 Stalcups CDC blue winged olive proved to be the right choice. The best fish were holding tight against the banks or in the deeper openings between the weeds. I landed 4 rainbows in the 15"-16" range that had a vitality that, well, that only a rainbow has. I was pleased.

On the way back to the Bay Area I had another visual discovery that I want to share with you. At the base of the road up to Monitor Pass lies a lake whose beauty is stunning. Appropriatly name, Topaz Lake, it appears to be a small version of Mono Lake without the salinity. During the morning I arrived it's still blue waters reflected the distant desert buttes AND there were sizeable rings across it's entired surface. The lakeside resort I subsequently visited had huge trophies mounted of brown, rainbow, and lahontan cutthroat trout. This, I decided, was a place that needed further investigation.

Igor Doncov