Sierra West 
Adventures

(Your Source For Multi Species Angling On 
The West Slope Of The Sierra And Beyond)

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We hope you enjoy the tour of fishthesierra.com. We hope you take the time to look at each page as there is great information and photos on each one. We look forward to fishing with you this season.

To View Our "What's New Report", please scroll down.

About Our Service....

We are proud to introduce you to the leading guide on the West Slope Of the Sierra. Our service offers the most diverse guided adventures to be found anywhere. From casting a #22 dry fly to a sipping rainbow, to throwing a shooting head ninety feet at an awaiting striper, or hooking into a huge smallmouth bass on a popper, we have something for every anglers taste.

We guide over 800 miles of moving waters full of Native trout, steelhead and salmon, as well as striped, smallmouth, largemouth, and Spotted bass, for our clients to explore. We also offer over 20 still water fisheries, that produce trophy fishing unmatched anywhere. Our service also works with many private land owners, to assure that our clients receive the most "untouched" waters available in this area.

We also host many international fishing adventures to such amazing destinations as Utah, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska, Baja, Canada and South America just to name a few. With so much area available to us, we make it a point to rarely encounter other anglers while guiding our clients.

With all of the Year Round opportunities that we offer, only 2 hours from the S.F. Bay and Sacramento areas, we have only one Question...

Isn't it time you discover the secrets the West Slope of the Sierra Holds?

 

What's new...

Since our last update we have been so busy being on the water and experiencing the tremendous fishing the West Slope rivers have provided for us this Summer season, we have not had the chance to update our West Slope report in a while. For those of you who have been lucky enough to experience the awesome fishing that we have had over the past few months no one needs to enlighten you any further, but for those who have not, here is a quick recap of the action.

As early June came around, we where experiencing a big, nickel bright, end to our Spring steelhead run with some of the biggest fish being caught during the last two weeks of the season. It was a huge exclamation point at the end of an awesome steelhead season here on the West Slope. The season was filled with tons of action from big fish and quite a few periods of awesome dry fly action throughout the whole season. I can't wait until October when we get the chance at our fall half pounder run.

Our reservoir bass fishing was among some of the best we have ever seen with so many fish in the 2-4 pound class caught it was unreal at times. We also had many very large fish caught as well with probably the most memorable fish having been hooked and landed by my long time client and friend Colin Claxson. Colin landed a spotted bass that was 22 inches and just a touch under 7 pounds. One of the biggest spotties I have ever had the pleasure to guide someone to. The fight was like a huge striper with a few jumps mixed in. What an awesome fish! The top water action was amazing through the end of the season and we landed many trophy size fish on the surface. If you have not yet explored the huge angling opportunities the West Slope Lakes provide the fly angler, you should check it out this fall when the fish will be going on a stomach gorging romp to fatten up for the long winter ahead.

The small stream Sierra action was great this year as we hardly even had the chance to fish some of our favorite small streams last season due to low water. It seems like the year of little or no angling pressure really did benefit these fisheries as we saw the most consistently big fish we have ever seen on these rivers. They fished very well until the beginning of July when water temps had us looking higher in elevation for better conditions. The most memorable day I had on those streams had to be my day with my good friend Marty Adrian. He landed in upwards of 30 plus fish in a day, where we fished into a spot where I haven't had the tenacity to reach in quite some time. Marty was an animal, fishing and hiking about 8 miles round trip. when we reached the car which was well after dark, we sat on the side of the road, had a beer and reflected on how that had been one of the most enjoyable days either of us had on the water in some time. " I'm sorry about missing the upper trail that night Marty.... It was dark!"

The fishing right now on the West Slope has been a mixture of some of our trophy high elevation freestone waters which have produced some of the hottest dry fly action we have seen all year and our very popular Smallmouth/Striper floats. We are blessed to have so many high elevation freestone stream which consistently put fish out in the 13-16 inch range on the average and many fish to the 20 inch range as well. These rivers are all over 5000 feet so it is a great way to beat the Summer heat and get into some hot Sierra dry fly action. We have had consistently good days with most anglers hooking and landing 25 or more and have even seen some days that produced 50 plus fish days. The beauty of these areas (wild flowers in August!) coupled with the tremendous fishing these rivers are providing, makes it a wonderful trip all the way around.

Our West Slope Smallmouth and Striper trips are unbelievably good so far. We are on the hills of last season, which produced the biggest fish and best action I have seen in 20 years. This season has got off to a start that may rival or even beat last years action with many small, large and spotted bass in the 2-4 pound class landed daily, on river where you will not see another angler all day. We have had some awesome top water action as well and the Striper bite has been really good for fish that average 4-8 pounds and some bigger trophies hooked into the 12-18 pound class. Expect this action to get even better as warm water and low oxygen levels in the main river entering the Delta, will force more and more big fish into the West Slope tributaries which we are fishing.

We are also opening our steelhead bookings for fall 08 Winter 09 today. I have tried to write this for hours now, but I have spent most of my time on the phone reserving dates for winter steelies. Our clients who know that getting into prime slots make a big difference in your consistent catch rate on the West Slope. are keeping the phone lines going! We still have a few great slots open and if you are looking to get up next season, try your luck and some great winter steelhead action, don't hesitate to reserve your time now. We are expecting to book solid over the next few weeks and your only chance at dates after that will be on the waiting list for cancellations.

All and all it has been an awesome season and we are looking forward to even better fishing for the rest of the year. I am leaving in a couple of days to our Fish camp on the Rogue river in Southern Oregon for the big August party, which kicks of the steelhead season on the Rogue. Many of you fished the Rogue with us and our friends who guide the river last year and we are looking forward to seeing all of you again this year and hopefully some new faces as well. I will be giving reports on the Rogue and other Southern Oregon gems throughout the rest of this year as well. This is prime time up there and it will continue through December, so if you would like info about arranging a trip to the Rogue this season, contact us and we would be happy to help you out.

To all my friends who visit us every year and allow my guides and I to do what we love on a daily basis, I thank you for your continued support. With tough economic times upon us, we truly appreciate now more than ever our clients willingness to spend there hard earned money with us. We vow to continue to make sure every dollar you spend with us is well worth it, either here on the West Slope, or on the Rogue this season.

Until next time... see you out there!

Steve Walser and Everyone at Sierra West Adventures...

Please enjoy your tour of our site.

We hope to get fishing with you "REEL" soon.... If we can answer any questions please don't hesitate to call (209) 588-1306 or you can E-mail us at....

steve@mlode.com

*Note: SWA requires a 50% deposit on any trip booked. SWA Does Not Issue Cash Refunds On Any Deposit. In the event of cancellation By SWA, the full amount of your deposit will be issued in a gift certificate. This may be used at any time in the future to deposit another outing. You must cancel any booked trip before one full month of the original date booked, or SWA will retain your deposit, with no type of refund issued. If canceled before that time, you will be issued a gift certificate for the full price of your deposit. Any trip canceled with less than 96 hours notice will be charged the full price of the outing, including any lodging balances owed.

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