Brave Lake, California: Fishing Spots and Seasons

• Overview

  The Mono County entry here is Brave Lake, in California. The bank is 9,921 feet above sea level. At 9 acres it is the sort of place you fish for an evening rather than a day. Head to Mammoth Lakes, 11 miles away, for anything you forgot. It is 62 miles to Clovis, the nearest city. This one is safely inside the county line.

• Where to Fish on Brave Lake

  Depth remains unrecorded, so treat the first session as a survey. On a natural lake the weed line and the shelf beyond it do the work. A natural lake fishes on cover, and cover here means weed and timber. Across Mono County, recorded fish include brook trout, rainbow trout, brown trout, owens sucker and california golden trout. These are county-wide records, so not all of them will be in this water. At Brave Lake the first feature you find is worth twenty minutes.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Climate records put August near 53°F and February near 23°F. The freeze arrives properly here and holds. Ice-out usually falls in late May, and the weeks after it fish hardest. Break-up near late May, freeze-up near late November: that is the shape of an average year. Fishing peaks soon after break-up and again before the cold returns. The season on Brave Lake follows the weather closely.

• Tackle & Baits

  We hold no note on access for this one. Nothing is mapped in the way of a ramp or car park within a short radius. For the trout, small spinners and a box of nymphs cover both approaches. Where the road in crosses private land, ask first. Night access is frequently treated as a separate matter. Lake of the Lone Indian at 1 mile is the sensible second choice. What applies at Brave Lake may have changed since it was mapped.