And once again Winter has returned – actually we had an action-packed weather week from snow, wind, rain, hail, beautiful blue skies and sun! Like we’ve been known to say – Just wait a bit and the weather will change. As I’m writing this report Tuesday morning – we’ve got a mirrored lake, blue sky with big puffy white clouds and it’s snowing.

The Lake is still on the rise – the peninsula in front of the building is now an island and the cushion/lifejacket trail has moved up closer to the launch ramp.

Fishing took a downward turn this week, hoping it’s just this storm passing thru and the catching will pick up by the weekend. Fishing the inlets (don’t forget we have three) with NightCrawlers, PowerBait or Jigs, but you’re going to work for them. Trolling the shoreline or thru the channels with NightCrawlers or Lures with red on them (like the Red and Gold Thomas Buoyant) or try a WoolyBugger fly. Shore fishing is also on the slow side, but you might try the normal – NightCrawlers, Salmon Eggs or PowerBait. Should be getting stocked sometime this week by Department of Fish and Wildlife. Chris Gaskill gave his new pupper Eko a fishing lesson – Eko sure does like fish!

Mule Days starts May 24th – Check out all the fun stuff to do at the Bishop Chamber of Commerce website: www.BishopVisitor.com.

The Lake Sabrina Café will be open seven days a week:

Breakfast 7:00am – 11:00am
Lunch 11:00am – 4:00pm

and our store hours are: 7:00am to 7:00pm

Think the Godzilla Skeeters are gone due to the cold temps. Now we’ll just wait for the regular size skeeters. With the soon to be return of the favorite little pest, when using the bug juice, try not to get it on your hands – you’ll transfer it to your bait and the fish just don’t like bug juice or sunscreen or lotion or cologne or perfume. Wash your hands in the stream or Lake to get it off, then use some fish attractant on your hands. If you’re coming to the Lake, don’t forget sunscreen and dark glasses –the snow and sun makes it pretty bright against the blue sky. DON’T FORGET THAT JACKET.

Starting May 28th all USFS Campgrounds should be opened in Bishop Creek Canyon as well as all the Resorts in the Canyon. Not sure when the Pack Stations will get going there’s still a lot of snow in the back country. If you’re heading up into the back country – layer appropriately, take plenty water and let someone know the direction your heading. You will encounter snow on the trails at the 9500’ level – some drifts may be little – some quite substantial. Had a report on the Blue Lake Trail – some drifts where you can lose trail if you’re not paying attention. Blue Lake is still partial iced over with a bit of open water around the shore. The trail to Upper Lamarack Lake has patches of snow here and there and the Lake is still iced over. Plan accordingly.

Looks like you might need a jacket and poncho for this week. There’s a great chance for rain or snow on Wednesday and a chance of sprinkle on Thursday and we might have some thunderboomers roaming. Temps look to be in the mid-50s this weekend for highs and the low to mid-30s for lows. You can check out the weather forecast according to Howard our local weather ‘guesser’ at www.MammothWeather.com. You can also check out www.weather.gov – enter Aspendell, CA (which is the little community right below Lake Sabrina) in the search field and you’ll get the forecast for at the higher elevation. You may need to scroll down on the webpage to see the temps.