Guided fly fishing trips for Crowley Lake, Grant & Silver Lakes, the San Joaquin, Upper and Middle Owens Rivers, East Walker River, McGee Creek, Pleasant Valley Reservoir, Hot Creek, & the Gorge located near Mammoth and Bishop Ca. will give you opportunities to catch trophy rainbows and browns while being guided by expert fly fishing pros. Sierra Drifters guides utilize top of the line center console bay boats, drift boats, float tubes, and high quality fly fishing tackle to guide you on these blue ribbon trout waters.
Quick Look Fish Report 8/22/17
We are changing to a Gmail account. Please add driftfish1@gmail.com to your address book, & delete the other. Thank you.
We want to wish the new management for the Bridgeport Marina and RV Park the very best of luck, & many solid snow packs. The facility is back and operating with good reports from tubers and boaters fishing the Buckeye Bay section. Go say hello to Chase, and wet a line!
The month of August is turning out to be a great month here in the Eastern Sierra. Areas which were hit hard by the trout are now fishable again with plenty of water everywhere. A short taste of fall-like weather came through bringing some wind and cooler temps. This month looks to be dry until the 3rd week and will be warming back up to sierra summer conditions. Bridgeport Reservoir good along the channels with perch fry imitations, midges, and assassins. East Walker around 343 cfs with multiple fishable areas and some bigger fish on the chew. Lots of small rainbows have been showing up that have been washed down from the reservoir. June Lake area good in Rush Creek and most of the lakes with nymphs and streamers. San Joaquin at perfect flows now for wading and throwing dry flies. Hot Creek now clear and in prime condition. Good with a light weight rod and a dry dropper setup. Upper Owens good to excellent on the surface with hopper patterns, mayflys, caddis, and small midges. Crowley Lake kicking out some real beasts on most days. Some slow periods on others. Gorge flows trickling in the upper area, PVR good pulling streamers by float tube, and Middle Owens giving up some wild browns along the slower deeper sections and edges of the river.
Crowley Lake 8/16/17
Some days “on fire” and some days you’ll have to move around. Fish searching all over McGee Bay for perch fry and damselfly nymphs. They can be caught in water as short as 5′ and all the way out to 20′ if fishing excessively long leaders in your thing. Our Parallel Punk Perch and Parallel Assassin Light have been fooling many large trout recently. You can pick these flies up in the area at Reagan’s Sporting Goods in Bishop and at the Crowley Lake General Store in Crowley. Crooked Creek, Little and Big Hilton, and McGee Bay have been good areas lately. Fish have been sinking back into the channel when the south wind comes up in the afternoon on some days and the catching can be phenomenal.
Check out some recent catches from our clients here:
Andy Rafkin with a brown beauty while fishing with Tom Loe!
Scott Linkletter always gets the bigs. Nice rainbow!
Scott with another wide colored up bow!
Ed Osada spanked this hefty rainbow hen while the lake was flat calm!
Mark Berchtold diplays a nice hen he got on a “Parallel Punk Perch”!
Kevin Tippet and Jennifer Aery had a great time fishing with Dave Carranza!
Joe Coory with a nice brown trout while fishing with Doug Dolan!
Austin Patterson displays a beautiful ‘bow! Doug Dolan was his guide!
Vanessa Smith with a chunky and long rainbow while fishing with Doug Dolan!
Jennifer Franz shows off her biggest brown trout, which she coaxed into biting her fly!
Tomas Smith with a nice long rainbow first thing in the morning!
Perry Minamide holding a well fed brownie from McGee Bay!
John Miller fished with Jerry Gilpin and scored this two handed chunky ‘bow!
Kim Wymore putting the hurt on a fish with dog “Bodie” on point while fishing with Doug Dolan!
Nice rainbow Kim!
San Joaquin River 8/16/17
Flows dropping rapidly here daily. Currently at 124 cfs and trending downward. Excellent water conditions with fish taking most dry flies in the right size presented properly. Fishing has been good from the campgrounds down and upstream. Stimulators, Caddis, Mayflies, and small hoppers have been great flies for the area on a 3-weight rod. We are now guiding this area and you can click here for our trip request form.
