What Flies to Use on the Upper Owens in Fall

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 browns in the ten inch class. Then the lake fish arrive. Browns in the thirteen to twenty inch class move in first, followed by bigger rainbows looking for cool clean water, and they hold in the deeper slots and under the cut banks rather than out in the open runs.

This changes how you fish it. In summer you cover water and catch numbers. In fall you slow down, you fish every likely looking undercut and deep bend properly, and you accept fewer takes in exchange for much better fish.

Where to fish, and where not to

Flows drop through autumn as runoff finishes and the pipe is cut back, often into the fifty to seventy range, so the river gets low and clear and the fish get spooky. Water clarity is usually good above the upper Hot Creek confluence and more off colour below it. In warmer spells the section down by the bridge heats up well before midday while the upper confluence stays several degrees cooler, so the general rule is to fish upstream and fish early.

Two practical notes. Cattle are rotated inside the fence through the season, so stay above them where you can. And when irrigation is running, anything upstream of the first drive through gate can be hazardous, so pay attention rather than assuming.

Eggs and worms, because the lake fish are not subtle

Fish that have just moved in from a lake are not yet tuned to the river's insect life, and they will eat things a resident trout might ignore. This is why egg and worm patterns earn their keep in autumn on the Upper Owens more than almost anywhere else in the Sierra. A BL Bright Red Weighted Squirmy Wormy drifted through a deep slot is not elegant, but it is extremely effective.

The nymphs that do the work

Hatches thin out in autumn beyond the ever present midges and caddis, so most of your fish will come subsurface. A BH Pheasant Tail Angel Hair in 14 to 20 is the pattern we would fish if we could only fish one, with a TG BH Zebra Midge in black as the dropper. Add a BH Olive Hares Ear when you want something buggier and less specific.

Dries, when they happen

Mornings and evenings both fish well on top, and there are usually enough small browns willing to look up to make it worth carrying dries even in October. An Adams Parachute in 16 to 20 covers most of what comes off, and an Elk Hair Caddis in brown handles the caddis, which are the most reliable hatch on this river. Fish a dry with a nymph hung beneath it and you have covered both jobs at once.

If you want the big one

Swing something larger. Anglers who put in the hours with streamers turn genuinely big browns on this river in autumn, and it is a completely different way to fish it. A Wooly Bugger in brown swung down and across through the deeper bends is the simplest place to start.

One last thing, and it matters. When fish are spawning later in the season, avoid wading through the shallow gravel where the redds are. Stay in water waist deep or deeper where you can. These are the fish that make next autumn worth driving up for.

Every pattern above is one we tie ourselves and keep in stock. You can shop all our Upper Owens flies here, or email us at 395flyco@gmail.com and tell us when you are coming up, and we will tell you what we would tie on.