Weather: - (7am Temp First light/Last light)

Sunday 42º 6:12/7:21 Clear early, then the smoke from the Owens River Rd fire moved in around noon Monday 48º 6:13/7:19 Clear with light breeze moving in around 10:30am, haze from the Owens fire Tuesday 48º 6:14/7:18 Clear early with clouds moving in around 8:30am Wednesday 48º 6:15/7:16 Windy with haze from the Owens fire, cloudy with rain for a couple hours with partial clearing more rain, wind and continued to rain the remainder of the day (temperature at 4:30pm was 42º) Thursday 30º 6:16/7:15 Clear, windy bringing in clouds but no precipitation  Friday 36º 6:16/7:15 Clear and calm Saturday 40º 6:18/7:11 Clear and Calm and warmed up nicely This past week was cooler and of course more small patches of aspens turning yellow then wind all day on the 4th which dropped the temp by 12 degrees. Local Weatherman predicting a storm for Wednesday and it rained most of the day, a nice steady rain starting around 11am which continued to around 5:30pm. Light dusting of snow atop of Dunderberg Peak Thursday am.

CalTrans is seems to be on a hold repairing the remainder of the rock fall project that started last summer. Chain link fencing installed above the barriers from the fire damage and it has daily 8-5 one lane closures. More chain link barrier fencing is being installed on top of the concrete barriers along the south-bound lane in order to handle any mud slides due to the rain. The stock truck did NOT stock this week as they have gone to an every other week schedule.

It's hard to predict what the fish are doing when we are on an every other week stocking schedule. Fish are here but you just need to know what they are hitting.

BAIT: Night crawlers have been great all summer. Most of the week the pink tail/white head or white tail/pink head mice tails, yellow glitter powerbait, salmon peach powerbait, and garlic sage are also taking a lot of trout. Pautzke's red glitter salmon eggs on size 14-16 red egg hooks have been producing for the last couple weeks. For the best action using a mice tail use the new light wire hooks by Owner called Mosquito hooks and be sure and ask how to hook the mice tails for the best results. The next way to hook up a mice tail is fill a clear bubble with water and stop it with a swivel and about 3 to 4 feet of leader with a treble hook and bury it inside the ball, that is from the courtesy of the Marshmallow King.

LURES: Try red/gold Buoyant's, small gold Kastmasters, black or black/olive Rooster Tails and small gold spoons, trout trap grasshopper, and Panther Martin yellow/red dots. Always try all your favorite hardware until the fish find the "action" they are looking for. Remember to use the lure properly by adding the right swivel for the best action. Not much change here.

FLY AND BUBBLE: Lots of dry fly action on Friday and Saturday due to the warmer air and caddis have returned so try a Yellow Stimulator, Yellow Wulff, or an Olive Elk-hair Caddis, and a tent-wing caddis, green body California Mosquito and Grey Hackle yellow size 14, damsels, hoppers and black ants. Also try some Black Gnat parachute #14, Cowdung #14, and Adams Female #14.

Best action is ALWAYS when their is a chop on the water which is usually late afternoon to legal limit at night.

FLY RODS: Olive woolly bugger or Dirty Doc, Virginia Lakes special, black woolly buggers, olive Hornberg's, Hemmingway Caddis, Tent-wing Caddis, Olive Elk Hair Caddis, Yellow Sally Caddis and Black Gnat parachute size 14 and skinny stillwater nymphs. Not to be redundant, but if you tie flies try using less material than normal for high elevation waters as they work better maybe because they've seen everything a couple hundred times this time of year.

BACKCOUNTRY: Surface hatches are still a bit slow unless you know what to do as the cold snap that hit us on Thursday continued into Friday, and I got a cold from the weather change. My suggestion is to try some dry flies with a bubble or fly rod on small gnats, green body mosquitoes, black ants, hoppers, and olive elk hair caddis sizes 16-18; fly size will change as the weather cools so start using smaller hooks. Lure action that did was was on gold Super Duper's, gold Mepps size O, and very small gold spoons. Early morning and early evening are the best times for any action. This is pretty consistent for the canyon. Come and ask me what's hot.

Please keep only what you can eat, it is a valuable resource. Also, If the trout bleeds, it's yours, PLEASE don't toss it back into the lake as it will die. If you care about the resource please be careful when releasing fish back into the lake. Also, IT ATTRACKS BEARS!

Virginia Lakes Resort is located near the top of Conway Summit between Mono Lake and Bridgeport, CA. We have everything you need to enjoy the Eastern Sierra. Check out our WEBSITE.