Fly Fishing Upper Owens River California
Includes a Upper Owens River fishing reports
Species: Rainbow Trout (wild) Brown Trout (wild) Cutthroat Trout (native) Kamloops
Fly and Gear ordering and delivery: We can get flies to you within two to three business days from the time you place your order via Priority Mail. If you provide a budget for flies, we will select them to match the budget and get them to you on time for your trip. Please see the bottom of this column for ordering options.
We also have custom Perfect Fly selections in 3 different price ranges for this stream that come with or without fly boxes. They make excellent gifts. Click Here To Order or Call us at 800 594 4726 or email us at sales@perfectflystore.com.
Type of Stream: Spring Creek
Size: Medium, 25 miles long
Location: Eastern Sierra California
Nearest Towns: Mammoth Lakes
Season: Year-round with area restrictions
Access: Good to Fair, depending on the Fork and location
Non-Resident License:
Recommended Tackle & Gear
Fly Line:
5 or 6 weight
Leaders:
Dry fly: 9 & 12 ft., 5 or 6X, Nymphing:
71/2 ft., 3 or 4X, Streamers 0-2X
Tippets:
Dry fly: 5 or 6X, Nymphing: 3 or 4X,
Streamer 0-2X
Best Fly Rods:
Perfect Fly Superb Five or Ultimate Six
Fly Reels:
For 5/6 fly line
Fly Floatants and Misc Items:
Floatants, KISS Strike Indicators
Tools & Accessories:
Nippers, forceps, retractors, etc.
Fly and Gear ordering and delivery:
Email us at (sales@perfectflystore.com) with the dates you will be fishing and we will send you a list of our fly recommendations. We can get flies and gear to you within two to three business days from the time you place your order via Priority Mail. If you provide a budget for flies, we will select them to match the budget and get them to you on time for your trip. Your can also call us at 800-594-4726 and we will help you decide what flies and gear to use. All orders are shipped free in the U.S. If under a $100 order requiring Priority mail is a charge of only $8.10. Orders over a $100 are shipped free via Priority Mail.
Copyright 2013 James Marsh
Upper Owens River Fishing Report – December 23, 2024 There are good hatches of Blue winged olives and Cream Midges. Check back with us as we update the Upper Owens River fishing report weekly.
Rate: 148 cfs
Afternoon Water Temperature: 41
Clarity: mostly clear
Weather:
Trout Flies:
Brown Sculpin and White Belly Sculpin and Articulated streamers, size 6/4
Black Matuka and Olive Matuka Sculpin, size 4/6
Blue-winged Olives: size 16, 18 nymph, emergers, duns and spinners
Aquatic Worms, size 12, pink, red, and others
Midges: Cream and Red (Blood) midges sizes 20/22, larva, pupa and adult. Our larva and pupa midge flies, pre-rigged in tandem, are very popular here. You can fish them under a strike indicator keeping the larva fly near the bottom. https://perfectflystore.com/product/pre-rigged-tandem-midge-larva-pupa-tippet
Spotted Sedge Caddis; size 14/16, larva, pupa and adults
Perfect Flies are designed and tied to to imitate and behave like the natural foods the trout rely on to survive as much as possible. The more your fly looks like and moves through and on the surface of the water like the real things, the higher your odds of success.
Fly Fishing the Upper Owens River California: The Owens River begins at Big Springs and meanders down Long Valley some into Crowley Lake. It provides miles of excellent trout fishing. This is a picture- perfect meadow stream with deep, undercut grass lined banks. Picture perfect as it is, it isn’t a pushover to fish. It takes good presentations, simi-realistic flies and staying hidden from the trout if your are going to have a very successful day of fly fishing.Some very large trout migrate out of Crowley Lake up into the river to spawn making it a big fish small stream fishery at times. The water is clear and smooth, the banks provide few trees and the wind blows often. The trout probably average about 12 inches but as just mentioned, they are not easy to catch.The public can fish from Big Springs for a mile downstream. You can fish from Long Ears downstream to lake Crowley. There is no fishing allowed from Big Springs downstream to Long Ears. It flow through private land. There are several tributary streams that enter the Upper Owens River. Hilton Creek is a small mountain stream that flows down into the valley into Convict Creek. Near state highway #395, Convict Creek is a good little meadow stream to fish. It flows into McGee Creek just above Crowley Lake, which is yet another meadow stream with trout.The river has lots of aquatic and terrestrial insects to feed the trout, as well as lots of crustaceans. Your best bet is to match what is hatching or better, what is about to hatch with specific imitations of the insects.
Upper Owens River Hatches and Trout Flies: Our information on aquatic insects is based on our stream samples of larvae and nymphs, not guess work. We base fly suggestions on imitating the most plentiful and most available insects and other foods at the particular time you are fishing. Unlike the generic fly shop trout flies, we have specific imitations of all the insects in the Owens River and in all stages of life that are applicable to fishing. If you want to fish better, more realistic trout flies, have a much higher degree of success, give us a call. We not only will help you with selections, you will learn why, after trying Perfect Flies, 92% of the thousands of our customers will use nothing else. 1-800-594-4726. The most consistent mayfly that hatches on the Upper Owens River is the Blue-winged Olive. Of course, the little olives represent several different species of different genera. Most of the larger ones are Baetis species in a hook size 18. They start hatching in March and hatch off and on throughout the Spring, Summer and early Fall. Other hatches can occur during the winter months depending on the particular species. You should always have some imitations along with you. On cloudy, overcast days they likely to show up.Pale Evening Duns can hatch from June into the first of July. Both the duns and spinners of this mayfly can be important. Pale Morning Duns hatch from May through June. These hatches can be good ones in certain areas of the river. Little Black Caddisflies, Brachcentrus genus species, hatch from about the first of March on into the middle of May depending on the section of river and weather. Spotted Sedge caddisfly hatches occur from May through the middle of October. They represent the majority of the caddisflies and consist of several different species. Most of the heavy hatches occur during the Summer months. There are also plenty of Green Sedges. The different species hatch from the first of March until the middle of May. Imitations of their larvae, called Green Rock Worms, are effective all year. Golden Stoneflies hatch from the middle of March until the middle of May depending on the section of water you are fishing. Little Yellow Stoneflies are the most plentiful stonefly species. They hatch from April through June. Most anglers call these Yellow Sallies. You should have imitations of both the larva and the adults. October Caddis are very plentiful and are a fish producing hatch. It occurs according to its name, during October on the Lower Sacramento River.Terrestrial season on the river starts in warm months of the year. Beetles can become important anytime from the first of May until through the first of September. Grasshopper usually become large enough to become important in June and last through July and August.Although few anglers fish them, imitations of midge larvae and pupae will catch rainbows on this river throughout the year. They are most important when few other insects are hatching. Many anglers think the tiny flies are too little to catch the big rainbows on the Lower Sac but they are wrong. They can be very effective fished correctly.Scuds are plentiful and represent a large part of the trout’s diet. Imitations of them will catch trout year-round. Damsel fly and Dragon fly nymphs are also effective. Streamers are very important. Imitations of sculpin, minnows and baitfish will catch trout all year. They are very important during low light situations or when the water is slightly off color.
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