Upper Owens opener

[retired96]

Hit the Upper Owens south of the monument at 0700 on Sat. The temp was below 20 degrees and the wind was howling, it was bitter cold with the chill factor. Started off with a green Rooster Tail but my hands were so numb I could hardly turn the handle on my reel. I ended up catching 4 fish all day (8 hours) and only had 2-3 bites. There were very few people on the river and by noon less than 20. Everyone I talked to had only caught 1-2 fish and many had been skunked.

Went back on Sunday, weather was great, no wind, fished for 9 hours using everything I had and never had one bite. I fished from the monument all the way to to lake and only saw one fish in the water. The river was basically empty for the 2nd day of the season and the few people I spoke with were catching nothing. Compared to previous years this was without a doubt the worst opener for the Owens.

Fished Laws for 2 hours on the way home this morning, never had a bite. The river flows are up from when I fished the Lower Owens on Thursday morning. The water was very muddy in color.

I see our friends at the DWP have put up a new fence on the Upper Owens. It starts at the end of the fence line and extends west to east towards Benton Crossing. Its to stop anyone from taking a boat to the lake.

[Sierra_Smitty]

Dang - that's pretty brutal. It's one thing when you have to deal with tough weather for an opener, but tough weather and poor fishing really hurts. Do you think the upper Owens was not stocked or do you think the weather system put a crimp in the bite?

Better luck next time?

Smitty

[Big Country]

IMO - Probably a combo of the river not being stocked prior to the opener and also the ongoing massacre that occurs on that stretch of the river by people ripping the guts out of 8" stockers and then throwing them back.

The stretch of the river from the bridge south to the monument should really go back to being barbless...IMO.

[retired96]

IMO - Probably a combo of the river not being stocked prior to the opener and also the ongoing massacre that occurs on that stretch of the river by people ripping the guts out of 8" stockers and then throwing them back.

The stretch of the river from the bridge south to the monument should really go back to being barbless...IMO.

With the massive stocking that DFG did last season, twice a week that I personally witnessed on my numerous trips last season I would think there would be alot of holdover fish in the river. The past few years has been some of the best fishing I have had in my 50 years of fishing the river.

Of the people I saw on opening day maybe 25% were using bait, most were using lures or flies.

[Big Country]

But were the lures and flies barbless???

The problem on that stretch of the river which I have fished for several years as well, is the way fishermen handle and release their catch if they are using barbs. The majority of the people, not all, brutalize the fish on the release. This can be avoided if you go barbless.

When they first changed the regulation on that stretch of the Owens, there was good quality fish caught. Nowadays, my 8 year old daughter will hang 30 fish in a day on barbless minijigs (all safely released), but the quality is not there like you can find on Hot Creek or EWR which are barless. Anyone can hang 30 on the Owens, but if they release 25 bleeding or badly wounded, then that's 30 less fish in the river.

I really think this attributes to a higher mortality rate, especially on the Owens. It's just my opinion that the waters that remain barbless will produce bigger fish and more holdover fish because people take better care when releasing the fish. Hot Creek and ERW are great examples.