Like a good wine, finer with time. As the summer rolls on these areas will become more attractive and productive especially during the tepid parts of the afternoons in the valleys. Water temps are warming and the short window of summer puts the feeding behavior of alpine trout in high gear as they must amass body fat quickly while food is present. The multitude of high country alpine lakes in this area offer well stocked and easy to catch rainbows and many have solid populations of wild brook, rainbow, and brown trout. The planted fish are very opportunistic and flashy colorful streamers #8-14 used in conjunction with a sinking type fly line will work great once you have located the "pod" of ravenous rainbows. Keep your streamers down 10-15 feet for consistent results catching these rascals.

The wild ones are a tad more difficult to catch most of the time and you will need to use the still water nymphing, and long leader-dry fly methods with smaller sized imitations than their lower elevation counterparts. #20-22 zebras and tigers, #20 PT's, and on some of the alpine lakes that are below 8400 feet in elevation callibaetis imitations both dry and nymphs will work miracles.

Sierra Drifters Flies, Killer Kits & Sungicators are available at the following great fly shops and stores: Crowley Lake Fish Camp & The Crowley Lake General Store in Crowley, Bridgeport Marina at Bridgeport Reservoir, Kittredge Sports in Mammoth Lakes, Malibu Fish'n Tackle in Thousand Oaks, Stroud's Tackle in San Diego, The San Diego Fly Shop in San Diego, The Fishermen's Spot in Van Nuys, Bob Marriott's in Fullerton, Buz's Fly Shop Too in Bakersfield, & Crosby Lodge at Pyramid Lake, Nevada. There are links to these locations at www.sierradrifters.com/resources.htm. We pride our Guide Service & Products on Innovation not Imitation!