A Fish Report for 7/15/16 Guided fly fishing trips for Crowley Lake, Grant & Silver Lakes, the San Joaquin, Upper and Middle Owens Rivers, Pleasant Valley Reservoir, Hot Creek, & the Gorge located near Mammoth and Bishop Ca. will give you opportunities to catch trophy rainbows and browns while being guided by expert fly fishing pros. Sierra Drifters guides utilize top of the line center console bay boats, drift boats, float tubes, and high quality fly fishing tackle to guide you on these blue ribbon trout waters. Quick look fish report 7/15/16 Flows are coming up significantly on the Middle Owens around Bishop. 300cfs and trending higher. Fishing is slow here due to hot air temps and increasing water levels. The bi-polar personality continues on Crowley Lake. It can be very nice, or it can be very naughty! Fish are deep: 18-23 feet. McGee and Hilton Bays are best, with some action at times off Sandy Pt. Hot Creek flows are dropping, decent bite for smaller trout using caddis adults. Upper Owens is fun for planted rainbows. Try dry/dropper bead head rigs in the riffles. Bring along skeeter juice just about anywhere around water in the Sierra. San Joaquin remains tough to wade continuously for fishing pocket water; stick to the meadow sections and slower runs. East Walker flows are trending down, 190cfs. is a nice release. Aquatic weeds are an issue here. Bridgeport Reservoir steady for planted rainbows. Keep your flies 15 feet or deeper. Damsel fly activity is peaking. Use sinking tips with smaller Punk Perch & damsel nymph streamers. Alpine Lakes are fishing well overall. Focus on the inlets & outlets. Trout seek flow during warmer weather. I hear the inlet at Convict Lake has been very good for still water nymphing. Freestone Creeks are coming down in flows, & should be in great shape for August. Try those ponds just below Rock Creek Lake for some fun dry/dropper fishing. The Gorge, & Pleasant Valley Reservoir are muy caliente. Hit the grey bite in the morning for best action here. Jurassic Pond is smoking hot, & kicking out the bigs. Summer bookings are filling fast, contact us to get your date on the best trout fishery in the Sierra. Be on the look out for a 9 foot Fenwick fly rod with an Orvis Battenkill reel that was yanked OB in McGee Bay on 7/8/16. Contact me, and I will get you in touch with the owner. It is not always possible to post all of our client pictures on this fish report page. I do my best to put them in our gallery. If we have previously posted your pictures on this page, you can always find them by going to the photo gallery and search for your name. Crowley Lake 7/15/16 One day we bang out thirty, the next day 3. It’s really been a crazy season, & to describe Crowley as being bi-polar is not an exaggeration. Some stringy algae starting to show up at times, so keep those flies clean with only a few minutes of soak time. Tubers should be looking to troll some damsel nymphs along the weed lines in McGee, Sandy Pt. and Hilton Bay. The aquatic weeds are currently growing out to 18 feet in most sections of Crowley. The lake level is beginning to drop slowly, so the trend of fishing deeper while still water nymphing will persist for a while. 18-23 feet is the best depth. The trout are concentrating in the cooler, more oxygenated water emanating from McGee Creeks influence. The damsel nymph emergence is also triggering aggressive feeding behavior as the trout follow the nymphs towards the submerged aquatic weed lines. Hang your flies above a clean mud bottom in close proximity to a hard weed line for consistent action. Gillies, broken back midges, crystal zebra, or tiger midges (big ones), and damsel nymphs are all good calls while fishing below an “sliding” Under-cator. My go to rig the last few days has been an Assassin #14/16 as the upper, with a dark crystal tiger midge (#14), or broken back copper tiger (#16) as the larva pattern. Keep the tigers 6-12 inches off the deck. This fishery opens last Saturday in April & closes November 15th. Sierra Drifters guides fly fishers on crowley lake near mammoth for trophy trout on large custom charter boats. My great friend and veteran Drifter Franko “whiskers” Carlsen always gets big fish. This buck took a #14 dark crystal tiger midge in twenty feet. Sierra Drifters guides fly fishers on crowley lake near mammoth for trophy trout on large custom charter boats. Please bow to this gentleman friends. Richard “Pops” Rathcke is 89 years young and still setting the hook in 21 feet of water! He was 4-4 on the sets to start his day. One of my dearest clients & friends, Pops has been a