Saddlebag Lake

Saddlebag Lake sits at 10,089 feet at the top of a rough 2.5-mile road off Tioga Pass, and it is the highest lake in California you can drive to. Southern California Edison raised a natural lake behind a rockfill dam in the early 1920s, and at full pool it covers about 297 acres and holds about 9,500 acre-feet, by far the biggest of the three Tioga lakes. Wild brook trout of 6 to 9 inches are everywhere, and CDFW planted catchable rainbows four times between May and August in 2026. Most fish run 9 to 12 inches, but a few big rainbows hold over: anglers reported two 5-pound fish in September 2025 and a rainbow of 7 lb 7 oz on September 30, 2026. Goldens live in the Twenty Lakes Basin above the lake, not in Saddlebag itself.

The lake is a long, rocky granite bowl with almost no weed, so you fish the edges and the inlets, not weed flats. The north end, where the creek comes in from Greenstone Lake, is the best fly water, and the bank by the dam is the easy shore option. A float tube, a rental boat or the resort's water taxi gets you up the lake. By day, strip a size 10 olive or black Woolly Bugger or Matuka along the drop-offs on an intermediate line, or hang a chironomid, Hare's Ear or Prince in 16 to 18 under an indicator off the inlet current. On calm evenings small midges come off, and a Parachute Adams or Griffith's Gnat in 18 to 20 takes rising brookies. August through late September fishes best, because the surface stays cold all summer at this height. In fall the brookies color up and the big rainbows have shown up late in September.

Ice and the road set the season. Saddlebag is the last of the three Tioga lakes to lose its ice, usually in mid to late June and into July in a big snow year, and it still held ice on May 15, 2026, when Tioga and Ellery had opened. Edison draws the lake down over winter, so it is low early in the season and fills through July. Saddlebag Lake Resort, at the south end, runs the store, boat rentals and the water taxi to the north-end landing, and it opens around Father's Day weekend. It did not operate in 2017 or 2025, so check it is open before you count on a boat or the taxi. From the taxi landing, the Twenty Lakes Basin loop walks past a string of brook trout lakes and the golden-rainbow hybrid lakes, which is the best reason to spend a full day up here. Afternoon wind is common, and at 10,000 feet the altitude hits hard on the first day. If the lake is still frozen, Ellery and Tioga lakes are a few minutes down the road.