Eastern Sierra Fly Fishing Report: Week of October 9, 2026

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The Lower Owens keeps coming down, and that is still the one number worth watching this fall. It read about 300 CFS when we wrote last week and the gauge was sitting at 269 CFS on Tuesday afternoon, so the summer release out of Pleasant Valley is unwinding at a steady clip rather than all at once. Wadeable water is in sight down there. It is not here yet. Everywhere else the season has settled into proper October. Crowley is into the last three weekends of its boat season and fishing well enough to be the easy choice, the East Walker has dropped to 98 CFS which changes where you want to stand on it, and Bridgeport is doing what Bridgeport does this time of year. The air is the interesting part, because the warm spell holds through Saturday and then the first rain and snow showers of the season arrive Sunday into Monday. Here is how we see it. Every fly below is one we tie ourselves, so tap any name to grab it.

Crowley Lake

Crowley is our pick and we would not overthink it. The lake is in the no bait stretch of the season now, so it is artificial lures or flies only with no bait and no scents, two trout in possession and nothing under 18 inches. Barbless hooks are not required out there, though we pinch ours down anyway because a barbless hook comes out clean and gets the fish back in the water faster. Cooler water has the bite moving around more than it did a fortnight ago, which is the only real complaint we have heard, and the answer is to cover the known water rather than sit on one flat and hope. The north arm from Green Banks up to North Landing, McGee Bay, Sandy Point, Six Bays and the near shore channels have all been producing. Midges are still the whole story, sizes 16 to 20 under an indicator in 8 to 15 feet, with the bright shiny patterns earning their keep through the morning hatch and the darker greys and blood reds taking over as the day warms. Keep a perch fry on the top dropper, because these fish spent the summer eating them and have not forgotten. Boat fishing closes on October 25, which leaves three weekends.

Try: Epoxy Buzzer Red Pearl, The Black Chironomid Pupa, Chironomid Nymph Red, Black Buzzer, Epoxy Minnow Shad.

Hot Creek

Hot Creek was reading 5 CFS on Tuesday, which is as thin as this water runs, and the weeds are still at full height because it has not turned cold enough to break them down. That makes it a light rig game. One fly, short tight line drifts, and nothing heavy enough to bury itself in the salad. Mornings carry it: midges come off first, tricos follow with the spinner fall around 9, and it goes quiet between 10 and 11, which is your window to swim a scud or a small streamer through the open lanes. Afternoons have come back now that the water is cooling, with caddis and male tricos showing from about 4. The creek is also sitting in the gap between the trico season and the proper blue winged olive hatch, so carry both and watch the rise form, because a splashy take is caddis and a quiet sip is a mayfly. The interpretive site holds the deeper pools and the better fish if you are willing to share it.

Try: Thorax Trico, CDC BWO Dry, Bead Body Scud Olive, TG BH Zebra Midge Black, Foam Beetle.

Upper Owens River

The Upper Owens was at 71 CFS on Tuesday, unchanged from last week, and the fall build is on. The first wave of big rainbows and a few browns are up out of Crowley, but they are not spread through the river yet, so this is a walking game rather than a standing one. The water above the Hot Creek confluences is very clear and those fish are jumpy because of it, so your approach matters more than your pattern. Below the junctions it carries some color and you can get away with a good deal more. We would fish an egg, a worm and a pheasant tail through the deeper runs and undercut banks, keep a black leech on while the light is low, and dead drift a perch fry hard on the bottom anywhere below the bridge, because these are lake fish with a summer of perch behind them. Tricos are still inconsistent with the spinner fall around 9, and a parachute will pick up the smaller browns. Cattle are inside the fence and the spawning gravel is starting to matter, so wade as little as you can.

Try: BL Bright Red Weighted Squirmy Wormy, Leech Black with Pink Egg, BH Pheasant Tail Sparkle Back, Epoxy Minnow Shad, Adams Parachute.

