Fishing Conditions and Hatches: Fair-Good

Fishing has been streaky day to day with A LOT of small fish, a good sign for the future.

With the water dropping and warming up the fish are starting to move out of the deep holes and into shallower holding spots.  We're starting to see the midsummer consistency in hatches. These include caddis, Tiny BWO and Tricos, which had all ready started very early. Midges in the morning plus the new foods. The Tricos are emerging fairly heavily between 8 and 9:30 with the spinner fall around an hour later.The Tricos are much more prevalent at the Interpretive Site. The best fishing seems to be 7-10 but now with the hoppers becoming more available the midday wind is giving us another reason to stick around. The surface action has definitely picked up, especially with the midday Caddis activity. Generally the midges will be hatching until early afternoon and then egg laying and spent adults in the afternoon.  Scuds and San Juan Worms will work all day.  With the decrease in flows and the increase in usage the streamer fishing has gotten tougher . It's important to key in on any slack water. Really study the water, a slick spot (flat water behind invisible rock) as small as a dinner plate might be the key to your day.

I still tell my clients that a 4 second drift is average and finish with an aggressive pickup, you will hook fish you never knew existed.

Fishing conditions and Hatches: Good and getting better

See the water condition report!

Things are picking up, still better midday on when the water warms up. If you click on the flows you will also see temperature readings. We are now seeing a mixture of smaller mayflies, Green Drakes #12-14 and the beginnings of the Little Yellow Sallies emergence. As in the smaller Freestone streams of the area the fish don't seem to eat the Green Drake nymphs much, prefering to wait until the adults start to fly away.

Fishing Conditions and Hatches: Fair or Poor, a day to day situation

Still no real signs of improving, just a few moments if you do find one of the cleaner spots.......until it gets clogged up again.

It's a mess, the algae is everywhere except the Owens River channel which is relatively clean and packed with schools of...........perch and chub. The good news is that the algae appears to be dying off and conditions should improve greatly in the next week or so. We can dream can't we? Sadly when the algae dies it sinks so it's harder to tell if the water is clean or not. To add to the fun we're now catching fish from a couple of feet of water all the way out to 40'+.

Those small Browns they've been stocking ( 8-13") are now all the way from Crooked Creek to McGee Bay. You can now add REALLY small cutthroat to the stocking carousel and they seem to be pushing the browns away from the launch ramp.

Fishing Conditions and Hatches: Fair-Good

Hatches and the fishing are starting to improve. You will probably notice that we are finally into the summer mode with fewer variations in hatches and water conditions. Something new is the fall spawning rainbows (Coleman strain) have started moving up, with the algae in Crowley I'm surprised it's taken this long.

Outside of the Mosquito population exploding things are definitely picking up. Water temperatures are coming up, the magic number of 58 degress is being reached by midday. Hatches are good throughout the river with the addition of Calibaetis to the mixture of Trico, midge, caddis, tiny BWO, cranefly and damsels. Caddis migration until around 9-female Trico emergence starting around 7 with mating and spinner fall 9 to11- Midges all morning-Callibaetis and Damsels late morning. TheTiny BWO have started up, The fish pay the most attention to them in the afternoon when they are egg laying. This mayfly used to be considered a PMD but has been reclassified as a Baetis. Very small (#22-26), the easiest way to spot them is their egg laying tactics. They dive from 5'-10' above the water, slam into the water and then fly right back up. With the reduction in flows the Tadpoles are being forced out of the swampy water and in to the main river, much to the trout's delight. It also means that the Grasshoppers now have access to the riverbanks, another plus for the fish. They have stopped stocking below the bridge but the planters continue to spread out. 

It's good to remember that there aren't a lot of "resident" fish in the Upper Owens, it's basically a nursery for Crowley Lake and as they get bigger most of them will move down to the lake. The fish that haven't gone to the lake yet tend to be pickier because it's their natural environment. Not to say there aren't big resident fish but they tend to spend their entire adult life far back under the cut banks, venturing out to eat a 12 incher every once in a while.

 If you're not familiar with it, to get to the upper most branch of Hot Creek, go through the first drive through gate on the main road and immediately turn left. The confluence is between the first and second walk-thru gates.

Fishing Conditions and Hatches: Fair-Good

Flows are back up from 300 to 400, doesn't really affect the fishing except for the access. The Trico emergence and spinner fall has gotten later. Instead of between 7 and 10 it's more like 8-12. 9 the craneflies start hatching and the mayfly emergence starts around 10 and goes until dark. The mayflies are several types, light colored and between #18-24. Right after the Trico spinner fall there's another spinner fall, probably a BWO that's a #20-22. One of the mayflies coming off from 10-dusk is the Tiny BWOs. These guys are pale in color and live up to their name, #22-24. The evening also includes caddis and male Tricos.

A few things I've seen, the fish are on the surface eating caddis in the evenings, the banks are very unstable, walking has gotten a lot better but be very careful around the high banks.

Fishing conditions and Hatches: Good-Very Good

The fish are there and with the flows dropping the presentations are getting easier. The predominate fish being caught are the 12"-15" holdover planters being sucked down out of the lake. The hatches are improving, the Trico spinner fall midmorning being the best but for the most part the fish aren't real picky and you do have a shot at some truly large fish. Food out of the reservoir dominates the action while below the bridge you see mostly stream insects and bait fish. Above the bridge larger midges, Callibaetis midday, Daphnia and perch fry. the fish have seen enough of the perch if you're dead drifting them start imparting life into them by mending, twitching or swinging them. Below the bridge the main food groups are Tricos early and Baetis midday, midges (as the fish get pickier try downsizing midge patterns) all day and terrestrials such as grasshoppers, ants, beetles and caterpillars.We are also seeing some success with large rubberlegs, kind of late for the Stoneflies but then who knows what to expect this year. Water temperature has been staying in the low 60's all day which is great news. The crowds are starting to grow so be aware of that and remain on your best behavior. If the spot your in gets crowded don't be afraid to make the move, it seems to be the pack syndrome with one section being packed while taking a 5-10 minute walk and you might end up all by yourself.