End of July looking towards August! The flows are starting to come down (according to Fred Rowe’s report) in the Eastern Sierras. If you haven’t fished a grasshopper pattern on the upper Owens River and Hot Creek, shoot any river really, at this time you should try it. Fish like big insects. That’s why people from all over the states go to Montana and Idaho to fish the Salmon Fly hatch. The takes are violent and casting mistakes are over looked by the fish. By the time you get this we will have already done the Grasshopper trip. Sadly we had to cancel the Mammoth Condo because we couldn’t fill it. I hope you went fishing someplace either locally or farther away.

John White and I were out with the CADFW in early July for four days e-fishing on Deep Creek. We started at Splinter’s Cabin below the PCT bridge. The second day we went to the T-6 bridge and walked upstream to shock. The third day we went to Devil’s Hole. I thought these three places had less fish than I remember from the 1990’s when I fished it a lot. The last day we went to Fisherman’s Camp and had great numbers of fish up there.

The local streams are a little high but fishable. While we were up there, a few folks on the survey fished and caught fish at Splinter’s Cabin. A new member Cathy Kane and Chiaki Harami went to Beak Creek by the Confluence and Cathy caught her first trout on a fly rod. Yahoo!!! So the other local streams should be fishable too.

We don’t have much going on in August. We have 2nd Sunday Casting at the front of Fairmont Park from 8:00am-10:00am. Dennis Otsuka is a returning member of DCFF. He is a Certified Casting Instructor. He loves to help people learn to cast. If you need to work on your casting. Dennis can help you out.

The other thing we have in August is a trip up by R-Ranch in Kernville. This trip is generously hosted by Tom Paulson (an older DCFF member) at his 10-person cabin at the R-Ranch. The price per person is $20 per day which includes lodging and access to the facilities. There is little to no cell phone service. There is a limited general store. Twin, double, and queen-sized beds are possible. Meal planning and preparation will be a group effort. A few of the many amenities include a fire pit, horseback riding, swimming, archery, shooting, Friday night bingo, Saturday night live band performances, and more. More information will be in this newsletter.

Bill Tolton has been looking for speakers to fill out the year. If you have a speaker you’d like to hear speak at the club contact him. Bill will be starting to contact speakers for next year in September. Please give him some ideas for speakers. His email is in the DCFF Directory.

We have the condo reserved for the closer. The dates are September 28, 2023 to October 4, 2023. We will need six people to fill the condo. The cost for a week will be $310 a bed for the week. If we don’t fill it with six people, we will cancel the condo.

By the end of September the fishing will be wide open up in the Eastern Sierras and the misquotes will be gone. The backcountry will be free of snow and the rivers will be down to a fishable level.

I’ll have two Conservation Projects with Trout Unlimited I’ve been asked to help with. One at the end of August and one in September. So for the Closer I probably won’t be there, but maybe Kurt or Bill Tolton will be able to be there. Both projects have e-fishing, beaver dam building, and installing wells to keep the high country meadows with water.

Like always if you want to talk about anything fishing or about DCFF, send me an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. As a matter of fact you can get in touch with any Board member by going to the website, go to About Us, click on Club Officers, pick the Club Officer’s photo that you want to talk to and you will be able to send them an email. They will respond to your email through the website address.

Keep fishing,
Gary Applebee