E. SIERRA STILL HAS GOOD BITE.

Byline: Keith Lair Staff Writer

School is back in session and autumn is a week away.

So, fishing in the Eastern Sierra should be diminishing, right? Well, the weather's perfect, the crowds have thinned and the fish are still biting, lake operators and resort owners say.

``I've been here five years and it seems to get better every year,'' said Jeff Topp of the Crowley Lake Fish Camp. ``It's been pretty good fishing and then it's been exceptional.''

There has been little rain and only one cold snap, around Labor Day weekend. On Tuesday, the morning temperature was 65 degrees and warmed into the high 70s. The nighttime lows have been in the mid-40s.

``It's been too nice,'' said Dale Miller of Mac's Sporting Goods at June Lake. ``Normally, it cools off and the fish really start biting. But that hasn't been the case this year.''

Debra Hawk of the Department of Fish and Game's Bishop office says the catch rate per hour has been higher than average.

``Why? I do not know,'' she said. ``Perhaps we got more people this year because of the weather and we're getting a lot more people reporting (their catch).''

The season, which opened April 29, will end in six weeks, on Oct. 31. There is one major fishing tournament remaining at Crowley, the Double-Haul-In-The-Fall, a float-tube derby on Sept. 30. Last year, Whittier teen-ager Josh Koch beat out 371 other contestants for first prize.

The DFG has also stocked nearly every body of water in the region at least once every other week since April. Ron Scira of the Creekside RV Park in Bishop also increased its weekly stocking of Tim Alpers-grown trout.

``I know the hatcheries exceeded their production rate and met their allotment,'' said Hawk.

The DFG Region 6 goal, which includes the Eastern Sierra, is to produce 1,465,000 pounds of trout. Nearly all of those 4.4 million trout are scheduled to be released into the Eastern Sierra through Oct. 31.

The combination of the hatchery and fingerlings planted by the DFG and the above-average inflow of water have helped at Crowley, Topp said.

On Tuesday, he saw fly anglers catch between 15 and 20 fish, the longest about 17 inches, in about 90 minutes. They were using midge patterns.

``They're holding up their end (of planting fish) and I think all these last few years of good water has really made the fishing excellent,'' he said.

Scira says now that school's back in session, the fishing heat should really turn on.

``There's been a lot less people and that's really made the fishing fantastic,'' he said.