OPENING-DAY TROUT ARE BIG AND BROWN AT TWIN LAKES : EASTERN SIERRA HOTBED KNOWN FOR RECORD-SIZED FISH.

Byline: Rob Wheat Special to the Daily News

It wasn't until Norman Annett raised brown trout that he realized they are so strange.

Annett, whose family homesteaded the area around his Mono Village Resort on Upper Twin Lake a century ago, began raising brown and rainbow trout to augment those planted at the lake by the Department of Fish and Game. He annually rears 8,000 2- to 5-pound rainbows and 900 1- to 2-pound browns for the fishery.

But Upper Twin Lake's brown population may not need Annett's help.

For four years running, the biggest fish caught on the opening day of trout season in the Eastern Sierra has been a brown trout from either Upper Twin Lake or neighboring Lower Twin Lake. And with an abundant food supply, the brown trout's solitary lifestyle and the Twin Lakes' colder waters, experts believe there is little reason to doubt the lakes will again yield the trout-opener whooper - and again it will be a brown.

``(Browns) are weird because they just lay at the bottom when we're growing them,'' Annett said. ``That's partly why they grow so large, because they stay at the bottom getting fat. Last year we had a guy catch a 7-pound, 10-ounce fish for the biggest fish of opening day, and the state record was caught on a cold day with gale-force winds a week after the opener in 1987.''

A plaster replica of the record 26-1/2-pound brown hangs from the boat house at Annett's resort.

``It looks like a big floating pig with it's huge belly,'' Annett said. ``I'd swear it's round as it is long. But it's pretty with the different colors. It's just kind of odd looking, it's so fat.''

The Upper Twin record brown edged out the previous state standard, a 26-pound, 5-ounce brown taken at the Lower Twin Lake in 1983. (The world record brown titled the scales at 40-1/4 pounds, caught in Arkansas' Little Red River in 1992.)

It was Lower Twin that produced a 13-pound, 6-ounce brown trout as the big fish of the 1997 Eastern Sierra trout opener and a 7-pound, 15-ouncer for the first day's honors a year earlier. An 8-pound, 10-ounce brown was registered at Upper Twin as 1995's opening-day leviathan.

The reputation of the Twin Lakes has created a friendly competition between the proprietors of the Upper and Lower resorts.

Not surprisingly, Annett and counterpart Steve Marti, owner of the Twin Lake Resort at Lower Twin, each predicts the opening day's lunker will be boated out of their lake come April 24.

Acton angler Marc Priore, an opening-day regular for the past eight years, knows where he's laying his money.

``Personally, I'm going to the Upper Lake because I caught a fish just a bit shy of my personal best of 5 pounds there (in October). But the lower lake is known for big ones, too.''

Marti maintains the brown trout's loner way of life and suspicious nature help it survive and grow.

``They don't travel in schools and are naturally very wary of being caught,'' he said. ``But they're ambush fish, so you can catch them around the bushes and grass off the shore. They do like to lay around the bottom, especially after a big meal because they'll eat until they're stuffed and won't feed again for about four or five days.''

Another reason brown trout grow to such tremendous dimensions in the Twin Lakes is the daily all-you-can eat buffet to which they are treated. ``There are nine other species of fish besides the brown trout in those lakes, and browns are very aggressive fish-eating animals,'' said associate fishery biologist Curtis Milliron of the DFG's Bishop office. ``. . . We also stock the lakes (with other trout) pretty well, so there's no shortage for food for those big guys.''

The lakes' colder temperatures - at elevations of 7,091 feet for the upper, 7,078 for the lower - and deeper waters - 110 feet and 150 feet or more, respectively - contribute to the longevity and, subsequently, the size of the brown trout, which tend to live longer than their rainbow cousins. The cold preserves fish by slowing their metabolisms, Milliron explained, and these browns are content to live the sedentary life on the lakes' frigid bottoms, making it difficult to hook them because they are so docile.

Marti, who used to fish the area as a youngster in the 1950s and has been a businessman there for more than 18 years, is convinced the increased fishing pressure in Eastern Sierra waters should prompt some changes in fishing regulations at Lower Twin Lake for the protection of its fishery.

``You never see a picture with a guy holding up a small fish with a big smile on his face,'' Marti said. ``Anglers want to capture `the big fish,' and we can help make this lake even more of a hot spot, but it would take some changes, like gear restrictions - no artificial lures with barbs - and size limits on what can be taken out.

``A catch-and-release program would help build the fish up - throwing them back if they are too small so they can grow some more. And having a ban on barbs goes along with that. If you release the fish, you want the least amount of damage to them so they'll live. So hooks with barbs would be best left at home.''

Marti believes he will face opposition with his recommendations, but Milliron envisions such a plan would not ruffle too many feathers since Lower Twin already has the reputation as a ``trophy lake,'' while Upper Twin is more family orientated with its bigger dock area that can also crank out big browns. The notion is that anglers seeking trophy trout wouldn't mind stricter release regulations as much as anglers with families who might want to keep more fish.

Priore does his best to edge on the amicable feud between Upper and Lower Twin lakes, but he has bigger fish to fry.

``To be honest, I don't care if I catch a darn thing, it's so beautiful up there by the lakes,'' he said. ``I just love fishing. So catching a big fish would be a great bonus. But, like they say, `A bad day of fishing beats a great day at work anytime.' ''

IF YOU'RE GOING . . .

To get to the Twin Lakes, travel highways 14 and 395 some 350 miles to Bridgeport, turn left onto Twin Lakes Road at the west end of town and drive 11-1/2 miles to Lower Twin Lake. Upper Twin Lake is 1-1/2 miles farther.

Camping and boat rentals are available at Twin Lakes Resort on Lower Twin Lake, [phone], and Mono Village Resort on Upper Twin Lake, [phone].

For details on first-come, first-serve sites at two public campgrounds within the Twin Lakes Recreation Area - Honeymoon Flat and Robinson Creek (north half) - call the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest's Bridgeport Ranger District, [phone]. Reservations are available for May 21 and later but are filling fast; call [phone] or [phone] to reserve a site.

The daily bag limit is five trout; 10 fish can be in possession.

Don't confuse the Twin Lakes out of Bridgeport with the lakes of the same name situated in the Mammoth Lakes Basin.

- Daily News

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos, Box

PHOTO (1--2--Color) A friendly Twin Lakes feud exists over which waters will produce the opening day's largest trout. Steve Marti, owner of Twin Lakes Resort at Lower Twin Lake, left, and Kent Monroe, manager of Upper Twin Lake's Mono Village Boat House and Marina, prepare for the season.

(3--Color) A replica of the state record ``floating pig,'' or brown trout, hangs on Mono Village Resort's boathouse wall at Upper Twin Lake.

Photos by Brett Pauly/Daily News

BOX: IF YOU`RE GOING . . . (see text)