Mammoth Lakes Area

Weather Report

Don't forget your water bottles and sunscreen as you hit the lakes, rivers and creeks. The water's reflection seems to like to help the sun in its constant attempts to turn us all bright red and leave us sadly remembering the trip. Don't forget life jackets for the kids if you are fishing from a boat!

The following report courtesy The Trout Fly:

REPORT AS OF 6/26/2008

Mammoth Lakes Basin

Water Conditions: Good. The crowds have arrived in to Mammoth because of the motor cross races. But the weather and fishing is still great.

We are starting to get some smoke from the fires burning north of mammoth.

Fishing Conditions and Hatches: Good. George and Mary are both fishing good in the morning and afternoon. Look for fish hiding here drop offs and inlets.

The Twins and Mamie have been fishing good in the evening using Dry/Dropper rigs. Look for fish near the inlets or on the weed edges.

Recommended Flies:

STREAMERS: #10-12 Hornburg, Woolly Buggers in Olive or Purple, #10 Doc Twin Lake Special in Brown or Olive, #8 Pops Buggers with a #16 Zebra Midge, #14 Prince Nymph or #14-16 Copper Dropper

NYMPHS: #16-#20 Mercer's Midgling, #14-#20 Frostbite in Red #20-22 Palamino Midge in Gray or Black, #12-#16 , #12-#16 Hare's Ear , #12 Sierra Damsel, #14-#16 Prince Nymphs

DRIES: #12-20 Parachute Adams,#12-16 Royal Wulff, #14-16 RP's Ant and #14-16 Hackle Stacker Callibaetis.

Guides Hint: Don't forget about the evening hatch. You lay into some of those elusive Brookes and Brownies.

Hot Creek

Water Conditions: Good. The water flows are still up at Hot Creek. There has been a ton of weed drifting down down the Creek for the last week. Even with the high water flows, the creek is still running fairly clear.

Fishing Conditions and Hatches: Good. Look for a jumbo lila of insects hatching right now. Midges, Tricos and PMDs in the morning. Caddis and Yellow Sallies in the afternoon. Scuds have been very active over the last couple of weeks.

Recommended Flies:

NYMPHS: #20-22 BTS Nymph, #16-18 Pheasant Tail, #18 Black Beauty, #18 Disco Midge, #16-18 scud, #18 Mighty May PMD, #18 Sparkle Pupa in Tan, #18 CDC Caddis in Olive and #16 Micro Stone.

DRY FLIES: #16-18 Hatchmaster PMD, #16-18 Hackle Stacker PMD, #20 Foam RS2, #18-22 Griffiths Gnat, #14-18 Elk Hair Caddis, #16-18 Parachute Caddis and #14-16 Outrigger Yellow Sally

Guides Hint: Fish the hole right next to the bank first in stead of standing on top of it.

San Joaquin

Water Conditions: The road to the Red's Meadow/Devil's Post pile area is NOW OPEN.

Water is flowing fast and high, but clear and fishable presently. It is on the drop&

Fishing Conditions and Hatches: The fishing is picking up. Look for fish in back waters, slow water and eddies. Mayflies and large stoneflies are showing up. DFG has stocked the camp grounds but the fish are getting hit hard. Make sure you get good drifts and good presentation. Keep moving if you're not getting into fish.

Recommended Flies: Nymph fishing most productive but dries are also working midday.

#10 micro stone, #16 Copper John and Cahill's, Humpies in 12- 16's, Prince Nymphs 12-16's, P.T's 12-16's, black A.P.'s 12'16

Guide's Hint: Bring bug spray!!! At this time of year, look for the pools, and work them with dries AND nymphs

Crowley Lake

Water Conditions: Water is now getting warm enough that fish are movng to the cold-water sources. Now is the time to use that thermomter to monitor bottom temps.

Making it more difficult to find cool water without a thermometer is the fact that the McGee stream channel is silted out to the point where it almost doesn't exist from 6 ft depth on out into the bay.

No stream channel, no concentration of cold water to park on.

Weed beds will be massive, especially in the north arm.

Fishing Conditions and Hatches: Pelican Point, Big and Little Hilton and McGee are most consistant last few days but weird bite times. 'Wish they'd post a schedule . . . would save me a lot of time.

The water coming into the lake is much warmer than usual so bottom temps are changing through the day and the fish are on the move.

At least three times in the past 10 days a strong bite has started and then shut down before 8:30 am. The fish didn't stop eating . . . they just moved. You need to be ready to move to deeper (usually) and colder water locations.

Mouth of McGee will turn on within 10 days says my thermometer. Lots of 57 degree water there but the fish haven't arrived en masse yet.

Recommended Flies: Red/Black Tigers are still the soup du jour in size 16 and 18. Fish are nailing Damsels on the surface so if you

Stripping streamers still very tough. Don't ask me why. I'd slow twitch a damsel pattern up from the bottom or hang one under the indicator about 5 feet down in 10+ ft of water.

