So Much Water! - Tuolumne Meadows Photos

Our dear friend and esteemed Sierra photographer Andrew Maurer has returned with some shots taken shortly after Tioga Pass opened.

Late June Updates

A few fresh items to share with our friends ...

The waters continue to rage in most Sierra streams unless you are near their headwaters and they don't feed off of existing snowpack. Despite all of this, we must persist and one of our fave streams has opened up recently. This spot has browns, brookies and exceptional rainbows although those are far and few between. Bernard and Byron came to a spot where they were caught off guard by an unusually stubborn group of fish and here's one of the ones that finally was caught (and released) after some chuckles and tweaks to fly selection and presentation.
Meanwhile, the shop is open more and more with our "reliable" hours being roughly 10-5 Weds.-Sun. As we closed up today, the fly fishing gods smiled upon us with this little gift on our front door. Please pop by and visit us! We're right on the 41 as you head towards the park heading out of Oakhurst but still in town. Click HERE for more info.

Mid June News

Much to our amazement, many waters are still RISING! Despite this, we are working hard to find the exceptions and are having success. Some fish are even rising (enter winky emoticon here heh heh heh). The ant patterns continue to work well while a smattering of other bug "sightings" are kicking-in. On a recent day out, we even saw this hefty stone.

Jimmie and client Jack had a good volley of days out sleuthing a small stream that was responding well. Thank you Jack for the glowing testimonial as well! The key is persistence.

With 8 feet of snow in upper Yosemite, below normal water temperature east of Oakhurst in the Seirra Nat'l Forest and no hatch to match Jimmie and Bernard found fish and I landed wild trout on dry flies. Remote fishing holes on clear cold water streams with wild trout makes for a great experience. Without a hatch I didn't think dry flies would work. " We'll just make them come to the surface" Enough said. They delivered.

Early June News

We have been getting a lot of inquiries about the current runoff conditions. There is no question that there is an insane amount of water melting off in the high country. Yosemite Valley is unusually verdant and the waterfalls are roaring. Check the online gauges, call the park service, check the kayaker boards! Despite this, we have had successful days on smaller streams and are seeing the fishing improve daily. The insect activity is also kicking into a higher gear. Small yellow stones (16s), varied caddis (14-18), some various smaller mayflies and numerous terrestrials are making the fish have a reason to wake up. On a recent guide day, Bernard and his clients had a blast targeting fish that had become aware of a flurry of larger carpenter ants (winged and huge!). We're talking ants that are roughly the size of a medium sized wasp. We're talking easily size 12s!