COLD LAKES MIGHT FREEZE CATCHES ON OPENING DAY : EASTERN SIERRA HOLDS BREATH FOR WARMER WEATHER.

Byline: Brett Pauly Daily News Staff Writer

The later the ice on Crowley Lake thaws, the slower it will take to fill a trout stringer on the opening day of fishing season.

It may not be what anglers want to hear, but that's the word from the Department of Fish and Game, which keeps careful data of such critical matters.

``We're not sure why, but we have evidence that the two are synonymous,'' said Alan Pickard, senior fisheries supervisor for the DFG in Bishop. ``I just think the fish stay deeper and are less active.''

And with the Eastern Sierra's greatest opening-day destination still frozen, it may be best to plan on fishing longer at Crowley Lake to catch a five-trout limit, weather - and ice - pending, of course.

The long-term average catch rate for boaters on opening morning at Crowley is about one trout an hour. That rate drops significantly the closer to the trout-season opening date the lake's winter coating of ice thaws.

Last year, after Crowley was free of ice by March, opening-day anglers caught .86 fish per hour, according to statistics kept by DFG associate fishery biologist Curtis Milliron, who oversees trout studies at the Mono County reservoir northwest of Bishop.

After 1992's early thaw, anglers boated 1.6 trout per hour, meaning a limit was taken in just more than three hours.

But three years ago, during a late thaw in mid-April, it was an awfully slow opener with anglers catching just .5 fish per hour, or one trout every two hours. That's a limit in - gasp - 10 hours.

Yet 1995 was still heads and tails ahead of 1993, when ice on the lake didn't break up until the Wednesday before the traditional opening date - the last Saturday of April.

``It was a nice, calm opening, but the water was very cold,'' Milliron recalled. ``There were fish taken on top early in the day, but the fishing for the entire weekend was very slow overall.''

The '93 catch rate: .32 trout per hour. Boaters typically had to wait more than three hours to catch their first fish; there weren't enough hours of daylight to take home a limit.

Despite the slow fishing, Milliron said, ``I don't personally think that '93 was a terrible opener because the weather was very pleasant. A good opener is enjoying the scenery. A good opener is not being at work.''

What's a bad opener?

``If the lake is frozen, that makes it a bad opener,'' Milliron said. Then the catch rate for boaters is 0.0 trout an hour.

While science doesn't have all the answers for slower catch rates on later thaws, Milliron does offer conjecture.

``Trout are cold-bloodied species, so their metabolism is related to water temperature,'' he said.

At Crowley, he explained, the longer ice stays on top, the longer the water remains cold and the longer the trout remain sluggish, feeding less aggressively because they are not expending as much energy.

Milliron's best advise to rectify a slow trout-season opener: ``Plan on getting up here again; catch rates are usually higher for June and July.''

Lake updates: Eastern Sierra marina managers held their collective breath over the weekend as overnight temperatures dipped to the low teens and portions of roadside lakes that had thawed earlier froze over again.

``I'm 5 percent less optimistic the lake will be open by the trout opener,'' said Convict Lake general manager David DeSurra, who last week all but guaranteed the lake would be free of ice by April 25. ``Who knew it was going to snow?''

But Monday's flurries gave way to forecasts of warmer and windier weather, a combination that has given Crowley Lake general manager Dick Canton reason to believe the frozen lake will thaw any day.

``Warmer weather softens up the ice, and the wind breaks it up,'' he said. ``Then it's a matter of a few days.''

On Tuesday, marina operators noticed a six-inch lake-wide crack in the sheet covering Crowley - a telltale sign the ice is about to submerge, which can happen rapidly. For example, two years ago, ice across three-quarters of the lake broke and cleared overnight, Canton noted.

Meanwhile, up at June Lake, half of its 600 acres are unfrozen. However, workers at June Lake Marina aren't expected to haul its 45 rental boats out to the docks until this weekend at the earliest, fearing that floating ice could wash into the landing.

And back at Convict, ``The lake is still basically frozen,'' DeSurra said. But areas that had thawed earlier before icing up again over the weekend - the lake's outlet and the marina - are free of freeze again and the clearings are growing larger daily, he noted.

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PHOTO (Color) Season-opening trout stringers like this at Crowley Lake will likely take longer to fill this year because of the lake's long freeze.

John McCoy/Daily News