Last weekend, Chuck and I were able to make a two-day trip up to the eastern sierra to fish the lower Owens, and it was fishing great! It was a trip chocked full of fish and I’ll be going over some of the techniques and eastern sierra flies we used to have a blast the last few days! Leaving Saturday night, we made the drive up and had the whole day to fish Sunday and Monday before coming back early Tuesday morning! Let’s dig in and take a look at the best flies for eastern sierras that we think you should have in your fly box. And check out our Eastern Sierra Fly Fishing Hatch Guide to learn more detail about locations and a variety of eastern sierra fly patterns to use and when.
Our Eastern Sierra Flies Breakdown
Here are the best flies for eastern sierras that we selected for our trip. I brought three rods for this outing: a 10’ 3wt for nymphing, a 9’ 6wt for streamers and a 5wt as a general all-around backup!
Strategizing What are the Best Flies for Eastern Sierras
My original plan was to nymph in the mornings and throw streamers in the afternoon, both of which are popular eastern sierra flies. To pair with the rods I brought a nymph line for the 3wt, and two different density sink tips for the 6, an Intermediate sink tip and a 4ips sink tip. This would give me options to help get the bigger eastern sierra fly patterns down in the deeper pools. We brought a variety of fly fishing nymphs and euro jigs, as well as a plethora of streamers ranging from small jigged pine squirrel leeches to large game-changer eastern sierra flies in chub and sucker patterns.
Selecting the Right Eastern Sierra Fly Patterns and Gear
The first day I set up my euro nymph rod with a jigged pine squirrel sculpin on the bottom as my point fly and a double hot spot nymph up top. This setup worked extremely well for me all morning so I did not feel the need to change my choice of eastern sierra flies at all! (This is not always the case, however and we had to do a lot more switching the second day.) Using our chosen eastern sierra flies, we fished throughout the morning and early afternoon steadily picking up fish at every spot that looked like it would hold them.
As afternoon turned to evening, we switched to the streamer rods and I hit the river with my heavy sinking fly lines! Unfortunately, the fish were not chasing the big eastern sierra flies however Chuck was able to stick a couple on a smaller olive streamer he tied. When fishing trout streamers, it is important to acknowledge that there are times fish simply don’t want to expend the energy for a big meal, that is not to say you won’t work a couple up but throwing smaller eastern sierra flies can be much more effective.
A Shift in Strategy for Day Two
The second day we went back to the nymphing setup and were able to find our groove again as we began hooking into some better quality fish than the first day. Every day is different though and as the day progressed, we had to cycle through our various eastern sierra flies a bit more before we found what really seemed to work. For nymphs we ended up having the best luck with a jigged tungsten hotspot pheasant tail and a stoner. Chuck had a few fish eat the Butano as well, however the second day they seemed to want the natural eastern sierra fly patterns much more.
Adapting Our Eastern Sierra Flies for Optimal Catches
This was also seen on the streamer side of things. The red leech eastern sierra fly pattern I had fished the whole day before was not as productive the second day. The streamer that got it done was a jigged olive semi-seal bugger with an extra-large tungsten bead. The presence of this fly in the water made it really easy for fish to pick up on and the natural coloring seemed to be what got these fish to commit. We chose to stick to the Euro style the whole second day and it proved to be the right choice as we caught fish right up until the light faded.
Catching More with a Variety of Eastern Sierra Fly Patterns
Overall, it was a great trip and a packed two days of catching fish! We planned it extremely well as the temperature peaked into the high sixties and even hit seventy while we were there! The moral of the trip was to stay flexible and bring a variety of eastern sierra fly patterns! I really wanted to throw big streamers around both days but that’s not what the fish wanted. When you adapt to your situation and bring a variety of your best flies for eastern sierras, you get rewarded—and that’s what happened.
The Joy of Fishing Success
The fishing was consistent and fun with a couple of nicer fish over the 15” mark. Nymph flies were the most productive eastern sierra fly patterns but tended to produce slightly smaller fish. While the fish did not want to eat the huge flies they did react really well to the smaller streamers as that is what produced all of our big fish.
Stop by our San Diego location if you’ve got any questions about the best flies for eastern sierras or any of the techniques mentioned above! We look forward to hearing from you and helping get you set up for your next adventure!