Upper Owens River
Long Valley, above Crowley Lake · near Mammoth Lakes · Eastern Sierra
Fishing
At a glance
- Difficulty
- intermediate
- Best season
- Year-round above Benton Crossing; fall run-up (Sept–Feb) & spring prime
Permits and booking
- Licence required
- Yes
- Licence detail
- CA license (16+). SPECIAL REGS above Benton Crossing bridge: open all year, barbless artificial flies/lures only, 2-trout limit with a 16-inch minimum. The lower run-up reach ties to Crowley's season. Confirm current CDFW regulations and section boundaries before keeping fish.
What is here
- Features
- Spring-creek meadow water · Premier trophy-brown run-up from Crowley · Sight-fishing to large migrants · Genuinely wild, not stocked
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Allowed
- Good for a first timer
- No
Fishing detail
- Water type
- river
- Water
- fresh
- Methods
- Fly · Spin
- Boat
- shore
- Target species
- Wild brown trout · Rainbow trout · Crowley run-up browns & rainbows · Lahontan cutthroat
- Nickname
- The Run-Up Meadow Water
- Intl tip
- Fish the fall run-up (late Sept–winter) for the biggest browns. Mammoth fly shops — Sierra Drifters, The Trout Fitter, Sierra Bright Dot — guide it and run winter snowmobile access. Barbless artificial only above Benton Crossing; confirm current CDFW regs.
The guide
The Upper Owens is the Eastern Sierra's premier trophy-trout water — a meandering spring-creek meadow stream flowing through Lo…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Upper Owens River — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 37.62, -118.79