Front Country Freestones

There are a gaggle of freestone streams in Inyo and Mono counties and most of them contain wild trout, as well as stocked rainbows at the campgrounds and reservoirs. They may not be world class fishing destinations, but they do provide opportunistic fishing for small wild trout. The majority of these streams contain brown trout and you can even find wild rainbows and brookies in some of these low elevation streams.

This week has been all about fishing dry flies in lakes! As the air heats up in the lower elevations it rises and brings warm air drafts up the canyons. This warm air collects all kinds of insects terrestrial and aquatic and can carry them great distances and deposit them onto the surface of the lake. Some lakes are lacking in aquatic food sources so some trout may get a huge portion of their diet from surface feeding.

Walking the shore or wading out to a drop off and fishing dry flies is an excellent way to go this time of year. You can fish a lot of fun patterns that you normally don’t get to fish like beetles, ants and mosquitos!!

While these trout may not be huge, they are gorgeous and are very good at spotting your leader or something wrong with your fly.

Guide Tip- Hide that leader! I wouldn’t fish anything heavier than 6x, in fact it is a great opportunity to get comfortable with 7x

FLIES-

Green Mosquito #16-20, Royal Wulff #10-16, Black Ant #10-18, Winged Ant #16-20, Missing Link Caddis #14-18, Stimulators #10-16, Griffiths Gnat #14-18, Humpies #12-18

Zebra/Tiger Midge #18-22, Hares Ears and Pheasant Tails #10-18, Copper Johns #14-18, Sparlke Pupas #14-18, Telico Nymphs #12-18, Pats Rubber Legs #8-14, San Juan Worms #12-16

Woolley Buggers #8-10, Twin Lakes Special #6-10, Semi-seal Leech #8-10