Says Ian Douglas:
Carmen, my girlfriend, and I went up to the Eastern Sierras this weekend to spend Saturday rock climbing in Alabama Hills (the film set for a large number of Westerns as well as Star-Trek and Iron Man http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama_Hills ) and fishing the Upper Owens on Sunday. She took these pictures.
Click in images to enlarge
The fishing was truly exceptional with a large caddis hatch at around 10 and lasting till we left at around 2 (probably longer but we needed to get back). There are still some huge rainbows up from Lake Crowley. I had the pleasure of hooking into five of them and managing to land two in the range of 3-4 lbs. We caught a couple of good browns but the majority were rainbows.
Against my better judgement, we tried an Elk Hair Caddis #18, a pattern I have never had any luck with and to my astonishment hooked a fish seconds after it hit the water.
I keep seeing some of these large Crowley Lake Rainbows that migrate up the Owens referred to as ‘Crowley Steelhead’). I'm not sure if this is due to the strain or the fact that they are not resident in the river, but move up into the river system during winter. Of the two big fish I landed, one certainly seemed to be a lot more silver, less colored than the others and certainly put up one hell of a fight. I will do some research on my side and let you know.
Owens River
(What intrigues me just as much as the steelhead in this part of the world is the head of large cutthroats in the nearby Pyramid Lake. Known as Lahothan Cutthroats, they are one of the biggest inland trout species in the world.
Tom Loe of Sierra Drifters Guide service with a large cutthroat taken by Chris Linkletter
They were thought to be extinct in 1939 after the Derby Dam was constructed and reduced the flow over their spawning grounds. Fortunately, a remnant population was discovered in a small brook in Nevada by Dr Robert Behnke and they have since been re-established in Pyramid Lake – which on its West bank has a town named Sutcliffe! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_Lake_(Nevada)
Tom Loe of Sierra Drifters, a guide company operating in this area, gave me permission to show use the image of a typical Pyramid Lake Cutthroat from their website. Their web is well worth a visit, by the way. The rivers and lakes in this area are magnificent. See http://sierradrifters.com/TS)
