The Weather

A mild week follows the first snow

The Eastern Sierra received its first snow of the season on October 1. There will be a small reprieve from precipitation as the National Weather Service forecast calls for temperate weather and stable temperatures for most of this coming week.

“We’re looking at a pretty nice week of autumn ahead,” NWS Meteorologist Chris Smallcomb said, reporting from the NWS Reno, Nevada, office. Mammoth Lakes Forecast: Oct. 5 - Thurs: Sunny, with

Special to the

Fall is showing up in the Eastern Sierra as the leaves on the trees in the upper elevations are just starting to turn yellow. Fall means brook and brown trout are spawning and it’s a great time to fish for them. Days in the Owens Valley are cool early and late and middle of the day is almost too hot. It’s a great time to throw streamers looking for trophy brown trout. Trout are continuing to feed on hatching mayflies, caddis and midges. The trout and the fly fishers know that winter is around the corner and this is a last chance to for trout to feed and fly fishers to catch them.

San Joaquin River Reds Meadow – Agnew Meadows:

As fall starts to enter the Eastern Sierra the San Joaquin River continues to offer fly fishers great dry fly or dry and dropper fly fishing opportunities for wild brown trout and rainbow trout. Access to the San Joaquin is limited to Saturday and Sunday as the contractor continues to prep the road for future road work.

Lower Owens River Wild Trout Section:

Water flow continue to fluctuate around 400 CFS and will continue into winter depending on what kind of winter snow pack the Eastern Sierra gets this winter. Looks like I’ll be doing very little fly fishing this fall and winter until the flows reach 300 CFS or less.

Hot Creek Interpretive Site:

Wild brown trout and rainbow trout are coming to the surface for trico mayflies and gray bodied caddis. It’s fun to throw some dry flies at trout after dealing with all the snow runoff and months of nymphing with indictors and a Euro rig. A size 20 gray partridge spent caddis, gray parachute caddis, or gray X-caddis are fooling the trout mid-morning. Prior to the caddis hatch there is a sporadic trico hatch.

Hot Creek Canyon Section:

Water flows are