2 N Main St, Bishop, CA 93514
Sierra Fly Fisher is the essential fly shop for Eastern Sierra trout fishing, located in Bishop, California, where the Owens Valley opens into a landscape of extraordinary scale and clarity at the base of the highest fault-block range in North America. The shop serves as the definitive local resource for two of the finest trout fisheries in the American West: Hot Creek and the Owens River. Hot Creek Ecological Reserve is a short spring-fed channel above Mammoth Lakes where dense populations of large, selective brown trout rise to minute insects with a regularity and predictability found almost nowhere else in the country. The water is clear to the point of near-invisibility — chalk-white bottom, light refraction that distorts the fish's actual position, and an audience of browns that see everything and forgive nothing. Matching the hatch down to size 22 and 24 midges and Baetis is not an option; it is the price of admission to a fishery that rewards mastery and returns nothing to approximation.
Sierra Fly Fisher's staff have logged thousands of hours on Hot Creek, the Owens, Bishop Creek, Crowley Lake, and the constellation of lesser-known Eastern Sierra waters that only locals can find and fish effectively. Their recommendations carry the authority of constant observation — updated weekly, sometimes daily, in response to hatches, flows, and fish behavior. The shop stocks an exceptional selection of small dry flies and emergers tied specifically for the alkaline, fertile waters of this region, along with the micro tippet, technical leaders, and precise indicators that precise nymphing demands. The guide program places visiting anglers with professionals who understand how to approach Hot Creek's spring-fed currents and how to hunt Owens River browns that can run into the double digits in a river that looks deceptively pastoral from the road. This is a world-class operation serving world-class water.
“Hot Creek is one of the most beautiful and demanding pieces of trout water I have ever fished, and Sierra Fly Fisher made it accessible. My guide spent an hour before we entered the water showing me the specific patterns and presentations that work here — by afternoon I was rising large browns on size 22 Baetis in gin-clear water with the Sierra Nevada rising behind us. A genuine bucket-list experience.”
“Traveled from Denver specifically to fish the lower Owens with Sierra Fly Fisher and it exceeded every expectation. The guide knew every brown trout lie in the river — we had the most technically rewarding fishing day of the year. The shop itself is exceptional: flies organized by specific water and hatch, staff who answer questions with genuine depth and current information. A world-class operation.”
“Sierra Fly Fisher set me up for three days of Eastern Sierra fishing and every recommendation was perfect. Hot Creek in the morning, lower Owens in the afternoon, Crowley from a float tube at dusk. The flies they put me on were exactly right each time — these are people who fish constantly and it shows. Best fly shop in California.”
