Thanksgiving weekend will be a great time to be in the Eastern Sierra fly fishing. Thanksgiving day and Friday will be great fall weather. Look for slightly cooler days and maybe precipitation next week. Warm days and good fishing is in store for Thanksgiving fly fishers visiting the Eastern Sierra. Trophy trout, resident trout and juvenile trout are feeding on dry flies, nymphs and streamers. Mayflies and midges are the primary insects that are feeding the trout. Still seeing a few caddis on Eastern Sierra Waters.
Sunny days and fall weather, jackets in the morning and evening, two light layers during the day, and trout feeding on dries and nymphs makes this the perfect time to be fly fishing in the Eastern Sierra.
Lower Owens River
Wild Trout Section:
Mornings are cold enough to wear a sweat shirt. Mid-day is warm enough for a T-shirt and a wicking layer. A mid-day mayfly hatch has the trout feeding on the surface and on the substrate. On the surface fish with a size 18 Adams parachute, size 18 blue wing olive parachute and a size 18 olive sparkle dun. On the substrate fish with a size 18 bead head flash back pheasant tail nymph, size 18 olive quilldigon, size 18 Frenchies, size 16 Duracell, size 18 olive quill RS2 and size 12 stoner nymph. Rainbows and browns from 17 inches to four inches are the trout fly fishers are catching in the lower Owens River. Roads are drying out with one or two deep puddles to drive through on Chalk Bluff Road.
Trout from four to 17 inches have been feeding all day on mayfly nymphs and dries.
Hot Creek
Interpretive Site:
The warm weather has melted most of the snow at the Interpretive sight. Fishing with nymphs and dries is producing trout for the fly fisher fishing mid-morning. Nymphing with size 18 bead head flash back pheasant tail nymphs, size 18 olive quilldigons, size 18 Frenchies, size 18 brassies, size 18 green/gold brassies and midge nymphs in size 18 in zebra and tiger coloration is fooling wild brown and rainbow trout to 14 inches.
It does not take long for the warm weather to melt the snow on Hot Creek in the fall.
Hot Creek
Canyon Section:
The weed beds are breaking up making it easier to nymph fish in the Canyon Section of Hot Creek. Look for the openings in the weed beds, the riffle sections and deeper pools to fish you nymphs in. Fish with size 18 midges in zebra and tiger colorations, size 18 brassies, size 18 green/gold brassies, size 18 olive quilldigons, size 18 bead head flash back pheasant tail nymphs and size 12 olive scuds. If there is enough trout feeding on the surface use size 20 blue wing olive parachutes, size 20 Adams parachutes and size 18 Griffiths gnats.
Sometimes it’s better to fish the inside bend instead of the outside bend of the river on the Upper Owens River.
Upper Owens River
Above Benton Crossing Bridge:
Dirt roads above Benton Crossing Bridge are drying out from the melting snow. Watch out for the mud as its slippery and easy to get stuck in with your vehicle. Trophy rainbows continue to offer the best opportunity for catching trophy trout. There are a few trophy brown trout still in the system being caught. Fish with size 12 stoner nymphs, size 12 green/gold wire Prince nymphs, size 12 gold ribbed hare’s ear variations, size 14 copper John’s, size 12 Duracell’s and size 16 hot spot pheasant tail nymphs in the deep holes, deep runs and cut banks where the trophy trout are resting and feeding. Fishing with streamers is producing trophy trout for fly fishers fishing with size 6 and 10 wooly buggers, size 10 balanced leeches, size 6 and 10 olive slumpbusters and size 6 and 10 olive or yellow matukas. The Owens River below Benton Crossing Bridge is closed.
City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has dredged the canal and has slowed down fly fishing.
Bishop Creek Canal
Behind Bishop Veterinary Hospital:
City of Los Angels Department of Water and Power has dredged Bishop Creek Canal. This has temporarily slowed down the fly fishing in the canal. The trout are still there, but with most of the weed beds gone the trout are wary as they have no ware to hide. Prior to the dredging the trout were feeding on small mayfly nymphs and dries. On the surface the trout were taking size 20 Adams parachutes, size 20 blue wing olive parachutes and size 20 olive sparkle duns. Under the surface a size 18 bead head flash back pheasant tail nymph, size 18 olive quilldigon, size 16 Duracell and size 16 Frenchie’s have been fooling the canal trout. Bishop Creek Canal is under winter regulations catch and release with barbless lures and flies through the Friday preceding the last Saturday in April.