The East fished very well yesterday, lots of nice fish being caught and released with some reports of fish up to 25 inches. Nymphing was the way to go yesterday with small midge patterns and even some stonefly nymphs. Haven’t heard anything about streamers yet but that action should break loose pretty soon. Patterns to try include: rainbow warrior, dark lord, soft hackle, psycho prince, chubby Chernobyl, San Juan worms zebra midge, flashback emerger, silver streak, squirmy wormy, chubby chernobyl, stimulator, biot epoxy stones, poxyback stones.

 

The ranch is still kicking out some very nice fish, lots of browns and rainbows in the 14 to 20 inch range with some fish up to around 24 inches. Stonefly nymphs and adult stone patterns are still the best thing going down there. The flows on the river are still pretty low at around 45 cfs so it’s important to find the deeper pools and runs where fish are hiding out.

 

In spite of the crazy winds yesterday the fishing on the Reservoir was pretty good, lots of nice rainbows up to nearly 7 pounds and browns up to just over 6 pounds came in. The boat anglers who were able to stay out for a while reported good success with Rapalas, needlefish, Thomas bouyants and speedy shiners. There were also some anglers who did well casting Rapalas from the shore near the dam with some hefty rainbows and browns coming in. We didn’t hear too much from the bait anglers yesterday but usually there are some good fish being caught down near the dam with inflated crawlers, power bait, pinched crawlers and mice tails.

 

We didn’t hear any news from Kirman yet, hopefully there are still some fish in there leftover from last year but it’s hard to tell. Last year the fishing up there was pretty tough with just a few successful reports coming in for the whole season. Hopefully the DFW will be able to get some fingerling fish in there this year and get the fishery back on track.

 

The Twins kicked out lots of very nice fish yesterday with anglers reporting good catches both from the shore and from some of the larger boats that were able to stay out in the wind. Like Bridgeport it seemed that both trolling and casting lures was the best way to go, lots of good reports with Thomas Bouyants, Kastmasters and Rapalas. The wind doesn’t seem to be nearly as bad today as it was yesterday so I’d expect the fishing to be even better today!

 

We had a few reports from the West yesterday and it sounded like it was pretty tough up there. Most of the anglers told us they thought the water was still just too cold for the fish to be very active. Once this storm system blows through the water should warm up a bit and things should get better up there.

 

We talked to anglers who fished Big V yesterday through the ice, they said there were 30 or so anglers ice fishing up there and most did pretty well. We had fish up to nearly 3 pounds come in from Big V. We didn’t talk to anyone who was on Little V but we had heard a week or so ago that the ice on Little V might not be good enough to be out on. If you do go up there to ice fish be extremely cautious as the good ice probably won’t last too long.

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All in all it was a pretty good opener, lots of anglers catching lots of fish! The wind was really bad yesterday but it wasn’t too cold to stay out in it, at least for a bit. We did hear of one boat that capsized on Bridgeport Reservoir but thankfully everyone was able to get out of the water ok. We are going to keep a close eye on the East Walker River in regards to the new regulations down there, we also strongly encourage anglers to pinch their barbs even though it’s technically not required any longer. Pinching your barbs will help released fish stay healthy and in turn keep the population on the river high. In spite of the assinine changes the DFW has made to the regulations down there hopefully the angling community will take it upon themselves to take care of this world class fishery. We also encourage you to keep sending emails to the DFW to try to get them to re-visit these changes and understand how devastating they will be to this river.