dooblehaul
03-31-2008, 10:16 AM
It was my spring break from teaching this past ten days. A friend and I decided to drive up to Bishop and fish the Owens. We are both die hard fly fisherman and refuse to catch trout any other way. It was my first time in the area and I was pleasantly suprised that a place like this exists here in CA. I am not a native resident and moved to this state in the fall of last year. It's been a challenge to find some sort of serenity in the outdoors here. In Bishop I finally found the peace and quiet I've been looking for. The people who recreate and live in Bishop are friendly and for the first time in a while I felt comfortable in my surroundings. We fished for three days straight taking breaks here and there to have some lunch or just take in the beauty of the place.
We mainly fished the burn section in chalk bluff, which was frustrating due to the ash and charred remains of trees and cattails. Even though everything was burned the fishing was supriseingly still good.
Day one: Fished Chalk Bluff burn section. both of us caught 6 browns, none over 15 inches.
-most fish were caught on dries, water was fairly clear.
Day two: Chalk bluff again....We decided it was big fish or nothing on this day. So, we started with deep nymphing and after catching many 14 inchers we got frustrated and switched to 3x for some streamer stripping. My fishing partner caught and 18 incher the day before on streamers. We fished them for 2 hours hitting nearly every deep outside bend we came to. (that produced nothing). It was a good idea, but just didn't produce any fish. So, for the afternoon we switched back to deep nymphing landing and releasing many fish throughout that evening.
Day three: We got frrustrated with not breaking the 20 inch mark over the course of 2 days and took an unplanned side trip to the upper owens (pics included) This proved to be a bad choice because the water was in the begginning stages of blowout-murky and discolored. I put on the flashiest nymphs I had and both of us ended up landing 2 ten inch browns each. It was a real bummer that the upper Owens was blown out, but at least I know where to go later in the season. We ended our day back on the lower and my fishing partner hooked into what we thought was going to be the fish of the weekend.....Instead in was a 23ish inch sucker. Toooooo bad, I really thought we were going to break the 20 inch mark.
Overall my Owens experience was awesome, and I plan on making a few more trips later this spring and maybe even this summer. Bishop and the surrounding area were like a little slice of home for me. Hope you all have tightlines this spring and keep posting those great reports.
We mainly fished the burn section in chalk bluff, which was frustrating due to the ash and charred remains of trees and cattails. Even though everything was burned the fishing was supriseingly still good.
Day one: Fished Chalk Bluff burn section. both of us caught 6 browns, none over 15 inches.
-most fish were caught on dries, water was fairly clear.
Day two: Chalk bluff again....We decided it was big fish or nothing on this day. So, we started with deep nymphing and after catching many 14 inchers we got frustrated and switched to 3x for some streamer stripping. My fishing partner caught and 18 incher the day before on streamers. We fished them for 2 hours hitting nearly every deep outside bend we came to. (that produced nothing). It was a good idea, but just didn't produce any fish. So, for the afternoon we switched back to deep nymphing landing and releasing many fish throughout that evening.
Day three: We got frrustrated with not breaking the 20 inch mark over the course of 2 days and took an unplanned side trip to the upper owens (pics included) This proved to be a bad choice because the water was in the begginning stages of blowout-murky and discolored. I put on the flashiest nymphs I had and both of us ended up landing 2 ten inch browns each. It was a real bummer that the upper Owens was blown out, but at least I know where to go later in the season. We ended our day back on the lower and my fishing partner hooked into what we thought was going to be the fish of the weekend.....Instead in was a 23ish inch sucker. Toooooo bad, I really thought we were going to break the 20 inch mark.
Overall my Owens experience was awesome, and I plan on making a few more trips later this spring and maybe even this summer. Bishop and the surrounding area were like a little slice of home for me. Hope you all have tightlines this spring and keep posting those great reports.