role model for me in the twenty years I have had the pleasure of fishing with him. Sierra Drifters guides fly fishers on crowley lake near mammoth for trophy trout on large custom charter boats. It has been another great season for cutthroat. Peter Limperis will attest to that! Sierra Drifters guides fly fishers on crowley lake near mammoth for trophy trout on large custom charter boats. Bobby Limperis keeping a close watch on the choppers of his big cutty while guide Jerry Gilpin does the hold. Sierra Drifters guides fly fishers on crowley lake near mammoth for trophy trout on large custom charter boats. Ken Bradshaw showing off one of his nicer fish that took a midge pattern along the deep weed line in McGee Bay. Sierra Drifters guides fly fishers on crowley lake near mammoth for trophy trout on large custom charter boats. Dave Bradshaw got a quality brownie in McGee with Doug Dolan Sierra Drifters guides fly fishers on crowley lake near mammoth for trophy trout on large custom charter boats. The “Macman” strikes! Pro photographer Mike McIntire with a beautiful rainbow he nailed in McGee. The bite has been sporadic with the fish holding between 18-23 feet. My “Sliding” Under-Cators are needed to still water nymph at this depth. Sierra Drifters guides fly fishers on crowley lake near mammoth for trophy trout on large custom charter boats. My good friend and long time Drifter Lonnie Argabright had one great day, & another that was slow. Such has been the bite on Crowley recently. Lonnie got into a number of big rainbows using gillies, & large dark crystal tiger midges in 21 feet in McGee Bay. Sierra Drifters guides fly fishers on crowley lake near mammoth for trophy trout on large custom charter boats. Nice browns like this one that Andrew Neal caught are prowling the deep weed lines in McGee and Hilton Bays. Doug Dolan was his guide. Sierra Drifters guides fly fishers on crowley lake near mammoth for trophy trout on large custom charter boats. Long time friend and Drifter Kevin Tippitt with his son Will had an epic half day bite in McGee recently. The fish went berserk in 17 feet hitting an assassin and dark crystal zebra midge tandem rig fished beneath an Under-cator. Kevin always nails a nice brown! Sierra Drifters guides fly fishers on crowley lake near mammoth for trophy trout on large custom charter boats. Will won the battle with this trophy rainbow. Fun day guys, thanks. Sierra Drifters guides fly fishers on crowley lake near mammoth for trophy trout on large custom charter boats. That is a slammer! Duncan Wilson was the hot stick for his trip with Doug Dolan. Great fish man! Sierra Drifters guides fly fishers on crowley lake near mammoth for trophy trout on large custom charter boats. Chuck Wilson had a great day fishing with his son Duncan and friend Brian on Doug Dolans boat. The fish went nuts for the morning bite that went on for about four hours. Nice bow buddy. Upper Owens River 7/15/16 Water conditions remain good here as flows remain stable. Fish will be planted around the campground for the summer. Special regs remain in place above the bridge. As summer rolls on look for the smaller resident fish, and those that will get planted to provide action along the UO. Small dark caddis, & micro midges are triggering feeding activity from the resident trout on the warmer days. Attractor patterns will get you looks from what is left of the bigs. SJ worms, crystal Vanderleeches, crystal soft eggs, Assassins, and Agent Orange patterns have got us into them while nymphing below an Under-cator. Size 16/18 adult Blue Winged Olive patterns, & small parachute midges will replicate the hatches. Flashback pheasant tails, & Assassins are spot on replicas for the nymph stage of this cold water mayfly. Use #18-22 gillies, crystal chironomid pupa, broken back midges, crystal tiger, & zebra midges for nymphs that imitate midge larva or emergers. Caddis larva are present on the stream bed pumice rocks now. Olive crystal caddis imitations can be a good call for the resident fish grubbing the bottom. Parachute adult midges will get you looks when the fish are feeding on the “clusters” late afternoons. I have seen a good number of trout fry along the banks, and in the slack water. Small Punk Perch, & crystal leeches fished below an Under-Cator can get some nice bows to hit these “strymph” patterns as they hunt for the tiny meals. The section upstream from the Benton Bridge is open year around with special regulations. Seasonal closures, and angling restrictions apply downstream from the bridge, check regulations before fishing in this section.