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The Thanksgiving weekend arrived with beautiful weather, good fishing, and a lot of anglers in certain locations. A high wind event started on Sunday bringing strong gusts over the sierra ridges and leaving some precipitation in its wake. The upper elevations may see snow amounts in the 1-2′ range before it’s all said and done. This week will see temperatures return to seasonal highs as we get closer to winter. East Walker River continues to provide anglers with quality fish. Fishing tandem nymph rigs under an indicator have provided the best action throughout the river. Upper Owens has received a new push of big fish and locating the holding areas on a daily basis has been the key to success. Middle Owens flows have dropped to fishable drift boat levels and some bigger fish have been making a showing on streamer flies with sinking lines.  Pleasant Valley Reservoir has been on the slower side, but should improve as the weather gets cooler. Wild Trout section still high for wading, but decent dry fly action can be had during the warmer afternoons.

Gift certificates are the perfect holiday gift for that special fly fisher. We can customize one for any occasion. Fill out a trip request form and we will take care of the rest.

Upper Owens River 11/27/17

Holding steady at 67 cfs here. More fish have recently entered higher into the river and spread out. Targeting the deeper pools and undercut banks have given up some nice sized fish. You will see rising fish throughout the day in the eddies and slower moving water sections. The big fish have been tight to the bottom and on the move every few days. Heavy angling pressure over the holiday weekend had slowed the bite temporarily, but covering water was the key to getting some “Crowley Steelhead” to bite. Crystal Eggs have been accounting for most of our trophy catches out here, but switching up or adding a second fly to your rig is sometimes necessary to get these bigs to bite. No snow to report down here yet,  so the roads are still accessible by car. We have guides standing by to get you on these bigger rainbows!

Check out some of our clients’ recent catches here:

Joel Carrizosa showing off the largest Crowley Steelhead of the season thus far. This rooster took nearly ten minutes to bring to net! This excellent stick had a dream day using Sierra Drifters specialized nymphing techniques. He was guided by Tom Loe.

Here’s Larry with a beautiful male that fell victim to a Crystal Egg!

The section upstream from the Benton Bridge is open year around with special regulations. Seasonal closures, and angling restrictions apply downstream from the bridge, check regulations before fishing in this section.

Middle Owens River (Bishop Area) 11/27/17

398 cfs seems to be the general flow rate as of late. Some bigger fish have been making a showing recently along with some good numbers of school sized fish. We have been fishing our sink tip lines and pulling streamers like Loebergs and Spruce-a-bu’s to draw these fish out of hiding. We have been running drift boat trips here recently and will continue to so long as the water level holds. If you are planning on driving in this area, take caution. Many of the roads are still holding free standing puddles and very soft mud. Deep ruts on some of the access roads leading to the river are covered in water and can be deceiving to the unsuspecting motorist. 

Hot Creek 11/27/17

Flows now at 16 cfs. Water conditions are very good for this time of year. No snow or ice present at this time.  Smaller nymphs like Assassins and FB PT’s still working with small indicators or dry flies (high vis BWO’s) used as attractors/indicators. Solid BWO hatches will come off throughout the winter. CDFW planted thousands of juvenille trout recently. Hopefully these fish will survive the winter, and we will see a large increase in fish counts for next summer. There are some really beautiful fish holding in the deeper pools and runs; but don’t expect a huge numbers day on the holdover fish.

This is a year around fishery with special regs in place.

*Tom Loe, Doug Rodricks, and Doug Dolan are under permit from the Inyo National Forest Service to guide Hot Creek.

The Gorge 11/27/17

Flows have dropped here. Now at 34.8 cfs. A good place to go and get away from angling pressure. Use 3-weight rods here with a dry fly or go with a dry/dropper combination. Nymphing the faster sections with some light weight can also be effective.

Season open year around

East Walker River 11/27/17 

Flows here are now at 50 cfs. This place has not stopped giving up fish. These rascals have been eager to take flies as they get ready for the approaching winter. Go with 4X tippets in the faster water sections and you can get away with 5X in the slower water. Redundant drifts can produce some real beasts and some pools and runs are holding good numbers of fish. Best flies have been Crystal Eggs, #20 Serendipity, SJ Worms, Crawdad in Olive and Tan, #16 Punk Perch and Balanced Punk Perch, #20 Brassie, and #18-20 Copper John’s in original and dark green.  Book your trip here. This fishery is open year around with special regulations.

Check out some recent catches from our clients:

Crowley Lake

Season closed until April 28, 2018.

Big Ben Kaufmann with a stunning brown he got with Doug Rodricks. Crowley will be in great shape for the 2018 season so reserve your guided trip on one of our fish magnets now.

Bridgeport Reservoir

The reservoir is now closed until 4/28/18.

Jurassic Pond

The “Pond” is now closed for the season and we will start guiding here again next Spring!

Jurassic Pond has no equal in the Eastern Sierra. This private water holds the largest rainbow and brown trout to be found anywhere in the region. Sierra Drifters Guides have exclusive access to these amazing fish. Book your trip for next season and see for yourself how fantastic Jurassic Pond truly is!

You can pick up our flies & Under-cators at Reagan’s Sports in Bishop, the Crowley General Store (not at the lake), Ricks Sport Center in Mammoth (limited selection), Bridgeport Reservoir RV Park (currently closed for winter), Stroud’s Tackle in San Diego, & Malibu Fish’N Tackle in Thousand Oaks.

I have added a picture gallery to the website . Click on the “gallery” button and do a search for your name, or scroll through the pages. You can double click on the picture to enlarge it once it is located.

Thank you for visiting our website and checking out our report. Be the Fly…. Doug Rodricks, Sierra Drifters Guide Service.