Crowley Lake low on water, not trout

You know it's getting late in the season at Crowley Lake when crowds dissipate and water level recedes. But this fall, crowds are virtually non-existent (bad economy) and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has dropped the Eastern Sierra reservoir waterline to levels not seen in years.

Tom Loe, the Sierra Drifters guide pictured above with a client named Lisa (and her very impressive brown trout), said some of his top GPS-marked locations for fall have been "high and dry" since mid-August.

Lane Garrett, who runs Crowley Lake Fish Camp, told me today that a light runoff season coupled with DWP projects downstream have led to the low-water conditions.

Garrett added, however, that before the recent algae bloom, which is beginning to clear up, fishing was phenomenal in places, and that he and two fly-fishing friends recently caught and released 50 trout in less than three hours in the Crooked Creek area.

"The water was only 1 to 3 feet deep, so it was like fishing for bonefish" in the flats, Garrett said of the evening bite. Garrett personally landed 18 trout, including two browns at 20-plus inches, a 22-inch cutthroat and four rainbows 18 inches or longer.

With the algae clearing, fishing should vastly improve over the next few weeks. Lance Watkins of Beverly Hills caught, weighed and released a 7-pound rainbow on Wednesday.

"You should come up," Garrett said. "You can virtually have the entire lake to yourself."

-- Pete Thomas

Photo: Trout fishing at Crowley Lake in the Eastern Sierra ought to be very good throughout the remainder of the season despite low water that has exposed much of the shoreline and many prime fishing spots. Photos courtesy of Sierra Drifters