Dry wet or nymph on the Owens and Eastern Sierras

I'm a novice fly fisherman when it comes to fly patterns and the technique in general. I started fly fishing over 25 years ago creek fishing for small mouth bass which were not hard to bring to the net. Now trout is another story and there is an art to it. I've fished the Eastern Sierra for a few years now and every year i bring my 2 fly rods along with the spin gear and always give the fly rod a shot but have always been more successful with bait or lures on the spin rod. I've caught 2-3 fish on the fly total and i think those were by mistake. I have tried fishing nymphs unde ran indicator, have stripped wet flies and am not accomplished enough to fish the hatch because it always ends up dragging and i end up fishing it as a wet anyways. Any pointers on what I can do to improve my chances? I fish the lower owens, Pleasant valley and some of the creeks. Ive also fished Crowley quite a bit on the rental boats but never with fly but I see a lot of guys on the lake with float tubes fishing the fly and doing well.

Do yourself a favor and hire Tom Lowe at Sierra Drifters for a day on Crowley. You will learn a lot and can spend the day talking about fly fishing moving and still water while catching 20" plus trout. There is no way I can answer your questions in a forum response. Once you pick up some pointers you will need to leave your spinning gear behind and force yourself to learn fly fishing without a crutch.

I took a two day on the water fly fishing class last year in Mammoth. We fished both the upper and lower Owens river. The instructor preferred fishing method was with a nymph and indicator, but the only fish I caught on those two days was on a dry fly. I've had better luck with the Dry Fly dropper rig myself. My goal of taking the class was to find out if my technique was correct and how to read the water. I probably would have been better off hiring a guide for a day, than spending more time practicing casting in another class. I'd think hiring a guide , even for 1/2 a day would be big help.

This series of videos produced by Orvis is really good. I even saved some to my Android phone so I could watch them when I'm out fishing.

http://howtoflyfish.orvis.com/video-lessons

This WON article covers the Crowley Midge fishing techniques

http://www.wonews.com/t-FeatureArtic...ut_010915.aspx

Good Luck out there!

When indicator nymph fishing make sure your fly is near or bouncing off the bottom of the river. Dry's are productive more so if a hatch is going on, if you see fish rising and feeding then you might want to try one.

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Originally Posted by steelhead

I'm a novice fly fisherman when it comes to fly patterns and the technique in general. I started fly fishing over 25 years ago creek fishing for small mouth bass which were not hard to bring to the net. Now trout is another story and there is an art to it. I've fished the Eastern Sierra for a few years now and every year i bring my 2 fly rods along with the spin gear and always give the fly rod a shot but have always been more successful with bait or lures on the spin rod. I've caught 2-3 fish on the fly total and i think those were by mistake. I have tried fishing nymphs unde ran indicator, have stripped wet flies and am not accomplished enough to fish the hatch because it always ends up dragging and i end up fishing it as a wet anyways.

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Yeah, mending and getting drag free drifts is always the key to getting those smarter than average fish to go in the Eastern Sierras. A lot of fly fisherman will tell you that matching any hatch exactly isn't as important as an error free presentation. As long as you're matching the sillouhette (size) and color of the insect, you should be good to go if you can get a drag free presentation.

Having said that....

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Originally Posted by steelhead

Any pointers on what I can do to improve my chances? I fish the lower owens, Pleasant valley and some of the creeks.

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Fly shops are always a hot bed for information, whether what type of insect is currently hatching where, to water conditions, like clarity and CFS. With the outflow at PVR to the Lower Owens being near 500 CFS, I honestly wouldn't recommend it to anybody who isn't comfortable with wading in this type of water. When the CFS drops down to less than 300, it becomes a wader's dream.

As far as increasing your chances? Again, going to fly shops and spending a few bucks on a few flies always gives you the opening to ask what location is fishing well at that time. I've never been steered wrong with the guys at the Sierra Trout Magnet in Bishop. Ask for Trace.

Secondly? Mechanics and presentation are key, especially when fishing creeks that don't allow for much back casting. The first cast you should perfect should be a roll cast, as you'll be using it often. Once you've got that down, you can start with a forward cast, making sure you look behind you, since catching trees will become a common occurrence when you first start, so don't fret if you lose flies to the Tree Trout.

The fun part is, what to throw?

Once you get to the water you decide to fish, sit down on the bank and look and listen for a bit. You'll be able to see if fish are rising on surface insects, or whether they're nose down. While I understand that some fly guys spend more time learning Latin to identify the exact species of flying insect, I break it down into 3 different types: Mayflies, caddis flies, and others. If the bug has 'sailboat' wings, it's a mayfly. If it has 'tent' wings, it's a caddis. Other? Hoppers, flying ants, beetles, etc....those are pretty easy to distinguish.

