Howdy Friends:

The heat is on! The Eastern Sierra has been cooking with near record temperatures and very dry conditions most of July. Zero T-storm activity, although an increasing chance of afternoon thunderstorms are showing up in future forecasts. The upper valleys have been plagued by strong southerly diurnal winds which have really made fishing past 11 am tough on Crowley and Bridgeport Reservoirs. Air temps have been very warm to hot in all the valleys making the upper elevation fisheries more pleasant to spend the late mornings and afternoons on.

The freestone creeks continue to have good flows, although they are beginning to drop significantly as what is left of the snow pack dissipates. There will be some skinny water for sure in all of the fisheries that rely on snow fields for flow come late summer and into fall. Locations like the West Walker, San Joaquin, Rock Creek, Rush Creek, Bishop Creek, will all have very low water flows later. The Lower Owens continues to be extremely high although I checked it out a few days back and clarity has improved quite a bit. Wading and crossing is risky at this release, air temps are triple digits. The hot ticket on the LO right now is floating on a truck tire inner tube with a cooler of "refreshments" in tow!