Saddlebag Lake - (Mono County)

Getting There

To reach Saddlebag Lake, get to Highway 120 either from Yosemite or from Lee Vining, California. The turnoff to Saddlebag Road is signed and leads you uphill over a road that is partly paved and partly improved dirt road. Once you arrive you have the luxury of a store, bait shop, restaurant, and keeper of the t-shirt that becomes yours if you get the Sierra slam in the 20 Lakes Loop.

The Hike

If only staying for a day hike or overnight for backpacking trips, park in the trailhead parking lot which affords a great deal of parking spaces. If you plan on just going down to the shore of Saddlebag Lake, there are parking spaces near the store. Basically, the hike is minimal but I have included an elevation profile that starts from the camping areas down to the shore of Saddlebag Lake.

The Fishing

Saddlebag Lake in the Hoover Wilderness is a fishery that includes Rainbow and Brook Trout. The campground sites are open, and as we found, they had one or two spots left on the weekend when we visited. According to the resort employees who drove the taxi boat, fish have been planted twice already this year with some of them coming from a brood stock with larger specimens weighing up to 3.5 pounds. They have only seen one return, in terms of size, with a single 3.5 pounder landed.

Saddlebag Lake produced one small Rainbow Trout for us at the tail end of a rainstorm on the left side of the dock on the north side of the lake. We noticed many people fishing the outlet areas, to the right of the dock, which is usually a great spot for action but I did not see anyone hook up.

I fished the northern shore with an Elk-hair Caddis with a Copper John on a dropper that produced zero fish. I walked my way around the north-east side and garnered zero interest from fish with those files. Eventually we had to leave the basin as a rain storm drove us out early. Luckily we were able to fit onto the last water taxi trip.

We took the ferry and on the way back heard stories of Sierra Slams and great fishing excursions out in the 20 Lakes Loop. Greenstone has people excited for larger Brook Trout. I heard about lines being broken at Greenstone and large fish from Greenstone showing up at the cleaning station at Saddlebag Lake in the Hoover Wilderness.