Just remember the only thing consistent about Crowley is CHANGE. Solving the puzzle is half the fun!

A lengthy discussion of water temps and how to use them all season long will be covered at the Crowley University.

Guide's Hint:

Upper Owens

Water Conditions: GOOD. The flow here on the upper owens is still good right now. Flowing at 100 cfs, with a little color to the water.

Fishing Conditions and Hatches: GOOD. The streamer fishing below the bridge continues to be good. Keep casting and striping and there are some nice fish to be had. The action above the bridge started to get better with some good action nymphing the deep bends with caddis and pheasant tails. Don't forget to stay for the evening caddis hatch from 6pm till dark. Try a #16 tan elk hair with a sparkle pupa, or a small soft hackle.

Recommended Flies:

NYMPHS: #16 Micro Stone, #16 Copper John in black or Copper, #12-14 Red San Juan Worm, #12-18 Zug Bug, #14-18 Hares Ear, #18-20 Olive WD40's, #16 Sparkle Pupa, #16-20 Soft Hackles, #14-18 Zebra Midges, #16-20 Flashback pheasant tails

DRY FLIES: #10-18 Stimi's, #14-16 Tan Elk Hair Caddis , #16-20 Adams Parachutes , #14-20 Hemingway Caddis

STREAMERS: #6-10 Woolly Buggers Brown and Black, #8-12 Zonkers . For a trophy try somthing BIG!!

Guide's Hint: While streamer fishing make sure you are methodical. Change your strip; speed, length and depth to hone in to what the fish are looking for. Keep your feet moving, as every step will help you cover a new piece of water.

Owens River Gorge

Water Conditions: Water Temps: Mid 60's

Flow: 45 CFS. This is a permanent flow required to maintained by LADWP

Fishing Conditions and Hatches: Good. The Gorge is a unique place to fish. It requires some hiking to get down into and out of. This time of year daytime temps will be in the 90's. Bring water or a water purifier, a wading staff, and long pants or waders to protect you from the stinging nettles.

Use the wading staff to bang on the rocks to alert rattlesnakes and to beat down the nettles to gain entry to the water.

Hatches: Midges in the am and evening, Baetis mayflys in the AM and sporadic Caddis from midday on.

Recommended Flies: These fish will eat a well presented attractor. Fly selection is not as critical as a drag free presentation!

DRIES: Elk Hair Caddis #14-18, Cutter's EC Caddis #14-18, Royal Wulff #12-16, Adams #14-20, Hopper patterns!!!!!

DROPPERS: Zebra Midge and light green midges #16-20, PT's #16-20, Hares Ear #18-20, CDC Caddis Emergers #16-20, small brown/yellow stonefly nymphs #18, BH RS2's #18

Guide's Hint: Bring your dry shake powder. Dry dropper techniques are the way to go in the Gorge. The Gorge is "tailwater" stream but it fishes more like a "freestone" stream. Fish will enthusiastically crush most fly patterns if presented well and in the right places. Watch out for rattlesnakes.

Lower Owens River

Water Conditions: The water starting to clear but is still running at 461 cfs.

Fishing Conditions and Hatches: POOR. I would avoid the Lower O. with the extremely high water conditions right now.

There was a fire 1/2 mile below the foot bridge which is located at the top of the wild trout section that burned 1200+ acres and took 700 firemen to contain near the cement plant.

They are fencing off the "Wild Trout" section of the Lower O. Don't worry though, you will just have to walk a little bit farther to fish. Much like the Upper Owens.

Recommended Flies:

NYMPHS: #16 Barr's PMD Emerger, #14-16 Prince Nymph, #18 Kyle's Super Flash PT, #18 Copper John in Red, #18-20 Barr's BWO Emerger, #18-22 Disco Midge in Green or Red, #12 San Juan Worm and # 16-18 CDC Caddis in Green or Tan.

DRIES: #16-20 Elk hair caddis #16-20 Parachute Adams #18 Sierra bright dot #18-22 Griffith gnat #16 CDC Baetis

Guide's Hint: If you cannot make it to the the Mammoth region to fish try the gorge until water flows decrease.

Lee Vining Creek

Water Conditions: Lee Vinning Creek flows have dropped to 117 cfs. It is starting to get fishy in the campground sections and the gauging station pool.

Fishing Conditions and Hatches: Fishable conditions can now be had. Runoff has peaked and is slowly coming down. Dry dropper techniques are work well here and cover water.

Recommended Flies: Try fishing big attractor dry fly patterns along the edges and eddies (slowest water) that you find. Stimulators #12-14, Elk Hair #12-14, Humpy's #12-14, Royal Wulff #12-14

Streamers in the gauging station pools; Black Bugger's, small Double Bunnies.

