Guided fly fishing trips for Crowley Lake, Grant & Silver Lakes, the San Joaquin, Upper and Middle Owens Rivers, 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.



San Joaquin River is very good for dry fly fishing, water conditions excellent. Crowley Lake algae bloom on the decline, catching picking up as water levels drop. Special angling regulations/access to marina begin on 8/1/16 here. Middle Owens flows blown out at 480cfs. East Walker fair/good, flows down to 140cfs. Hot Creek continues to be on the slow side. Upper Owens fair. Water levels very low in Long Years section. Planted rainbows can be found in deeper pools. Heavy aquatic weeds below the Benton Bridge. Alpine Lakes a good place to escape the summer heat. Tubers fishing full sinking lines can get into planted rainbows.

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The lake level has come down two feet recently. The submerged aquatic weeds are now protruding making the deeper weed lines easy to identify. This condition will set the stage for some great fly fishing in August as the perch fry, & damsel nymphs hide along the edges. The algae bloom has tapered off, & is not causing presentation issues currently. Sandy Pt. & Hilton have had decent snaps recently; but McGee Bay is the best overall. Tubers should be looking to troll some damsel nymphs along the weed lines in McGee, Sandy Pt. and Hilton Bay. As the lake level drops, the leader length will decrease for still water nymphers. 16-19 feet is now the norm. The trout are concentrating in the cooler, more oxygenated water emanating from McGee Creeks influence, & the insulation that deeper water provides. The damsel nymph emergence is also triggering aggressive feeding behavior as the trout follow the nymphs towards the submerged aquatic weed lines. Hang your flies above a clean mud bottom in close proximity to a hard weed line for consistent action. We are having good fortune at times near the inlet to McGee in 4-7 feet. Locating a weed free area large enough to work is not easy, & the spots are limited. Gillies, broken back midges, crystal zebra, or tiger midges (big ones), and damsel nymphs are all good calls while fishing below an “sliding” Under-cator. My go to rig the last few days has been an Assassin #14/16 as the upper, with a dark crystal tiger midge (#14), or broken back copper tiger (#16) as the larva pattern. Keep the tigers 6-12 inches off the deck. ***Special angling regulations begin on 8/1/16 and will continue throughout the remainder of the season on Crowley. The entry gate to the marina opens at 7am instead of 6am also.

This fishery opens last Saturday in April & closes November 15th.



Conditions are poor downstream from the Benton Bridge due to heavy aquatic weed growth. Upstream from the bridge special regulations apply, & the conditions are better above the confluence of Hot Creek inlets. Grasshoppers are prevalent currently. Use a stimulator with a bead head nymph like an Assassin, FB PT, olive crystal caddis; or olive zebra midge as a dropper. You will also see a solid caddis hatch. Hi-vis caddis adult patterns used with a dropper will also get grabs. The water levels are very low above HC, & the irrigation canal inlets. You will find most of the planted rainbows, and wild browns in the deepest pools and pockets. There are a few nicer rainbows hanging around that are best fooled by attractor patterns like the “Drifters Crawler” and crystal eggs. A strange thing this season are the migration of Sacramento Perch moving up the river. You may get into quite a few of them in the deeper pools.

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.



Blown out. FLOWS ARE 480 cfs. and the highest in several years. Wading is not practical, or advisable in the wild trout section currently.

This fishery remains open year around. Special regs from the footbridge at Pleasant Valley campground to the fishing monument 4.7 miles downstream.



The run-off from Mammoth Creek has dropped a bunch, and flows are coming down on the Crick. Fishing has been fair/slow this summer. The slower fishing can be directly attributed to the lack of planting from the HC hatchery. This is the primary reason HC is not kicking out the numbers it once did. HC is now being managed as a wild trout fishery only, and new practices are not allocating the planting of additional trout here. You can still get into some good bites on smaller fish using scuds, Assassins, and smaller olive crystal caddis, or dubbed olive caddis larva patterns while nymphing the deeper pockets that are weed free. Caddis adults and hoppers are best for surface action.







Continuous hydro power generation, & fluctuating water levels are not conducive to consistently good fishing at this time. Pretty dang hot here after the sun gets up a little too. The higher flows will help clean out the aquatic weeds to improve conditions when it starts to cool down in the fall.