Gravel Pit Lake Fishing near Yosemite Valley, California

• Overview

  Set in Tuolumne County, California, this is Gravel Pit Lake. Open plain runs right down to the water. It covers about 5 acres, so this is small water you can walk round in under an hour. On size it sits at the modest end of our Tuolumne County list. The nearest place of any size is Yosemite Valley, 21 miles away. For a city, Modesto is 68 miles off. It sits well inside the county, so one set of rules covers it.

• Where to Fish on Gravel Pit Lake

  There is no recorded depth, so work from what you can see. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Where the bottom changes texture, fish gather; find that line. Reported across Tuolumne County: rainbow trout, brook trout and Sacramento sucker. The county figures include rivers and lakes alike. Gravel Pit Lake gives up more to patience than to distance.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Between December at about 37°F and August at about 68°F, the water has a wide range to work through. The year never really closes; it just gets uncomfortable in summer. The cooler months are the comfortable ones to be out. November and March are the quiet, comfortable months to be out. Gravel Pit Lake runs to that rhythm year in and year out.

• Tackle & Baits

  Access is not recorded for this water. Nothing formal is recorded here: no ramp, no car park, no marked path. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Where access is informal, keep it that way by behaving. A polite question at the farm gate opens more banks than anything else. Failing this one, try Swamp Lake, 1 mile away. Treat access at Gravel Pit Lake as something to verify.