Bass Lake
Oakhurst (Yosemite south gateway) · near Oakhurst · Sierra Nevada / Yosemite
Fishing
At a glance
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Best season
- Year-round; bass late spring–summer, planted trout cooler spring and fall/winter. ~3,400 ft
Permits and booking
- Licence required
- Yes
- Licence detail
- CA license (16+). Paved Road 222 from Oakhurst is open and plowed year-round.
What is here
- Features
- Warmwater bass + planted trout mix · Busy summer recreation lake · Kokanee present · Closest lake to Yosemite's south entrance
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Allowed
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Fishing detail
- Water type
- lake
- Water
- fresh
- Methods
- Bait · Casting · Trolling · Spin
- Boat
- both
- Target species
- Largemouth bass · Rainbow trout (planted) · Kokanee · Bluegill & crappie
- Intl tip
- Match the season to the target: spring or fall/winter for planted trout near the surface, warm months for bass along coves and points with plastics and crankbaits. Summer weekends are busy with ski boats — fish early.
The guide
Just south of Yosemite's Wawona entrance, Bass Lake is the region's warmwater outlier — a lower, warmer Sierra National Forest …
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Bass Lake — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 37.317, -119.558