Why Fish the Eastern Sierra?
What makes the Mammoth Lakes region such a wonderful place for fly fishers to visit? In one word...DIVERSITY. Fly fishers visiting the Mammoth area have the option to fish all four basic types of angling water: spring creeks, tailwaters, freestone streams and stillwaters. As an added bonus we have a few year-around fisheries too. This region boasts some of the best trout water in the state of California…and it’s all just 15-50 minutes from the Town of Mammoth Lakes.
What is a Spring Creek?
This water source comes from sub-surface aquifers. Regions where spring creeks are common have a unique geology that often coincides with a rich alkaline soil. The “hard water” that is the by-product of the leaching process results in a chemistry conducive to aquatic plants and algae that help sustain the vital insect life.
Spring creeks are fairly consistent in water flow and water temperature throughout the year, they don’t freeze in the winter or get too warm in the summer. As a result, they fish well with ongoing hatches all season long. Trout in spring creeks tend to be a bit more “educated”. They see a lot of natural insects. The educations these trout receive demand that anglers “match the hatch” and execute perfect presentations of the artificial fly.
Local spring creeks
What is a Tailwater?
This water source emerges from a dam controlled lake or reservoir. When the water is drawn from near the bottom of the lake, the result can be consistently cold and nutrient rich water…important ingredients of a fertile trout stream. Tailwaters are commonly referred to as “artificial spring creeks” due to the parallels of consistent water temperature, stable flow and good water chemistry. These features support an extensive bio-mass. Tailwaters usually yield dense populations of trout. These fish will often average larger than freestone and spring creek fish. Tailwater rivers will have similar aquatic entomology as spring creeks in the same region. Many of the same fly patterns you cast on spring creeks can be used in tailwater rivers.
Local Tailwaters
What is a Freestone River?
This water source often comes from snowmelt high in the mountains. Freestone rivers and streams undergo major fluctuations in water flow, velocity and water temperature during the season. In the winter, these streams are very cold and often frozen over (with running water under the ice). In the spring these streams become raging torrents of snow fed runoff. Conversely, by the fall season, they can be reduced to a trickle.
High altitude freestone streams are not as fertile as tailwater and spring creeks, couple that with a shorter growing season and the result is smaller trout. What these fish lack in size they make up in feistiness; opportunistic is the best way to describe these fish. Furthermore, since their feeding season is shorter than their spring creek & tailwater cousins, freestone fish often crush dry flies even when there is not a hatch to speak of. Fly patterns will be less important so the presentation should be your focus. Angler’s enjoying a freestone stream may not be put to the “match-the-hatch” test often, allowing attractor fly patterns to work well enough most days.
Local Freestone Rivers
What is a Stillwater?
As the name implies, stillwaters are lakes, reservoirs or ponds. The water source, or tributary, can be from a spring creek, freestone stream or tailwater river.
We are lucky to have hundreds (literally) of fantastic fishing lakes surrounding Mammoth and the rest of the eastern Sierra. However, when it comes to fast growing trophy trout habitat, not all lakes are created equal.
Fly fishers are extremely fortunate that Crowley Lake and Bridgeport Reservoir exist. These lakes are classic high altitude alkaline rich reservoirs. They are extremely fertile and have enormous hatches of midges, callibaetis mayflies, and damsel flies. These hatches allow the fly fisher ample opportunities all season long.
Along with the strong bug hatches, these lakes also contain healthy populations of leeches and Sacramento Perch. During the late summer and into the fall, stripping imitations of juvenile perch fry will produce very large fish that are unforgettable and legendary.
Local Stillwaters
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