EAST WALKER RIVER
The river had a little bit of a reprieve last week while we were getting some rain but it’s still pretty warm, hopefully by the first week or so of September things will cool down enough to get back out on the water. We’ll keep you up to date on the conditions down there as best we can.
If you haven’t already please check out the Random information section below and read about the petition I’ve started to try to get the East Walker River regulations changed to catch and release, if you are in agreement with this idea please sign the petition and share it to anyone you might think would also like to see this change, in just a few days we already have over 600 signatures so hopefully that number will keep increasing. There’s a link below that will take you straight to the petition on
change.org.
SCEIRINE RANCH
The ranch is in much the same shape as the Cali side of the river, though parts of it have some shade from the willows and some extra water that comes in from several springs that cool it down a few degrees it’s still probably time to let those fish rest for a while. We’ll start booking more days on the ranch some time after Labor Day.
The Reservoir has really slowed down lately, even the perch are pretty shy. If we keep getting some good rains like this past week this will add some water to the system and maybe lower the water temps a little which would help Bridgeport out. We’ll let you know as soon as the bite gets better up there.
No reports from Kirman lately, with the warmer weather it’s probably still best to hold off on going up there until the water/weather cools down a bit.
The Twins are still producing some good fish these days, quite a few smaller fish but there’s still some good 3 to 5 pounders being caught as well. Trolling has been pretty good with speedy shiners, Rapalas and Thomas Bouyants, bait fishing is picking up some fish with pinched crawlers, inflated crawlers, mice tails and garlic power bait. Fly anglers are getting into some with Twin Lakes Specials, wooly buggers, mini leeches and soft hackles. There are also lots of Kokanee being caught, mostly trolling.
The West has cleared up nicely and is starting to kick out some good fish again, it sounds like the best area(s) to fish are in the canyon up closer to the town of Walker and also the stretch that goes from the Hwy 108 bridge to the Hwy 395 bridge. Bait anglers can go with salmon eggs, power eggs and baby crawlers, lure anglers can try Mepps, Panther Martins and Roostertails. Fly anglers should do well with hoppers, ants, beetles, royal wulff, soft hackles and copper johns.
The Virginias have been a little hit and miss lately, on the good days those fish are taking mice tails, pinched crawlers and power bait, and for lures try Kastmasters and Thomas Bouyants. Fly anglers should be able to pull some fish with an intermediate sink like with mini leeches, Twin Lakes Specials and soft hackle or zug bug droppers.
If you would like to receive this report via email, drop me a line at reidfly63@yahoo.com and I'll get you on the list!
We’re getting close to 1100 signatures as of today! I’m going to keep the petition going until at least Labor Day weekend then form a letter to a couple folks in the CDFW and pass along the information.
The annual East Walker River Clean-up Day is scheduled for Labor Day again this year, Sep. 5, 2022. The event is sponsored by the Fishin’ Mission Foundation, Walker River Outfitters and Ken’s Sporting Goods. We meet at 9:00am at the Bridgeport Park to collect trash bags, pickers and gloves then back to the park around 1:00pm for lunch, drinks and fish stories! Everyone is welcome!
Also coming up on Saturday of Labor Day Weekend (Sept. 3) is the Fishin’ Mission Foundation’s annual Western Night and BBQ, tickets are on sale now for this usually sold out event, great BBQ and live music as well as a no host bar and a great raffle. All the proceeds go to the Bridgeport Fish Enhancement Foundation!
I’ve started a
change.org petition to try to encourage the Department of Fish and Wildlife to re-consider the East Walker River regulation changes they made a couple seasons ago. Most importantly they doubled the limit on the river and got rid of the barbless hook requirement which I believe in the long run will be extremely detrimental to the fishery as a whole. A lot of anglers still pinch their barbs and we encourage them to do so but there are still a lot of anglers who don’t take the time to do that. My petition proposes that they go all the way and make the East Walker River artificial flies or lures only, single barbles hooks, zero fish limit (catch and release only) and open all year long. If you would like to see the regs on the river change please go to
https://chng.it/Jzv5JzSy and cast your vote. I’ve also shared the information on Ken’s Facebook page, feel free to vote and share as often as you like. If we get a bunch of signatures hopefully we can get the DFW to take a closer look at the regs for the EW and maybe make some changes.