Ansel Adams Wilderness
Lillian Lake Loop Trail
Total Miles: 13
Highest Elevation: 8,960 Ft.
Carrie, Jeff, Adrienne and I decided to explore some new territory this weekend. We drove South East of Yosemite to the Ansel Adams Wilderness, part of the Sierra National Forest. It was a long drive from SF and a moderately difficult hike. Mostly because we didn’t have time to acclimate to the altitude so we were all moving pretty slow.
We encountered several Lakes throughout the hike, and managed to fish most of them. Our favorite was Lillian Lake, the largest of the three. Here’s a shot of it early in the morning, just before the wind picked up. If you look closely, you can see a dimple in the water (bottom right corner) of where a trout had just risen.
Due to its size, this lake produced some large trout. Jeff was able to land these two on Ant patterns, fishing from the banks. A nice 13″ Rainbow and a 15″ Brook Trout.
We usually practice Catch & Release, but as you can see, these fish have already been cleaned. When you are 8 miles into the wilderness, having eaten dehydrated food the past two nights, fresh trout sound delicious. And let me tell you, they were.
Over the weekend, we caught lots more brook trout, mostly in the 10 inch range. I’ve posted plenty of pictures of those from my previous Sierra Trips, so i’ll leave them out of this post.
On the way out, we got some nice views of the Ritter Mountain Range just to the North of us.
Sweet, you got some nice fish to eat. That’s awesome.
I love how still the water is in that first shot compared to the second.