Middle Owens River

Rocky Taylor with a torpedo of a rainbow!
Photo Credit: Sierra Drifters

by Tom Loe
1-28-2018
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Release rates doing the Yo-Yo as of late. Back to a trickle and flowing at 75cfs. The bulk of the fish will seek the deepest pools at this level. A fair amount of riffle water will be to shallow for fish to stage in during the hatches, so focus on the larger pools, & their respective tail outs. The baetis hatch comes off after noon most days, with some blanket midge emergences appearing too. Drifting has been very good for numbers of smaller planted rainbows and browns with a few bigs showing in the counts most days. We are currently limited in our runs due to low water. Smaller perch fry patterns like our #16 Punk Perch in the afternoons during the BWO hatch is a good call. Make sure you have some #16/18 adult baetis (BWO) patterns handy for the mayfly hatch. The adults come off in the foam, & hide in it while their wings are drying. Keep your imitations high and dry with frequent use of desiccant.  This should be a memorable season for surface action. Nymph the deeper pools, & slots using Assassins, flashback pheasant tails, broken back midges, olive crystal caddis larva, & olive larva patterns. Hot streamers on the drift boat trip have been Spruce-A-Bu’s and Loebergs, with the parallel Punk Perch getting grabs during the hatch. High-vis BWO adults and a dropper mayfly nymph profile can be deadly just prior to; & during the hatch. Fish your dry/dropper rig in the deeper riffle water, or along the foam lines leading into the pools.