Eastern Sierra Fly Fishing 

Runoff is done and DWP has cut the flows through the pipe, so the river is down to roughly 55 to 57 CFS. Water is clear above upper Hot Creek and off color below it, and the temperature story is the one we would plan around: down by the bridge it is hitting 68 by midmorning while the upper confluence stays in the mid 60s at midday, so fish up. Fish keep moving in from Crowley, mostly browns in the 13 to 20 inch class along with some rainbows looking for cooler water, and we are still hearing good things about egg and worm patterns on them. Hatches are thin outside of the ever present midges and caddis, and the Trico spinner fall has been inconsistent, starting around 9 to 9:30. Two housekeeping notes before you go: irrigation has begun, so anything upstream of the first drive through gate can be hazardous, and the ranchers now have cattle inside the fence, so stay above them.
 

Try: BH Pheasant Tail Angel Hair (#14 to 20), BL Bright Red Weighted Squirmy Wormy (#12 to 14), TG BH Zebra Midge Black (#16 to 22), Adams Parachute (#16 to 20), Elk Hair Caddis Brown (#16 to 20).

We will be straight with you on this one. Nothing solid has come back to us from the water this week, so take this as a flow update rather than a bite report. Flows had settled into the 300s in late August and then bumped hard, with the gauge reading close to 500 CFS on August 27, which puts wading essentially off the table. Clarity is good and the river is trending in the right direction. If you go, fish the accessible banks and the seams you can reach from dry ground, get your work done at first and last light while Bishop is still running highs in the low 90s, and do not be shy about throwing a streamer, because almost nobody down here does.
 

Try: Elk Hair Caddis Brown (#16 to 20), CDC BWO Dry (#16 to 18), TG BH Zebra Midge Black (#18 to 22), Czech Nymph Natural (#12 to 16), Wooly Bugger Brown (#8 to 12).

The creek is very low at about 7 CFS with good clarity, the weed beds are thick, and the water warms fast through the day, so we would treat this as a morning fishery and nothing else. Tricos and caddis are the dominant bugs now, with sporadic midges from about 7 to 10, female Tricos hatching around 7 and the spinner fall starting near 9, and the bite slowing between 10 and 11. Here is a tell we lean on: splashy rises are almost always caddis, sippy rises are Tricos. If nothing is showing, put on a terrestrial, a scud, or a small streamer. Aim your casts at the clear lanes instead of the weeds, keep drifts to about four seconds, and set fast, because these fish are eating and spitting quickly by this point in the year.
 

Try: Sparkle Dun Male Trico (#20 to 22), Trico Male Poly Spinner (#20 to 22), Spent Partridge Caddis (#16 to 20), Bead Body Scud Olive (#16 to 18), CDC Ant (#16 to 18).

The East is running around 221 CFS with good clarity, which is a healthy number, and nighttime lows in the 40s are starting to help. Word out of Bridgeport is water temperatures in the low 60s at daybreak but climbing into the high 60s well before noon, so we would plan on fishing until about 10 and then finding something else to do with the afternoon. Forget the old rule about staying up by the dam for cold water, because as the reservoir drops the release can run 70 and warmer around the clock, and after a cold night this river actually cools as it moves downstream. Tricos are the headline hatch from mid August into September, so bring the small stuff along with the usual worm and perdigon program. Carry a thermometer and check it often, especially below the bridge, where we have seen temperatures jump several degrees in under an hour.

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Try: Sparkle Dun Male Trico (#20 to 22), BH Pheasant Tail Sparkle Back (#14 to 20), BL Bright Red Weighted Squirmy Wormy (#12 to 14), Holy Grail Black (#14 to 18), TG BH Zebra Midge Black (#20 to 22).

Crowley has turned the corner and this is the one we would drive to first. The algae bloom that clouded things all summer has died off and sunk, clarity is much improved, and the perch fry are finally big enough that the trout are keying on them. We are hearing fish are back up in the stream channels in roughly 6 to 15 feet, and you do not have to be right in the channel, just near it and outside the weed lines. Look for Callibaetis coming off around 9 to 10 and the damsel emergence from about 11 to 1, and watch for the larger midges in the #14 to 18 range rather than the clouds of tiny ones. Good news for float tubers, the Whitmore road from McGee Bay through to Green Banks is open again. Surface temperatures have been in the mid to upper 70s with some bottom water reaching 70 in Hilton, McGee, and Christmas bays, so we would treat this as a voluntary hoot owl week. Fish heavier gear, land them fast, and keep them in the net.
 

Try: Black Buzzer (#14 to 18), Chironomid Nymph Red Eastern Sierra Series (#14 to 18), The Green Damsel Nymph (#12 to 14), Comparadun Adams for Callibaetis (#14 to 16), BH Zonker White for perch fry (#8 to 10).

Bridgeport is a channel game right now, which is exactly what it should be this time of year. The open water is warm and tired, so the fish stack where the moving water comes in, and that means the East Walker channel and the Buckeye Bay channels and nowhere else worth your time. Get up in there and nymph it under an indicator, a chironomid deep with a damsel above it, and you are in the 2 to 5 pound rainbows this reservoir has always grown on its weed beds. Most of the fish coming out lately have gone to bait, but do not read anything into that, it says more about who is fishing it than what the trout are eating. The Twins are a different animal in early September. The rainbows and the Kokanee have dropped to around 60 feet where the cold water is, and unless you are rigged to get a fly down there you are better off working the inlets and the shoreline at first and last light with a leech or a bugger on a sinking line. The brown fishing those lakes are famous for is still a few weeks out, so consider this the warm up.

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Try: The Black Chironomid Pupa (#12 to 16), The Green Damsel Nymph (#12 to 14), Brown Hackle Peacock soft hackle (#12 to 14), Leech Black with Pink Egg (#8 to 10), BH Krystal Bugger Black (#8 to 10).