A TRADITION WELL KEPT : VALLEY FISHING ENTHUSIASTS FOLLOW TROUT RITUAL.Byline: BRETT PAULY As the Eastern Sierra armada broke wakes in Crowley Lake Crowley Lake is a reservoir on the upper Owens River in southern Mono County, California in the United States. It was created in 1941 by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) as storage for the Los Angeles Aqueduct and for flood control. an hour before daybreak Saturday, a word that came up frequently among the anglers casting from shore was ``tradition.'' It was a theme repeated throughout the year's first day of trout fishing. ``It's just about getting the guys together and having a good time,'' said Steve Stobaugh of Glendale after his initial toss of rainbow glitter Power Bait at 5:30 a.m. ``Tradition, just tradition.'' He explained how eight 40-something anglers who have been friends since grade school haven't missed a trout opener in better than a decade. Despite regional proximities, it's one of the only chances they get to spend time with each other, what with family and work commitments and diverse schedules. ``You drift apart Verb 1. drift apart - lose personal contact over time; "The two women, who had been roommates in college, drifted apart after they got married" drift away after high school. Everybody does,'' Stobaugh said. ``This is a way to get back together.'' On the water, baitfish bait·fish n. Chiefly Chesapeake Bay & North Atlantic Coast A small fish, such as a minnow, used for fishing bait. anglers, lure aficionados and trollers recalled their first openers, when a father or granddad, an uncle or neighbor, turned them on to fooling browns and rainbows in a stream or lake in Inyo and Mono counties. Decades old or just beginning, the bonds that define the tradition are indelibly linked to family, friends, fish and fresh air. I have come to appreciate the union of man and nature. There's nothing quite like an early hookup hookup, n in the Trager method of therapy, the practitioner enters into a meditative state along with the patient, which allows him or her to work more intuitively and to feel subtle changes in the patient's movement and tissue texture. on the troll as the sun breaks over the White Mountains White Mountains, part of the Appalachian system, N N.H. and SW Maine, rising to 6,288 ft (1,917 m) at Mt. Washington in the Presidential Range and to 5,249 ft (1,600 m) at Mt. Lafayette in the Franconia Mountains. Crawford Notch separates these two main groups. . Or those same rays shimmering shim·mer intr.v. shim·mered, shim·mer·ing, shim·mers 1. To shine with a subdued flickering light. See Synonyms at flash. 2. off monofilament monofilament, n a single strand of untwisted synthetic material such as nylon; used to create surgical sutures. monofilament lines thrown from shore as seen from a boatload boat·load n. The number of passengers or the amount of cargo that a boat can hold. Noun 1. boatload - the amount of cargo that can be held by a boat or ship or a freight car; "he imported wine by the boatload" of buddies. Or the excitement of netting a younger brother's prize, the big fish of the day. ``I've come up here for the opener almost every year of my life with my dad,'' said Karen Honey of North Hollywood. ``It's total tradition. To me, it means everything.'' Two years ago, under threatening skies and in raging winds, Honey introduced her friend Debbi Jones to the annual pastime. ``She got me hooked on it,'' said Jones, also of North Hollywood, on a day bathed in sunlight and absent of wind, when the first T-shirts were spotted by 8 a.m. ``This has become a total tradition, and now I'm part of it. It's great.'' Tom Harvick of Valencia brought his two sons, brother-in-law and a friend to Crowley on Saturday. The crew gets together once a year, camps at the same site, fishes the opener, dines that evening at the same restaurant in Mammoth Lakes and orders the same appetizer - jalapeno fritters. ``If you don't have gas and heartburn heartburn, burning sensation beneath the breastbone, also called pyrosis. Heartburn does not indicate heart malfunction but results from nervous tension or overindulgence in food or drink. through the night, it just isn't the same,'' Harvick said. Their luck was slower than in years past, because the weather was too good, they claimed. ``I think it's too hot. The fish go deep. They stopped biting early,'' said Harvick, whose team still managed 15 trout by noon. These anglers actually prefer inclement in·clem·ent adj. 1. Stormy: inclement weather. 2. Showing no clemency; unmerciful. in·clem openers. ``We've been lucky,'' Harvick said. ``Every time we've been here it's windy, snowy and cold, and we've slayed them.'' At nearby Convict Lake Convict Lake (elevation 7,850 feet (2393 m)), is a lake in the Sherwin Range of the Sierra Nevada in California, USA. It is known for its fishing and the dramatic mountains (including Mount Morrison) that surround the lake. , Bill Meadows of North Hollywood brought his girlfriend, Lynn Frederico of Fullerton, to her first trout opener. Meadows made his opening-day debut in the Eastern Sierra when he was 11. He was initiated by his father, who also experienced his first opener at age 11. ``I'm having a lot of fun,'' Frederico said. ``It's a lot nicer than I've been warned.'' ``We've fished up here in the snow before,'' Meadows explained. ``The first time I was here, there was ice in my guides.'' Working the same bank as his son, Frank Meadows of Van Nuys noted he has missed only about five trout openers in 45 years. His biggest first-day fish was a 5-1/2-pounder at Convict in about 1966; his largest in the Sierra is a 9-pounder taken from Lake George Lake George, village (1990 est. pop. 1,100), seat of Warren co., E N.Y.; inc. 1903. Situated on the southern tip of Lake George in the foothills of the Adirondack Mts. in the Mammoth Lakes Basin. He insists during every opener that when it comes his time, his son spread his ashes over the two lakes. ``I have to keep interjecting it so he doesn't bury me,'' the elder Meadows said. The times spent with his son fishing on opening day are memories he'll always cherish and adventures that have drawn them closer. Frank Meadows feels that traditions are becoming harder to keep for families in the work-a-day world. ``It just seems that other than Christmas, families don't seem to do as many traditional things as they used to,'' he said. ``But I can't picture us not doing this together.'' CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: (color) As the sun rises over the White Mountains, fishermen line the shore at Crowley Lake for the trout opener. John McCoy / Daily News |
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