owens river

[asmacsbob]

anyone have a clue why the owens is running so high for so long......also any info on the short span of river above pvr...thanks

[Joshua]

anyone have a clue why the owens is running so high for so long......also any info on the short span of river above pvr...thanks
What section are you looking at? Owens is a long river
LA Department of Water and power control the water flows. They own the water rights. The high levels can be caused by many factors. If LA needs more water, they will increase the flows, If they need more power (hydro-electric) they will increase the flows.
Also, there are times of year that DWP will draw down the Owens in anticipation of high precipitation> This is usually down in early Spring.

The section above PVR can get blown out if DWP had increased the flows. That section gets alot of pressure, but still fishes pretty good. It is worth a shot if you are passing through. Dont think I would plan a trip around this section of water.

[tpfishnfool]

Owens below pvr is at 390 cfm. Pretty fast but fishable if you know what your doing but dont try wading..
The gorge is much better as far as flows go. Very good time of year to hit the gorge, no snakes !!

[retired96]

Normally DWP raises the flow in early spring for the snowmelt, this year however they waited until fall. The river was running at over 500 CFS for quite a while. I was up there about 3 weeks ago and fishing was really tough. 3 years ago when the Sierras had their record snow, DWP raised the flows to well over 600 CFS which is considered flood stage for 8-9 months. There were times when the flows were 800-900 CFS. the river was a raging torrent of water. Many areas the river overflowed its banks. I went to Warm Springs one day and the area by the bridge was under 3 feet of moving water.

[asmacsbob]

going below pvr and below five bridges this weekend....fished there plenty high and low for many years and just dont recall the river running high for so long this late...its harder to fish due to access but fish tend to be bigger...seems to be a tad lower now so we may be ok thanks for the replys

[asmacsbob]

also above pvr the river is very good...there is a bend (the last one before the water slows into the lake) that holds a bunch of large rocks...last year in october i caught a 20" brown there (realesed)....have always caught nice fish in that area...have never tried the gorge though...is it barbless and artificials only

[deanhall32]

I don't care how high the water is because I am going no matter what the weekend after this!

[asmacsbob]

yup still going no matter...this is my fishing season from now till april there...love that river...just watch that first step if its high

[STEVE IN SOCAL]

I keep this link on my fishing favorites bookmark:


http://wsoweb.ladwp.com/Aqueduct/realtime/norealtime.htm