Lake Mamie

Lake Mamie is the little one in the Mammoth Lakes Basin: about 19 acres at roughly 8,900 feet, squeezed between Lake Mary and Twin Lakes along Lake Mary Road. The short creek out of Lake Mary feeds its south end, and a low dam at the north end spills it over Twin Falls into Twin Lakes. Motors are not allowed, so it stays quiet while the pontoons circle Lake Mary just upstream. CDFW planted it four times between mid-May and late July in 2026, and the town and county add trophy rainbows on top. Fish over 6 pounds came out in June 2025, and some decent browns drop down into the inlet from Lake Mary.

It fishes like a weedy pond, not a deep Sierra lake. One account puts the deepest water at about 25 feet, and much of the rest is shallow and grows thick weed by midsummer. A float tube or a rowboat and a floating or intermediate line cover all of it. Hang a chironomid under an indicator over the deep hole off the parking lot, or strip an olive or brown Woolly Bugger slowly along the weed edge. From mid-June into August, damsel nymphs and callibaetis come off the weedy south and west shore on calm days. Bright red, orange or chartreuse streamers are the local call for the trophy plants. By August the weed reaches the top in the shallows and fouls anything that sinks, so fish the deep hole and the outlet channel, and fish the last hour of light.

Small water gets crowded. After a plant, and all summer around the bridge and the parking lot, expect company, and a 19-acre lake gets picked over fast. The season opens the last Saturday in April, but the lake is above the Lake Mary Road gate, which opened May 2 in 2026, so the first weeks are often ice and a closed road. The free Lakes Basin Trolley runs up from the Village past the lake in summer, which saves fighting for the small lot. Wildyrie Lodge rents rowboats and kayaks on the lake. If Mamie is busy, Twin Lakes is the next lake down, and Lake Mary and Lake George are a few minutes up the road.