A Week In The Sierras

Submitted by John Ballotti:

 The Eastern Sierras are a great place to fish in September. The weather is fantastic, the crowds are gone, the scenery is classic and the fish are biting. With this in mind, Andy MacDonald, Steve Simon and I began a week long fishing adventure based in Mammoth Lakes.

On our agenda were Gull Lake, Convict Lake, Lake George, Mammoth Creek, the Upper Owens River and the grand finale, a guided drift fishing trip down the Lower Owens River. To say the trip was successful would be an understatement. Each day began with a glorious sunrise and ended with a spectacular sunset. In-between the trout cooperated offering themselves up for our enjoyment only to be released to fight another day. The occasional bigger fish kept things interesting.

The Upper Owens river was running bank to bank but was chock full of fish. It was here that by pure luck I tossed a Phoebe into some swift water and was rewarded with a mighty stike and a large rainbow rocketed out of the water. The fight on 2 pound test Nanofil was on. After dragging me up and down stream the fish finally tired and I was rewarded with my personal best 21 inch rainbow. Gull Lake provided the most consistent and variety of fishing. In addition to the regulation trout, Sacramento Perch and crayfish were plentiful providing a little mystery to what was on the end of the line when you were bit.

Our last day was spent on the Lower Owens River. Our guide from Sierra Drifters met us at 7 AM. After introductions were made and a fly fishing 101 seminar was held we shoved off and the flow of the river carried us forth to our day’s adventure. It was a good day with each of us catching numerious trout. Andy and I even had a double going once and for Steve it was his first fish on the fly. Sierra Drifters is a terrific guide service that we highly recommend to anyone who would like to fish with a guide. However, all good things must come to an end. After 3 1/2 river miles fished in 7 hours we were driven back to our car, packed up and    started home thinking of next year.