joe
In the eastern Sierra this time of year you can often catch fish in any patch of holding water with an open surface. Brook trout seem to be active even at very low water temps. There are brook and rainbow trout along the trail.
The pond at the portal has stocked rainbows and a few wild rainbows. In the summer you can see rainbows holding at the 'logs' stream crossing on the trail below Lone Pine Lake, which has at least rainbows. Until the 1980s when storms filled parts of Bighorn Park with gravel, there was a 6 to 8 foot deep pond at the lower end. Now there is little holding water there but in the fall I still see brooks spawning in the creek where the trail runs next to it before crossing it and starting to climb towards Mirror Lake.
Mirror Lake has brooks and rainbows. On warm sunny days the upslope winds bring insects from the lower slopes to feed the fish. Ralph Cutter calls this the upslope hatch. Cutter's book 'Sierra Trout' will give you fish species in Sierra lakes and rivers.
This time of year the changeable nature of the snow pack surface can make finding safe approaches a challenge. This is particularly true around Consultation Lake when it is still partially covered with ice, because of the rocky terrain. The pond at Trail Camp doesn't seem to have the depth and flow needed to hold fish over the winter at 12,000'.
Good luck,
Dale B. Dalrymple
http://dbdimages.com
