Getting There

We drove over Sonora Pass and arrived at the Kennedy Meadows Pack Station just off Hwy 108 in mid September 2019. We unloaded our equipment at the scales, parked our truck in a large nearby parking lot and had a nice hot breakfast at the cafe inside while Matt Broom and his professional crew took care of everything. We left on horseback at 7am and rode for 6 hours taking only one very short break. Jeb guided our party of 3 fisherman on horseback and 4 pack mules 15 miles over Mosquito Pass to a large flat protected campsite with a nearby stream just below 9000ft & located over a half mile northeast of the eastern end of Emigrant Lake.

The Hike

Moderate. We passed several groups of backpackers. They all spent one night on the trail prior to reaching Emigrant Lake. This popular trail to Emigrant Lake is heavily utilized by horses & mules - so there's lot of manure and dust. Treat your water!

The Fishing

The Emigrant Wilderness is extremely beautiful. A lot of information exists online and it is no secret spot. We fished several surrounding Lakes for 7 days and caught over a dozen big browns and rainbows (16-24") having our best luck DEEP within Emigrant Lake. We were surprised how difficult the fishing was and retired our fly rods for spinning reels which could handle heavier/larger 1/2 oz. spinners. We caught all our bigger trout off ledges which accessed very deep water. We circumnavigated Emigrant Lake twice on 2 separate days having given up on the shallower surrounding lakes. The north side of Emigrant Lake has a nice trail. The south side of this lake requires scrambling. We saw only a few tiny fish in Middle and Upper Emigrant Lakes and believe the fish were oxygen starved in these shallower lakes after 2 record years of snow pack. We planned our trip in mid-late September because ice breakup only occurred in late August 2019. No fires are allowed above 9000ft or within 1/2 mile of Emigrant Lake. Hunters were arriving as we rode out.