Fishing in Mammoth Lakes, Calif.

For anglers looking to cast their lines on a glassy lake rimmed by the snow-capped Eastern Sierra, the best day of the year always comes on the last Saturday of April. 

It’s the opening day of trout season, a day so anticipated and cherished by the fly fishing community they’ve turned it into an unofficial holiday: “Fishmas.”

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Fishing in Mammoth Lakes, Calif.

“Fishmas — it’s been known as that forever and ever because it’s like Christmas, but it’s for fishing,” said Fred Rowe, a longtime fishing guide who lives in Bishop. “Fishing is such a big huge thing for people, it really is like Christmas.”

This year, Fishmas takes place on April 25 and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife expects thousands of people to make the pilgrimage to idyllic lakes in the Eastern Sierra and across the state — places like Lake Crowley, Convict Lake, the Mammoth Lakes Basin — and kick off the fishing season. It's a tradition embraced by families of fishing enthusiasts and passed down from one generation to the next. 

“There are families that have been coming up for [the] opener in places like Convict for 30 or 40 years,” Rowe said to SFGATE by phone. He’s been fishing since he was 4 and started guiding fly fishing in 1982 after moving to the Eastern Sierra. Today, he continues to guide........

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