By the late 1970's, when Johnson stopped fishing the lake, the average size of the fish had become smaller and the trophy browns less common.

However, Beardsley is again on the rebound as a premier brown trout fishery, as evidenced by a trip that Tom Mulderrig and I made with James Pagani of Sparklefish Lures on July 11. Although we didn't catch any trophies, we caught lots of brown trout in the 12 to 14 inch range, along with some rainbow trout.

For some reason, Beardsley is known as an afternoon lake. Anglers catch browns and rainbows in the mornings, but the afternoon bite always seems to be better, according to Pagani.

We arrived on the lake at noon, after driving down the long, winding road from 6000 feet in elevation on Highway 108 to the canyon floor at Beardsley, only 3400 feet in elevation. We saw two boats coming out with mixed limits of browns and rainbows. The boat ramp was out of the water because of low water conditions, so Pagani had to launch his Klamath boat with his Toyota 4 wheel drive Tundra pickup truck on the dirt. However, none of the boaters experienced any problems getting their boats in or out.

We got out on the lake and within ten minutes of fishing near the dam Pagani had a hit with 5 colors of leadcore line and a Goldeneye Lure.

As I held my rod in my hands, my rod tip started bouncing and I hooked and landed the first fish of the day, a beautifully colored 13 inch brown trout, on a Goldeneye at six colors. I followed it up with two browns measuring 12 to 13 inches. My cousin, Tom Mulderrig, lost a larger fish, and then James Pagani hooked into the "toad of the day," a scrappy 14 inch brown.

When James hooked into his second fish of the day, I netted it and took the hook out. However, as I put in on his measuring tape, the brown suddenly leaped out of my hands and went over the gunnel back into the water.

"I don't believe you did that," said a shocked Pagani. "Last time we fished at Lake Alpine you knocked my fish off with the net and now you're throwing my fish back in the water! Don't try to measure any more of my fish!"

After I gave him a mildly sincere apology, I got my line back into the water and resumed fishing. We kept trolling around the dam and main body. We finished the afternoon with full limits of trout, 11 browns and 4 rainbows, and had the whole lake to ourselves by the end of the day, with the exception of one fishing couple.

Julie had caught two rainbows while fishing from the bank with nightcrawlers, but noted that she had caught some quality browns off the bank in the past.

Bank fishing can be good at this reservoir, but is more difficult than at other lakes in the region because it's located in a deep, steep canyon with limited bank access except in the main recreation area near the launch ramp.

On Pagani's next trip several days later, Mike Graf and Pagani got on the lake later in the day, at 2:30 p.m. and experienced even better fishing. "We graphed larger fish at 45 feet and decided to target them," Pagani explained. "We caught a total of 25 fish, only keeping those browns 14 inches or over. We kept 7 browns ranging from 14 to 17 inches. The magic lure for the larger fish was a green Sparklefish."

Beardsley is managed as a combination "put and grow" brown trout and "put and take" rainbow trout fishery. The reservoir is stocked each fall by the DFG with 20,000 subcatchable browns (7 to the pound), according to Tom Groh at the Moccasin Creek Fish Hatchery. From April through September, the DFG stocks 10,000 pounds of catchable rainbows in the lake.

"Beardsley has experienced copepod problems at times," explained Randy Kelly, senior DFG fishery biologist. "We put a large amount of browns in the lake because browns, like brook and mackinaw trout, aren't affected by these copepods."

Beardsley looks like ideal habitat for smallmouth bass, with its canyon walls and abundant rockpiles and big boulders. However, the DFG manages the reservoir as a cold water fishery; the only gamefish species found in the lake are rainbow trout and brown trout, with the exception of an occasional brook trout.

Operated by the Tri-Dam Project of the South San Joaquin and Oakdale Irrigation Districts, Beardsley contains 97,802 acre feet of water when full, so it is a relatively large reservoir by Central Sierra standards.

The lake doesn't have much natural spawning habitat for rainbows or browns, though some spawning occurs in the Middle Fork above Beardsley, according to Brian Quelvog, DFG fishery biologist. Brook trout live in the Middle Fork watershed, but are only caught occasionally in the reservoir. The predominant forage base of the trout is Sacramento hitch minnows, crayfish and a variety of terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates.

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.

The lake level is dropping because of low precipitation in the Middle Fork watershed, so anglers should check on the latest water levels immediately before going up here. A 4 wheel drive vehicle is highly advisable for launching a boat here now, since the concrete boat ramp is out of the water. Small aluminum and fiberglass boats are recommended as the water level continues to recede.

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 Sparklefish Lures, (877) 772-7676.