Pleasant Valley Reservoir
Gorge Road, north of Bishop · near Bishop · Eastern Sierra
Fishing
At a glance
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Best season
- Year-round; best fall through spring
Permits and booking
- Licence required
- Yes
- Licence detail
- CA license (16+). Open all year under general regs (5 trout/10 possession); the special artificial-only river zones begin below the dam. Confirm current CDFW rules.
What is here
- Features
- Cold Owens tailwater below the Gorge · Occasional trophy browns · Very accessible roadside/shore access · Year-round cold-water fishery
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Allowed
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Fishing detail
- Water type
- lake
- Water
- fresh
- Methods
- Bait · Spin · Fly
- Boat
- shore
- Target species
- Stocked rainbow trout · Wild brown trout · Sacramento perch
- Intl tip
- A great cold-weather and winter option when the mountains are snowed in. Fish fall through spring; a float tube gets you to the cruising browns. Bishop shops stock the local flies and sell licenses.
The guide
Pleasant Valley Reservoir is Bishop's easy, year-round cold-water fishery — a narrow tailwater impoundment at the mouth of the …
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Pleasant Valley Reservoir — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 37.4147, -118.5497