Bridgeport Fish Report - July 24, 2022

Well, unfortunately it’s gotten to be that time of the year again, with the low flows on the river and the increasing temperatures it’s probably time to let the East rest for a bit. We were kind of hanging in there for a while with night time temperatures mostly in the 40’s but lately those temps have increased and are mostly in the 50’s or even higher. This has not helped keep the river temps lower so for the sake of the fish it’s better to lay off the East Walker for awhile, likely at least until the first couple weeks of September. If we start getting some good rains or some kind of weather shift that will lower the temperatures we’ll let you know.

 

If you haven’t already please check out the Random information section below and read about the petition I’ve started to try to get the East Walker River regulations changed to catch and release, if you are in agreement with this idea please sign the petition and share it to anyone you might think would also like to see this change, in just a few days we already have over 600 signatures so hopefully that number will keep increasing. There’s a link below that will take you straight to the petition on change.org.

 

The ranch is in much the same shape as the Cali side of the river, though parts of it have some shade from the willows and some extra water that comes in from several springs that cool it down a few degrees it’s still probably time to let those fish rest for a while. We’ll start booking more days on the ranch some time after Labor Day.

 

The reservoir has still been kicking out some good perch on the troll but the trout have been pretty shy this past week. A majority of the perch being caught are in the 1.5 to 2 pound range which makes for some really good fillets. These conditions will likely hold until sometime in September when the weather cools and the water temps come down.

 

We had one report from Kirman this past week, the anglers we spoke with were able to catch several fish early in the morning on leech patterns but like other waters in the area the water temps are rising quite a bit. The surface temp was about 68 degrees early and about 70 later in the morning. I feel like it’s probably also time for this water to let those fish have a rest until the weather cools down and brings the water temps down.

 

The Twins are doing pretty well with lots of good reports coming in from anglers fishing from boats as well as from the shore. We’ve had quite a few rainbows in the 3 to 5 pound range with one rainbow from the Upper Lake tipping the scale at 9lbs 2oz.! Trolling has been producing some good fish with Rapalas, night crawlers and speedy shiners, bait fishing has been good with garlic power bait, mice tails and inflated crawlers. We haven’t talked to any fly anglers lately but you should be able to catch some fish from a tube or kayak with a sinking line and leech patterns and

soft hackle droppers.

 

The West has been kicking out some fish with small spinners like Panther Martins and Roostertails, as well as drifting eggs and night crawlers through the pockets. Fly anglers can go with dry/dropper rigs with a hopper, stimulator or chubby chernobyl on top and a prince, PT or copper john underneath.

 

The Virginias are still producing some good fish as well with quite a few 3 to 5 pound rainbows making a showing as well as some smaller native rainbows and brookies. Good baits include power bait, pinched crawlers and mice tails, for lures try Kastmasters, Thomas Bouyants and mini jigs like Sierra Slammers. Fly anglers can go with mini leeches, wooly buggers, seal buggers and maybe even a beetle or hopper on top.

If you would like to receive this report via email, drop me a line at [email protected] and I'll get you on the list!

 

I’ve started a change.org petition to try to encourage the Department of Fish and Wildlife to re-consider the East Walker River regulation changes they made a couple seasons ago. Most importantly they doubled the limit on the river and got rid of the barbless hook requirement which I believe in the long run will be extremely detrimental to the fishery as a whole. A lot of anglers still pinch their barbs and we encourage them to do so but there are still a lot of anglers who don’t take the time to do that. My petition proposes that they go all the way and make the East Walker River artificial flies or lures only, single barbles hooks, zero fish limit (catch and release only) and open all year long. If you would like to see the regs on the river change please go to https://chng.it/Jzv5JzSy and cast your vote. I’ve also shared the information on Ken’s Facebook page, feel free to vote and share as often as you like. If we get a bunch of signatures hopefully we can get the DFW to take a closer look at the regs for the EW and maybe make some changes.