Upper Owens River Fishing - Sierra Steelhead

The Upper Owens is the stretch of river above Lake Crowley. The river here is a spring creek and flows through a treeless cattle ranch meadow. The Eastern Sierras are to the west and the White Mts to the east--this is one of the most scenic trout rivers in North America.

I was hoping to catch the lake run brown trout that run up from Lake Crowley, but instead got into some of the "Sierra Steelhead" lake run rainbows instead. Maybe the browns were further upstream or downstream from where I fished just above Benton Crossing? Below the bridge was closed at this time of year. I did see a dying brown trout in the shallows that was a lake run fish of about 20". Not sure what was wrong with it, whether it was spawned out, got a disease, or was handled poorly after a catch and release. I saw a dead fish in the water as well in the same spot. Just a reminder to hold a fish out of the water only briefly--I have seen studies where once a trout has been out of water for more than 10 seconds, the mortality rate skyrockets. 

I was fishing on a monday and there were a lot of people out fishing surprisingly, but there was plenty of room to fish in relative solitude. There is quite of bit of river to fish before the public section terminates upstream from the bridge. 

The lake run rainbows fought very good. It seemed you either catch lake run fish at this time of year, or small residents. The small fish seemed to be eating mainly small midges and the larger lake run fish liked something large that catches their attention--a #8 coffee-black Rubber Legs caught all the lake run fish. Fish were spooky and you had to approach the bank carefully. The lake runners like to hold in the deeper spots in the river, so it is best to skip the shallow water despite how good it looks.