Lower Owens River, Wild Trout Section near Bishop

The Lower Owens is the story again. The gauge read 269 CFS on Tuesday afternoon, down from about 300 last week and a long way off the 480 CFS it was pushing at the end of September, so Pleasant Valley is letting it go steadily. That is still too much water for comfortable wading and the willows make bank casting work, but it is close now. Clarity is good. Almost nobody has fished this river since spring and the high cold flows carried it through the summer in better shape than most water in the valley, which means the Wild Trout section below Bishop is sitting on trout that have not seen a fly in months. For now we would swing a streamer down and across through the first and last hour and keep a small baetis or a midge nymph deep through the middle of the day. Evenings will give you blue winged olives and caddis on top. The week this drops into wading range is the week to clear your calendar.

Try: BH Pheasant Tail Angel Hair, Holy Grail Black, CDC BWO Dry, Elk Hair Caddis Brown, Wooly Bugger Brown.

East Walker River

The East Walker has come down to 98 CFS, a real drop from the 139 CFS we reported last week, and it has moved the fishing around. The water below the bridge is holding the numbers while the Mile has fewer fish in it, but the fish that are in the Mile are the ones you came for, averaging better than 20 inches. Pick your poison accordingly. Streamer fishing has stepped up properly now the browns are coloring up and the water has cooled, and something big and ugly stripped through the deeper runs is how we would go looking for the fish of the season. A dry dropper still works, with something buoyant on top and a tungsten nymph or a zebra midge underneath, and straight nymphing under an indicator is never wrong here. Be aware this window shuts as the flows keep falling, because much of the river goes too shallow to hold fish at low water, so this is one to do now rather than in three weeks.

Try: BH Zonker White Bright, BH Krystal Bugger Black, Stimulator Yellow, Czech Nymph Natural, Tungsten Bead Head Zebra Midge Red.

Bridgeport Reservoir and Twin Lakes

Bridgeport is into its best few weeks of the year. Word out of Bridgeport is that the reservoir has handed out some very good days and some flat ones, with the trolling picking up, the bait fishing tailing off, and the fish spreading out of the deeper channels as the lake cools. For a fly angler that means a sinking line worked slowly over the flats rather than parking on an inlet. The shore game is coming on rather than arrived, probably another week or two. The Twins have been the better bet of the pair. The good reports have come out of deep water close to where the shoreline drops away, with plenty of two to four pound rainbows and the odd brown mixed in, and the browns get serious as the spawn approaches. A leech, a bugger or a soft hackle fished slow and deep is all this needs and we would not complicate it. Both the reservoir and the Twins close on October 25, the last Sunday of the month, so the season is nearly out.

Try: Leech Black with Pink Egg, BH Krystal Bugger Peacock, Brown Hackle Peacock, BL Blob FAB Sunburst Fire Tail, Egg Sucking Leech Olive.

Weather Outlook

There are two different weeks packed into this one. Friday and Saturday stay warm and sunny, with Bishop near 87 and then 83 and Mammoth Lakes at 69 and then 60, still well above normal for the second week of October. Saturday night turns breezy and Mammoth drops to about 36. Then it breaks. Sunday brings a slight chance of rain and snow showers around Mammoth with the snow level between 8,800 and 9,500 feet, a Bishop high near 74 and 54 up top, and Sunday night falls to about 31 at Mammoth and 39 in Bishop. Monday carries more showers, with Bishop near 65 and Mammoth near 47. Long Valley and Crowley will sit between those two sets of numbers, cold at dawn and pleasant by lunch, so dress for both ends of the day and keep a spare layer in the truck for Sunday. Cold clear nights pull heat out of water far faster than warm afternoons put it back, which is why everything keeps improving while the thermometer in town still says summer.

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A note from the shop: every 395 Fly Co fly comes with a tutorial for the water it is tied for, so you will know exactly how to fish it before you are standing in the river. Questions on patterns, sizes, or where to start this week? Email us anytime at 395flyco@gmail.com, we are always happy to talk flies.