Upper Owens River 8/16/17
River now at an excellent flow rate at 67 cfs. Water is crystal clear above the Hot Creek confluence and the further up you travel. Fish are readily taking dry flies and droppers in the clear water above the bridge. The fish are scattered along the river in this section and you may have to do a bit of run and gun fishing. 3 or 4 weight rods are a great set up for these fish. They are very aggressive when taking a dry fly presented to them properly. Mosquitoes are still around in good numbers so juicing the skin up with bug spray wouldn’t hurt.
Shot of the river from the bridge!
A standard rainbow who fell victim to a hopper imitation!
The grass is high this year from the abundance of snow over the winter!
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/PVR/Wild Trout section (Bishop Area) 8/16/17
447 cfs on the river currently with 175 cfs coming through from Bishop Creek. The reservoir is fishing good while pulling full sink and sink tip lines from a tube. Go with dark streamer colors on the overcast thunderstorm days and lighter colors when the sun is high in the sky and bright. Wild Trout area is high for wading but targeting the deeper slower pools and softer edges of the water will get you some grabs with nymphs and plenty of weight.
Middle Owens River at current flows!
This fishery remains open year around. Special regs from the footbridge at Pleasant Valley campground to the fishing monument 4.7 miles downstream.
Hot Creek 8/16/17
Flows now at 48 cfs. Water looking really good now. Try dry fly and dropper combos along the far edges of the banks. Fish are eager to jump on whatever offering falls from the banks.
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 8/16/17
LADWP has been doing a lot of work in this area and have lowered flows. It is better fishing from the power plant down to PVR currently.
Season open year around
East Walker River 8/16/17
River now at 343 cfs. Near perfect flows at this release and great fishing in all areas of the river. Good quality rainbows and browns showing up and biting on heavily weighted nymph rigs. San Juan worms, Parallel Punk Perch, midges, PT’s, and Copper John’s are all good flies right now. We are now taking trip reservations for the East Walker. Book your trip here.
Devin Preston with a stellar rainbow in the 5 lb class! Nice fish dude!
This fishery is open year around below the Bridgeport Reservoir dam to Nevada State line. Open year around in Nevada also.
Bridgeport Reservoir 8/22/17
We want to wish the new management for the Bridgeport Marina and RV Park the very best of luck, & many solid snow packs. The facility is back and operating with good reports from tubers and boaters fishing the Buckeye Bay section. Go say hello to Chase, and wet a line!
The “Bridge” has water, & is in the best shape we have seen in several seasons. The Marina, & RV park are back in operation for the fall season.
Jurassic Pond 8/16/17
The big fish here just won’t stop biting! Did I mention that these are all wild fish with some of the hottest paint jobs you’ll find in the sierra? We offer half day guided trips here and can fish up to 3 anglers at a time. Call or fill out one of our trip request forms here to get on the pond!
Check out some of the recent fish we’ve had the pleasure of netting:
Rob Klebba with a fat rainbow from the pond!
Rich Burkett holds a heavily spotted rainbow!
Rob with a rainbow trout with an over eating problem!
Rich with another fat rainbow!
Luke “Tail-Walker” Vanlaeys with one heck of a ‘bow!
“Kill’n” Dylan Gerson with a nice brown out of the pond!
Dylan with a killer rainbow!
Dylan and Luke with their best double of the day! These two really stuck the bigs!
Luke with another trophy rainbow by the dock!
***New for 2017! I have limited quantities of some new patterns that will guarantee advantage in your quest for trophy trout. Balanced patterns are the new rage for nymphing, & streamer fishing. Parallel Punk Perch has been the hottest fly on Crowley Lake recently. We have been guide testing these patterns for several years, & I can honestly say they are the most significant improvement in fly design in over a decade. They are truly superior to conventional fly designs. The flies ride “parallel”; or “level” to the bottom giving them a far more realistic profile. The jig style hook becomes more effective as it seldom gets snagged on the bottom, & sets efficiently in the fishes mouth. These flies are intended to fish as your bottom fly in a multi fly; or tandem rig. They are deadly fished solo as a streamer. Add these patterns to your quiver for all fisheries that you still water nymph; or cast streamers. Click on “fly sales” on the nav bar above, hit “menu” first from a mobile device to access the nav bar.
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.
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.
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Sierra Drifters Guide Service © is trademarked & copyright issued May 4th 2013. No part of this website maybe reproduced, duplicated, or distributed without direct consent from Tom Loe.