Fall is showing up in the Eastern Sierra as the leaves on the trees in the upper elevations are just starting to turn yellow. Fall to me means brook and brown trout are spawning and it’s a great time to fish for them. Days in the Owens Valley are cool early and late and middle of the day is almost too hot. It’s a great time to throw streamers looking for trophy brown trout. Trout are continuing to feed on hatching mayflies, caddis and midges. The trout and the fly fishers know that winter is around the corner and this is a last chance for trout to feed and fly fishers to catch them.
Trico mayflies like this upper Owens River trico spinner have not been in abundance on Eastern Sierra moving waters this fall.
San Joaquin River
Reds Meadow – Agnew Meadows:
As fall starts to enter the Eastern Sierra the San Joaquin River continues to offer fly fishers great dry fly or dry and dropper fly fishing opportunities for wild brown trout and rainbow trout. Access to the San Joaquin is limited to Saturday and Sunday as the contractor continues to prep the road for future road work.
There are only a few weekends left to fly fish the San Joaquin River with a dry fly or a dry and dropper rig.
Lower Owens River
Wild Trout Section:
Water flow continue to fluctuate around 400 CFS and will continue into winter depending on what kind of winter snow pack the Eastern Sierra gets. Looks like I’ll be doing very little fly fishing this fall and winter until the flows reach 300 CFS or less.
It will be quite a while before the flows in the lower Owens River drop low enough to wade the river safely.
Hot Creek
Interpretive Site:
Wild brown trout and rainbow trout are coming to the surface for trico mayflies and gray bodied caddis. It’s fun to throw some dry flies at trout after dealing with all the snow runoff and months of nymphing with indictors and a Euro rig. A size 20 gray partridge spent caddis, gray parachute caddis, or gray X-caddis are fooling the trout mid-morning. Prior to the caddis hatch there is a sporadic trico hatch.
Diablo Valley Fly Fishers held their annual dry fly clinic on Hot Creek Interpretive site. They held their clinic in one corner of Hot Creek so they did not impact other fly fishers fishing the creek.
Hot Creek
Canyon Section:
Water flows are finally low enough to offer good fly fishing in the canyon with dry flies. Hatching caddis and tricos are bringing the trout to the surface. Nymphing is still producing a lot of trout in the canyon section. For the fly fisher looking for a trophy brown trout from Hot Creek try pulling an articulated streamer early or late in the day.
Earl Slack from Ventura working a deep run with a nymph under an indicator.
Upper Owens River
Above Benton Crossing Bridge:
It’s classic fall fly fishing right now on the upper Owens River. Resident trophy trout are scarce, but if you cover a lot of water throwing bigger nymphs like stoner nymphs, green/gold Prince nymphs, copper Johns and bead head flash back gold ribbed hare’s ears in the deep pools, deep runs and cut banks you will find a few fish willing to take these flies. The juvenile trout are abundant and feeding on caddis nymphs and adults, midges and a mid-day mayfly hatch. Trophy trout from Crowley Lake have not started their migration up the river in any kind of abundance.
Little Hilton Bay on Crowley Lake is full boaters and float tubers working young of the year perch streamer patterns.
Crowley Lake:
Fishing streamers in the shallows in and around the weed beds is producing some huge trout. Perch balanced leeches and olive matukas are producing trout on dry fly lines, sink tips and full sink lines. Work these flies in and around the weed beds where the perch fry hang out avoiding the trout that feed on them. Hilton Creek bay is getting a lot of fly fishing pressure from boaters and float tubers. Midging continues to produce trout when you can find where the trout are in abundance and so are the midges.
Weekends can be crowded on Bishop Creek Canal behind the old Ford Dealer off of HWY 6.
Bishop Creek Canal:
Behind the Old Ford Dealer:
The water has cleared up from what it was and fly fishers are finding the spots the trout are hanging out in and can cast to the nymph feeding trout. Bead head flash back pheasant tail nymphs, green/gold Prince nymphs, hot spot pheasant tail nymphs and stoner nymphs continue to produce trout on the Euro rig and under an indicator. Try throwing a hopper pattern in the afternoon winds for some fun afternoon dry fly fishing.
I'm at Mahogany Smoked Meats on Tuesdays from 9 to 11 to discuss Eastern Sierra fly fishing opportunities.
Tuesday Talks with Fred
At Mahogany Smoked Meats:
Every Tuesday from 9:00 to 11:00 I go to Mahogany Smoked Meats to eat a burrito and to discuss Eastern Sierra fly fishing with fly fishers, anglers, Facebook followers and Instagram followers. This is an opportunity to spend a couple of hours talking to Richard Lancaster, Sierra Bright Dot guide, Tom Paulson, competitive fly fisher and Tenkara fly fisher, and myself. Come ask the fly fishing questions you’ve been wanting answers to.