Well - What can I say that already hasn't about the Bash. Great food, great people, great location. I wish that I gotten off of Heenan a little earlier and had more time to chat with everyone. Its hard to leave such an awesome fishery. Sure had a good time bunking with Hud and Darti. Every morning we would get up and be greeted by Carpy and Ms. Coy's smiling faces out on the deck. I still don't believe that "THE BEAR" drank all of Hud's whiskey - but Carpy swears he doesn't drink Beam.... 
The bear sure gave me an adrenalin rush Sat evening. I walked out of the out house, heard some crunching in the leaves, lit up the area I heard the noise and saw nothing. Turned to my right and about kicked the bastard. He was 3 feet in front of me. At first I thought it was Road Dog with that beard of his! 
As soon as I yelled at it off it ran into the weeds. From what I heard the next day it didn't go too far off. Next time we may have to bring the paint ball guns and have people reporting green and orange bears the next day.
Speaking of Heenan - after catching Shamoo the trout and some of his smaller brethren (22", 19" , 17" and 12") I didn't think I could top that action. WRONG!!!
Darti and I, after leaving CRR/Bash site headed up over 89 and down to 395 South. We went to the Owens River Ranch (again) to take care of some business and fish Tim Alper's pay to play pond. We fished from 3:30 till dark under that waxing gibbous. The fish were sipping emergers and within 10 minutes I hooked a nice 22" on a #20 E/C caddis. I figured we were going to slaughter them after that but it wasn't to be. Those fish were pretty selective. I was only able to land 2 others - a 18" and a 14". We tried every thing emerger in our boxes and never really found the key pattern.
The highlight of that evening on the pond was being spooled by the biggest trout I have ever hooked and partially seen. I spotted it cruising across the pond about 20' in front of me sipping about every 2 feet. I dropped an #18 E/C a foot in front of it and sure enough it sipped it. The hook set caused that fish to jump up slap its tail so hard it sounded like a bowling ball got dropped in the lake. That fish ran all the way across the pond to the opposite bank. I was seeing the spool through the backing when I turned the tube around and started kicking with my back to the fish. I got about 20 turns back on the reel and turned around again. There was a brief battle and I felt a pop - guess what: LDR!!! Got all the line back and the hook had straightened out. Darti and I figured with all the line in the water the drag on the fish was uncontrollable on my end. It was great!!! It was the "Spot of Time" for me.
The next day we went down to Hot Creek to be humbled by the fish that have seen all. We got there about 10 and there were only about 10 people on the water. Pretty good for that place. Unfortunately, the pre-frontal wind came up from the West at about 12 and howled through the canyon, gusting up to about 40 mph. I ended up getting 5 fish in the 18" - 8" range. In the 3 previous times I fished there I had only gotten 2 fish total so I was feeling pretty good. They were taking small #22 tricos (which I didn't have) and fortunately #20 E/C's. That place is about a 100 casts per fish. You definitely have to pay your dues there. On the way out I put on a Puyans thorax PT and high sticked what little pocket water is there and hooked a real nice brown that jumped all the way out of the water and shook the hook. At least I saw him. The wind finally drove us out of there. We only saw one other guy fishing when we left at 2:30. The rain was just starting and we got out just in time.
This was one of the better trips I have had. Bashing must be good luck!!! Like Hud said - "Lets Bash Weekly"
SloFly
