Howdy friends and Sierra Drifters. Best fishes to all in 2009 from the guide staff at Sierra Drifters. Remember to get a new license! Your 2007 expired on December 31, 2007.

The brutal cold of December is over for the time being and we are experiencing milder temperatures that look to hold for a while. Access to the Upper/ Lower Owens River, and Hot Creek on the river front dirt roads remains limited by snow and ice or deep mud. The ground will be frozen in the mornings most days but will thaw after lunch making for some difficult driving. Walking in is way easier than the digging out!

Road Trips!!!

Sierra Drifters founder Tom Loe will be doing Power Point assisted seminars on fly fishing and the techniques used to ply the waters of the Sierra this winter. He will be speaking for the Diablo Valley Fly Fishers on 1-13-09, and then the San Jose Fly Fishers on 1-14-09. Tom will head down to So-Cal and greet the Deep Creek Fly Fishers on 1-28-09, and then again for the Fly Fishers of Orange County on the evening of 1-29-09. These seminars are loaded with seldom published information, Tom's special guide tips, combined with plenty of instruction and are formatted as "off the water" guide trips. If you fish the Sierra you will find these seminars very rewarding. Tom has been professionally guiding for over a decade and has logged over 2700 guide trips to date. The public is welcome to attend. Please contact the clubs for information, start times, and directions.

Diablo Valley - www.diablovalleyflyfish.org

San Jose ??? www.flycasters.org

Orange County ??? www.ffcoc.org

Deep Creek - www.deepcreekflyfishers.org

Sierra Drifters Guide Service implemented a "Fishing Relief Stimulus" program effective October 31st. If you have had it with politics and market watching and wish to get away and debate with a huge brown or watch a BWO mayfly drift into a brightly colored rainbows mouth we have several guided fishing programs to campaign about. For a limited time we have rolled back our guide rates to 2005 prices! When is the last time you saw a guide service lower prices? Gas prices are coming down and the fishing is great.

Guide Tip:

Wading boots that have rubber soles are far superior in freezing conditions than felts. The felt soles absorb water and freeze when walking on ice or snow. You can find yourself spending a lot of time chipping off "boot bergs" after only a short distance on a snowy path. In addition; they are very slippery on hard packed snow or frozen ground. Rubber soles will make for a more enjoyable and safe experience under winter wading conditions. I gave up felts along time ago and have been pleased with the versatility and light design that these newer wading boots offer.

We have a bunch of great pictures to show you of recent trips on the Lower Owens and other areas. Click on www.sierradrifters.com/fish.htm to view them please.

Lower Owens River:
The warmer weather brought water temps back into the forties most days and the trout are beginning to move into the feeding lanes again. We are also seeing the first "jumbo" generations of baetis #16 BWO's appearing on the warmer days. Midge activity has been increasing respective to temps. Midge imitations should be in the 18-22 range for nymphing, you can get away with #16-18 may fly nymph imitations like PT's, birds nest, and hares ear patterns.

Streamer fishing using the "dip and strip" technique remains the most consistent method on a day to day basis. Larger streamers in the #6-8 range have been more consistent with the cooler water temps in the mornings. I have been switching to "strymphs" like our blood sucking Vanderleech, Agent Orange, and Punk Perch #12-14 in the late afternoons and having good results. Try to keep your flies less than a foot from the bottom and include lengthy pauses on your retrieve if you are using the D+S. Sometimes lethargic trout will hit a streamer more from aggression than hunger if passed close to their lie.

Flows decreased in early January to 100cfs and are vacillating between 100-125cfs. This is excellent for wading. The roads you can still drive on to the rivers edge are muddy with some ice in the mornings, however not too bad overall.