The road to Cherry is all paved and is plowed all winter but the 24 miles in from 120 is likely enough to give some vertigo. The dam keeper says the road crossing the dam and leading to Eleanor will remain closed until May 16.

Correction: contrary to what the HHWP dam keeper stated, the Forest Service says the road crossing the Cherry Lake Dam will open April 15.

Great report and pictures. I will mention that last year CDFW planted 40,000 sub-catchable eagle lake trout (triploid) in Folsom that were "marked" with a right pelvic fin clip. Hope was high the wild strain fish would do well in Folsom. The pictured rainbow does not appear to be one. The perfect dorsal points to wild origins.

http://www.fishsniffer.com/reports/details/big-plant-of-eagle-lake-trout-boosts-folsom-lake-fishery/

Made my first visit to Cherry Lake this week and found no people and slow fishing. The three fish caught were nice wild 18-20 inch rainbows. The majority fish marks on the sonar were suspended at around 40 feet. Also at that depth were bait ball like marks that I've been told were bluegill? Any way, that's where I caught them, down 5 colors of lead core. No surface activity at all. Paid the price for letting the afternoon west wind catch me at the wrong end of the lake.

You could call it yakpacking. By lacing an extra strap or two though the scupper holes of a light sot and around the frame and padded bars of a Seattle Sports canoe carrier you can gain the necessary rigidity to the union to transform the yak into very functional hand cart that will haul enough camping gear and supplies for a short stay. The payoff is greatest on lakes that are large and deep enough to hold large fish that are under utilized by shore or float tube anglers and can be exploited with the aid of a sonar and deep trolling techniques.

Even compared to last year the snow cover on the Crystal Range is looking sparse. Late in the day with nary a bump I switched from rapalas and pointers to a 3/4 ounce spoon and quickly hooked three small macks, around 20 inches. One gets bonked due to taking the hook deep.

Here in southern Sacramento County the birds decline seemed to coinside with farmers taking up planting corn with seed treated with a cocktail of pesticides that included diazinon, and the use of roundup to keep ditch banks "clean". What ever the cause, the decline was sharp, occurring over just a few years in the late 70's-early 80's. They are completely gone now. Haven't seen or heard a rooster in years.

The Yakima track rack factory installed on a snugtop pickup shell. Is this system up to carrying a pair of 60-70 lb. yaks? Anyone suffer a failure of a Yakima rack? Thanks