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Highway 395 runs up the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada past some of the best trout water in the western United States, and the choice can be paralysing if you have never fished it. This is a plain guide to the six waters worth planning around, what each one actually asks of you, and which to pick depending on what you want out of the trip. Crowley Lake A big rich reservoir that grows fat rainbows, browns and cutthroat on an almost endless midge supply. It is stillwater fis

Walk into most fly shops and ask what you need for the Eastern Sierra, and you will walk out having spent a hundred dollars on forty patterns, most of which you will never tie on. This is the opposite of that. Twelve flies, chosen because between them they cover every water along Highway 395 in most conditions you will meet. It is what we would hand a friend making the drive up for the first time. The four that do most of the work If you only bought four flies, buy these. A B

Crowley Lake is a midge lake first and everything else second. The overwhelming majority of what its trout eat, across the whole season, is chironomid pupa, which anglers usually call buzzers. If you learn to fish a buzzer properly on Crowley, you will catch fish here, and you will also be able to fish stillwater almost anywhere in the world. It is the most transferable skill in trout fishing. Depth is everything If you take one thing from this, take this. On Crowley, depth m

The East Walker below Bridgeport Reservoir is a big fish river. It does not give up numbers the way the Upper Owens does, and it will make you work, but the trout that live in it are the kind you remember. The two things that decide whether you have a good day are the flow and the water temperature, and both are worth checking before you commit to the drive. Reading the flow The productive band is roughly 80 to 250 cubic feet per second. Inside that window the river is wadeab

The Upper Owens is a modest looking meadow stream that happens to hold some of the largest trout in the Eastern Sierra, and fall is when that becomes obvious. As the water cools, fish run up out of Crowley Lake and into the river, and a stream you could step across in places starts producing browns and rainbows far bigger than it has any right to. Why fall changes everything here Through summer the Upper Owens is mostly a small fish river. Pleasant, pretty, full of willing br

Hot Creek in trico season is one of the hardest and most rewarding pieces of water in the Eastern Sierra. It is a spring creek, so the flows are low and steady, the weed beds are thick, and the fish have seen everything. The good news is that the hatch runs to a schedule you can set your watch by, and if you show up rigged and ready you can have the best two hours of your season before most people have finished their coffee. The timetable Tricos run from roughly mid summer in

September is the month Crowley Lake gives itself back to fly anglers. The summer algae bloom dies off and sinks, clarity comes back, the water starts shedding heat overnight, and the fish move out of their deep summer holding water into places you can reach. If you only fish Crowley once a year, this is the month to do it. Here is what changes, where to look, and exactly what we would carry. What changes in September Three things happen more or less at once. The algae that cl

Welcome back to our weekly report from the 395 corridor. September is here and we can feel the season turning. Nights in Long Valley are dropping into the 40s, the days are staying near normal and dry, and that cooling trend is exactly what these waters have been waiting for. Our story of the week is Crowley, where the algae has finally cleaned up and the perch fry have arrived in numbers, and the rivers are all running low and clear enough that a careful approach matters mor

We finally got a break. A couple of days of rain rolled through the middle of last week with thunder, lightning, and even a power outage, and it put some badly needed water back into the country. Long Valley warmed back into the mid 80s right behind it, but a trough moving through the Pacific Northwest has today running cooler and breezy, and the ridge is breaking down over the weekend. That matters more than it sounds: cooler nights are what actually reset a river. Carry a t

Middle of August, and after a brutal stretch of heat the forecast finally offers some relief. Monsoon moisture is pushing in with real thunderstorm chances through the middle of next week, which should knock the air temperature down and, more importantly, cool the water overnight. Until it does, a voluntary Hoot Owl restriction is in place on Crowley, both stretches of the Owens, Bishop Creek Canal, Bridgeport Reservoir, and the East Walker. Carry a thermometer, fish the firs

Deep summer on the 395 corridor. Water is warm, weeds are thick, and the whole game right now is timing. Fish the first few hours of light and the last hour of it, carry a thermometer, and give every fish a quick, wet release. One piece of good news: bait season closed on Crowley on August 1, which hands the lake back to fly anglers just as the fish move shallow. Here is where things stand. Every fly below is one we tie and stock, so tap any name to grab it. Crowley Lake Crow

Summer is in full swing up and down the 395 corridor. Water is warm, the weeds are up, and the bite is all about timing, so early mornings and evenings are your friend right now. Here is where things stand this week. Every fly below is one we tie and stock, so tap any name to grab it. Crowley Lake The lake is fishing hot in every sense. Rainbows, cutthroat, and browns are coming to the net all over, with the North Arm and Hilton Bay leading the way. As surface temps climb, fi