Anglers at Beardsley Reservoir are again catching the mixed bags of browns and rainbows that this scenic Sierra Nevada lake is noted for, now that rainbow trout plants have resumed. The rainbows in the reservoir were infested for three years with a copepod parasite, so it wasn't until this spring that the DFG's Moccasin Creek Fish Hatchery began planting the lake with rainbows again.

The lake's fishery is booming again, as evidenced by a recent trip that I made with James Pagani of Sparklefish Lures to Beardsley that produced sizzling action on browns and rainbows. We fished the reservoir in the afternoon and evening, since this is traditionally the best time to fish this pretty lake.

Located on the Middle Fork of the Stanislaus River at an elevation of 3,400 feet in Stanislaus National Forest, this canyon reservoir is a cold water fishery. When you arrive at the steep-walled shores of the lake, you feel that you are at a much higher elevation. The lake, operated by the TriDam Project of the South San Joaquin and Oakdale Irrigation Districts, contains 97,802 acre feet of water when full.

Pagani made a trip to Beardsley a month earlier that produced good action on browns. "This is definitely an evening lake, particularly if you want to catch browns," said Pagani. "On my last trip, I limited out on browns in the 12 to 14 inch range. I caught all of the fish between 3:30 and 7:00 p.m."

"If you want quality browns and holdover rainbows, your best bet is to fish when the road to the lake opens in the spring," said Pagani. "If you want to catch numbers of fish, the summer is the right time. Most times I've fished during the summer I've caught my limit."

We got to the lake's launch ramp about 1:30 p.m. and started fishing about 15 minutes later. We saw two float tubers, Chris Fritter of Gilroy and Chris Murphy of Hayward, fishing near the launch ramp, but they didn't report catching any fish. James drove the boat east of the boat ramp towards the mouth of the river inlet. Before we put our lines down, Joe Krick and Tanya Krick of Modesto and Levert Ridenour of Modesto reported catching one brown and three rainbows while trolling.

We put two leadcore rods out with Sparklefish, one at 6 colors and the other at 5 colors, as well as putting a downrigger rod down with a Golden Eye lure at 30 feet. I was the first to hook up, and soon landed a 12 inch, fat rainbow. James followed up with another rainbow trout about the same size on the next pass. On the next pass, it was my turn to grab the downrigger rod; I landed a 15 inch brown, our first of the day.

"I told you this was a good lake to fish in the afternoon and evening," said Pagani. For the next two hours, we found wide-open action. We would have limited out too quickly at the fast pace, so we started catching and releasing fish. We were up to 8 fish in the boat, with five other fish released, and had double hook-ups at least three times. Three of the fish were browns, while the other were rainbows.

We also were bit at least 12 other times when we weren't able to hook the fish. "Now let's try for the big browns by the dam," said Pagani. "My largest fish here, up to 5 pounds, have come from the darn."

Surprisingly enough, we fished the dam for an hour, but didn't see any concentrations of fish on the graph and had no bites. So we decided to return to our hot spot at the mouth of the river arm. for Simms.

The bite continued when we returned. Within half an hour, we had our two final fish of the day, a 12 inch brown and a scrappy rainbow to fill out our limits. We stopped fishing at 7p.m. Our tally for the day was 15 trout, including four browns to 15 inches and 11 rainbows in the 10 to 14 inch class. Although we didn't catch any trophies, we experienced fast trout action, as good as it gets in the Sierra Nevada in mid-August.

Everybody else seemed to be tuned into the fact that this is an afternoon and evening fishery. Michele Fagerroos of Oakland and Antti Fagerroos of San Leandro didn't get there until 3 p.m. and caught two chunky rainbows and one nice brown while trolling nightcrawlers behind homemade flashers. "We caught fast limits of rainbows and browns last weekend," said Annti.

Jeremy Lamenpola of Miwok Village, and his girlfriend, Tiffany Bunney of Tuolumne, found exceptional action. "We didn't get on the lake until 5:30 p.m. and caught eight rainbows to 14 inches in one hour off the face of the dam," said Lamenpola. "We kept trolling until we arrived at the launch ramp and realized that we didn't have any bait on our rigs!"

The action should continue to be good at Beardsley, since it is amply stocked with rainbows and German browns by the Department of Fish and Game. The Moccasin Creek Hatchery planted 10,000 pounds of catchable rainbows this year and will plant the lake with 20,000 subcatchable browns (5 to the pound) in the fall, according to Torn Grove assistant hatchery manager. The hatchery planted 20,000 subcatchable browns in both 1997 and 1996.

Brian Quelvog, DFG fishery biologist, noted that there isn't much natural spawning habitat at Beardsley, though some spawning occurs in the Middle Fork entering the lake. The lake was chemically treated for an overpopulation of hitch minnows in the early 1960's. Although brook trout are found in the watershed, they're caught only rarely at the lake.

Unlike Lyons and Cherry lakes, also located in Stanislaus National Forest, the lake doesn't have warm water fish such as black bass, bluegill and catfish. "It's a good trout fishery that consistently produces year after year," said Quelvog. The lake's browns and rainbows have lots of hitch, crawdads and insects to feed upon. season.

Some bank fishing is available at the sandy beach near the launch ramp and off the dam, but bank access on the rest of the lake is marginal because of the very steep banks of the reservoir.

The lake's facilities include a day use area, with a picnic area and a paved boat ramp with a dock on the east side, and a dispersed camping area along the road near the dam on the lake's west side.

For camping and facilities information, call Stanislaus National Forest, District Office, (209) 965- 3434. Fishing information is available by calling the Strawberry Store (209) 965-3597 or James Pagani of Sparkiefish Lures (408) 733-9296.

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