For the High Sierra trout fisherman who wants to escape the crowds and experience the excitement of a wild trout hunt, Yosemite’s backdoor offers access to some exciting and scenic trout fishing.

In this case, the backdoor is the Tioga Pass entrance to the park, just 13 miles up Highway 120 from the Mono County Community of Lee Vining. Just inside the park’s eastern boundary, trout anglers can find a series of beautiful highland lakes holding aggressive and colorful brook trout. These are native fish that often don’t see much food until the lakes thaw sometime in July. That’s one reason they are not particular about what you toss and why they are so aggressive.

Fishing the Tioga area offers the eastern Sierra visitor staying in the Bishop, Mammoth or June Lakes, access to some spectacular wild trout action. From a trailhead just inside the park’s entry kiosk, you can take a short hike into a fishing paradise.

On a recent visit, three of us caught and released more than 50 fish in a single day at two of the waters in the Gaylor Lakes Basin. We were fly fishing and the scrappy brookies did not seem particular, inhaling elk hair caddis, humpy patterns, black woolly buggers, gnats and parachute Adams flies. It wasn’t very scientific, we just tied on the flies we had and they all worked.

This is not a place to visit if you are interested in filling a stringer of fish for the frying pan. The brook trout in these wild lakes are not huge, but they fight like fish twice their size and the combination of their brilliant color and the gin-clear Sierra waters make it a fly fishing paradise.

For the anglers only equipped with spinning gear, try a fly and clear bubble combination. Hang your bubble above a swivel and then attach a leader about the length of your rod. Tie on your fly and fill the bubble about half full of water. You will get your best results when there is a surface ripple caused by the wind. Be sure and pinch down the barb on your hooks to make it easier to release your catch.

The Gaylor Lakes basin is an easy hike of less than a mile to the first lake, but once there, you have access to five lakes. In addition to upper, middle and lower Gaylor Lakes, there are two Granite Lakes to the west. You can park just outside the Tioga Pass entrance station, or you can enter and leave your car at a parking area just beyond the ranger station.

The first half mile is a straight-up climb, but the trail is good and covered by the shade of pine and fir trees. The views are spectacular to the distinctive peaks of Yosemite to the west and the jagged Sierra Crest to the east.

The trailhead starts at just under 10,000 feet and you climb to a saddle at nearly 10,600 feet and then drop a few hundred feet to middle Gaylor Lake. Don’t make the hike without plenty of water and enough clothing to meet weather conditions that change rapidly here.

Last summer I began a hike here in bright sunshine and mid-70’s temperatures. In less than an hour, I was in a hailstorm the size of marbles and temperatures had dropped into the 30’s. I was glad I had brought a good poncho and down vest.

On a recent hike into the lakes, we were buffeted with a stiff wind that made casting difficult at wide-open middle Gaylor, so we continued on about a mile more to Granite Lakes. These are two small lakes tucked into a rocky basin, carved from glaciers.

Granite Lakes are a little more protected and we began fishing here. I knewwe were in for an exciting day when I made my first cast and watched a brookie shoot up like a torpedo in the clear water to inhale my caddis fly. He hit hard and I was surprised at the intensity of his fight on my three-weight Loomis rod.

We fished Granite for several hours and when the wind died we moved back to middle Gaylor. The fish here were equally aggressive, but larger than the ones we caught at Granite. The first three broke me off with hard strikes, so I had to adjust my reaction with a slightly lighter set.

The south and southwest sides of Gaylor seemed to produce fish on every cast and it was hard to quit and head back down the trail. When we packed our rods away, everyone agreed that our day in the basin had been one of the most exciting fly fishing days we had enjoyed this season.

In addition to the hike-in lakes, don’t pass up the great rainbow trout fishing at nearby Saddlebag and Ellery Lakes.

On your next trip to the eastern Sierra, plan a visit to Yosemite’s backdoor for some exciting wild trout fishing.