If the fish are rising consistently and you've identified what the bug is, I love using a dry fly that closely imitates the flying insect, with a trailing small bead head nymph behind it to entice the fish who aren't looking up. This rig, the 'dry dropper,' gives you the opportunity to get a fish on the surface with your dry, and also running another fly underneath that. And while you increase your chances on hooking a fish, realize you also increase your chances of tangles and getting stuck in shrubbery. (Hence why the casting and presentation is key.)

If you don't see any surface activity, I trail 2 nymphs behind a small AirLock (or Thingamabobber, I prefer the Airlocks) and fish the areas where trout usually hunker down.

Which brings me to another point...

Fish are usually in a few areas in a stream. Holding water holds fish year around, and are the most obvious and common spots where people are casting. In certain situations though, especially during a hatch, fish move from this holding water into water that is skinnier, usually riffles. Isolating these spots is crucial, as 5% of the river will hold 95% of the fish. Sometimes it's pretty obvious what these spots are (as fish are visible, or out right rising) but if you put yourself in a fish's shoes, you'll be able to spot tiny nuances in a creek or river where you know a fish will be. Look for items that cause current breaks, as fish use these as feeding lanes. (Think of your McDonald's drive thru)

Another tip is stealth, which is, IMO, what really determines your success on the water. I've seen guys crawling on hands and knees to get to pods of feeding fish and hooking them successfully, while another fisherman wades/splashes through the middle of the river like a Grizzly in heat, spooking everything in sight, then wonders why they're not getting any takes.

I've sent you a PM in regards to a certain stretch of water in the Sierras that is great to instill confidence on a fly rod, since the fish are usually aggressive, and you get great scenery as well, and it's away from the crowds. I know that Mammoth received some snow this week, and I don't know how accessible some of these roads may be. For example, Tioga Pass was closed for a bit this week due to the white stuff.

Oh, and I do really recommend a book called "The Curtis Creek Manifesto." It is a great primer for fishing the smaller creeks we're given in the Eastern Sierras. Best 7 bucks you can spend.

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Originally Posted by steelhead

Ive also fished Crowley quite a bit on the rental boats but never with fly but I see a lot of guys on the lake with float tubes fishing the fly and doing well.

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Still water fly fishing is definitely not my forte, but I'm sure someone can chime in.

When my wife and I were in Colorado this July, we saw fly fishing instructors giving lessons on two occasions in Rocky Mountain National Park. I thought it kind of amusing and silly that people would pay good money for lessons that could be learned by practice and asking other fisher people. LOL I must admit, I am rusty with the fly fishing equipment, but we catch fish on flies behind bobbers anyway. (Helping my wife catch fish is a major priority on our trips.) The final count at the location where the professional fly instructors were giving lessons, was wife and I, 6 Brook Trout (3 for me and 3 for her) on the bobber and fly technique, fly fishing instructors and students, zero.

Long Beach Casting Club and other fly fishing clubs offer pretty cool casting instruction spread over a few weeks. They will teach you the mechanics of a cast and you will be amazed just how the "catching" part of fishing improves as your casting does.

Thank you for all of your helpful suggestions and thank you oDark Shadow for the detailed tips. With regards to the basics of casting and overhead and roll cast I have a good grasp. I'm really a novice when it comes to picking flies and delicate presentations and mending the line. I never had to do that with small mouth bass which would hit a popper skirting across the water against the current! Do you guys think my leader material and tippet is the problem? I've generally just use a straight 2 lb fluorocarbon leader instead of the tapered leader that they sell. I never did pay much attention to the 2x, 4x 6x designation. The other thing Seal pointed out is that maybe i'm not geting my flies down near the bottom enough? Do you guys put split shots on when fishing the faaster waters of the owens or perhaps I should go with a bead head nymph to get it down there? It kills me to see dozens of fish rising and me throwing it right on top of them and not getting strike and after awhile I pull out the old spinning rig and bait up

Yes split shot, faster the water more the weight. You can get by with straight leader while nymphing but I generally use tapered for everything. With a bead head you can get by with less weight for obvious reasons. While nymphing in moving water pay close attention and set on any hesitation of your indicator or line. Trout often take at the end of a drift as the fly begins to lift, this is because it closely resembles a nymph heading for the surface. Also I always nymph with two flies. lastly the less fly line you have on the water while drifting the better. I often have no fly line on the water by keeping a high stick (hence why they call it high stick nymphing) so that my fly line is held up all the way to the indicator.