Guides Hint: This stream will improve greatly in the coming days/weeks.

Rush Creek

Water Conditions: Runoff has peaked and is know starting to drop. Flows below 395 are still around 300 cfs but should come down slowly from here on out.

Fishing Conditions and Hatches: Best fishing is still in the "loop" between Grant and Silver. However, catch & release minded anglers can have some great days below Grant Lake (no bait in this section) all the way down to Hwy 395&it still is a little high but some spots are staring to fish well. Be sure to cover water since you are casting to wild trout that don't hang around once they have been cast over to many times.

Recommended Flies:

NYMPHS: Little Yellow Stones #12-16, PT's #12-16, Prince Nymphs #12-16, Zug Bug #12-16

DRIES: small stoneflies #12-14, Yellow Humpies, Elk Hair Caddis and Royal Wulff's. PMD dries #14-16, large Para Adams #12-14

STREAMERS: Cover water with your favorite streamers and see what you come up with.

Guides Hint: Dry dropper is the way to go on Rush. Look for the planter fish in the slowest wader on the edges and tailouts of the deeper runs. Cover water and have fun. Please help those who are helpless and leave trash behind.

East Walker River

Water Conditions: Flows are between 200 and 220 cfs and have been stable for several days. These are great flows for the East Walker. The water is still cool and clear and the fish have enough water to move around. The wading gets tougher at this flow but the fish will move into shallower water making them more accessible.

Water temps: starting to climb into low to high 60's

Fishing Conditions and Hatches: Fishing is good. The East Walker is a demanding fishery requiring very good presentations. If you have the skills, now and the next 4 weeks are the best time of the year.

Early go with midge patterns. About 8:30 or 9 the Baetis spinners appear. They don't egg lay on the surface but instead crawl underwater and lay eggs on the bottom, breathing air trapped between their wings. After they've been out for awhile, move into shallow water and check the neoprene at you're boot tops for the adults that have been underwater. Try using upright wing patterns such as the cdc winged baetis, rub dessicant into the wing and then fish it under an indicator. Mid to late morning the Caddis start egg laying and Baetis start emerging along with PMD'S which are more predominate below the bridge. The mayflies continue sporadically all afternoon and the Caddis begin to emerge as well.

DFG and the Bridgeport guys have been stocking lots of little browns. These fish will grow fast! If you hook one please take good care of it and release it unharmed.

Recommended Flies:

NYMPHS: For midges stick with the venerable WD-40's in grey, black and Olive, Zebra Midges #18-#22. Still a sparse bwo hatch from 10'ish till 3pm most days; Poxy-Back Baetis, Surface Emergers and Barr's BWO emergers #20-#22.PMD patterns such as Beck's sulphur emerger in #14-#16 Caddis will be the mainstay from afternoon on; Gallatin spotted sedge emergers, Sparkle Pupa, Z-Wing caddis, CDC emergers and translucent pupas in #14-#18.

DRY FLY'S: Stimulator's in yellow, tan, orange #12-#14, Cutter's EC Caddis #16-#18, Elk Hairs #14-#16, Hoppers in Tan #12, CDC Caddis emergers #16

Guide's Hint: Look for the deeper pockets of water and concentrate on those for the larger fish. Try to send your flys into the hole BEFORE your indicator to get a better drift, or simply ditch the indicator and watch your leader to detect a grab.

Bridgeport Reservoir

Water Conditions: The water is warming up quickly. The surface temps are averaging 63 degrees, and the daphnia bloom is starting to happen. The bloom temporarily slows fishing, as the fish feed on the daphnia instead of our midges. The fishing should get really good after the short bloom, as it does every year.

Fishing Conditions and Hatches: The fly fishing has been below average this week. However, the trolling and bait fisherman have been doing much better. The DFG have really stepped up the stocking program at the res so far this season. Stillwater nymphing or "midging" has been the most effective of late. The fish are still on the move so you should be as well. Buckeye Bay has been the most steady midging in 9 to 15 feet of water. Rainbow Point and near the dam has also been producing good fish in the afternoons. I have not seen any damsels and the callibeatis are spotty, but hopefully not for long. Streamer fishing has been up and down, but always worth a shot for the res monsters!

Recommended Flies:

Midges: Red blood midges, #14-#16, Grey and Black Zebra Midges #16-18, Green Optimidges #16-18, Red and Black Midges #14-18, Purple Midges #16-18, Callibeatis Nymphs #12-16

Attractors: Red Copper Johns #14-16, Pheasent Tails #12-16

Streamers: Olive and Black Twin Lake Specials #10-14, Purple Leeches, Olive Matukas #8-14, Hornburgs #10-14

Guide's Hint: Keep moving until you find fish. Look for fish rising, bottom structure, insect activity or other anglers hooking up. Strip slowly and close to the bottom, sometimes bouncing your fly into the mud.