In the eastern Sierra, where fly fishers can target wild trout and fish in uncrowded waters, one of the most spectacular areas is the region around the town of Lee Vining, between the June Lake Loop to the south and the town of Bridgeport to the north. This area contains miles of creeks and several easy-to-reach lakes that can keep one fully occupied for weeks casting a fly in the most beautiful of surroundings.
Lee Vining Creek marks the area. In its 10-mile-long run from its headwaters in the high Sierra Nevada to its outlet into Mono Lake, it is replete with wild trout, yet surprisingly ignored by most anglers. Typically not a fishing destination, it is instead something passed on route to more popular waters.
Beyond Lee Vining Creek, this locale is the eastern gateway to the Tioga Pass area and Yosemite National Park. For the fly fisher dedicated to wild trout, there are fewer places more inviting. Adding to my prior articles on the June Lake Loop and Mammoth Lakes regions, what follows is a review of wild trout waters in the Lee Vining region. It begins where Lee Vining Creek does — in the remarkably beautiful Harvey Monroe Hall Natural Area.
Lee Vining Creek
Lee Vining Creek starts in the alpine sanctuary most often known simply as the Hall Natural Area. This designated Research Natural Area is a protected ecosystem set aside for the study of its flora and fauna. Located about one mile from Tioga Pass, it is accessed from the road leading to Saddlebag Lake, primarily from the Sawmill Campground, where the trail to Hall begins. Another trail to the lower part of Hall begins closer to Highway 120.
In the Hall Natural Area, imposing mountain peaks and ridges tower above Lee Vining Creek’s headwaters, numerous tarns, and 14 small lakes. Most of these waters hold abundant brook trout. One, Green Treble Lake, also contains rainbows, leftover from plantings in the past.
Lee Vining Creek and the tarns offer easy fly fishing, although casting to wary brook trout in the crystal-clear water of the small ponds will test one’s skills. In the fast-flowing creek, brookies are more eager to take a fly in any piece of holding water, making this stream a great place for beginners.
Just above Sawmill Campground, Saddlebag Creek joins Lee Vining and doubles its size, as well as adding brown trout to the mix. Bigger fish occupy the enlarged creek, which flows through a brushy stretch alongside and below Sawmill Campground. In this mineral-rich water, I caught my prettiest fish ever, a gorgeous, deep-orange brown trout. Past the campground, the creek flows through a miniature canyon, where I once hooked a handful of 8-to10-inch browns in the choppier water.
Lee Vining Creek then continues its run down to Tioga Pass, providing miles of decent fishing in open meadows for small brookies. Near Highway 120, there is a campground where hatchery rainbows are planted in the creek.
Before leaving Hall, the f ly fisher might consider fishing the lakes there. I’ve found two to be particularly productive. The first gave up above-average-sized silvery brook trout. It’s called Middle C Lake and sits between Green Treble Lake and Maul Lake. It is conveniently small, and one can easily circle it. I later learned that brookies sometimes migrate from Green Treble to spawn in Middle C, and if you hit it at the right time when the channel dries up, you can catch fish that are stranded. (Editor’s note: If you hook these fish, try to move them to a lake or flowing water, if either are close by.)
My favorite destination in Hall has long been Spuller Lake, one of the prettiest lakes anywhere. One reaches it by first going to Maul Lake and then trekking over the modest ridge beyond it. On the other side sits Spuller, nestled in a bowl with the glacier called “the Whale” peering down from high above. I’ve always scored good hookups of healthy, colorful brookies here by first fishing the inlet stream (a few fish are usually holding in the inflow) and then casting out into the current caused by the stream’s inflow.
After passing under Highway 120, Lee Vining Creek crashes down the steep canyon wall at Tioga Pass and then flows by a number of campgrounds in the canyon below. There, hatchery rainbows are regularly planted. Below the campgrounds, the creek meanders through a meadow area with brushy sides where a skillful fly fisher might target wild trout. Lee Vining Creek becomes a good wild brown and rainbow fishery from the town of Lee Vining all the way to Mono Lake. At the south end of town is the start of a trail that follows the creek before veering off to the Mono Basin National Forest Scenic Area Visitor Center, about halfway to Mono Lake. You can find plunge pools and pocket water in this section.
After the trail veers off, Lee Vining Creek flows very swiftly on its way to Mono Lake. Find holding water, usually beside a fast current, on the outside corner of a bend, or in a deep pool, and you’re apt to be rewarded with a hookup. Given the lack of any creekside trail, this water experiences less angling pressure than more accessible sections.
Some believe the best part of lower Lee Vining Creek is near its mouth at Mono Lake, another enthralling place. A dirt road will take you to a parking lot close to the lake, where it’s then a short hike to the creek. (This road starts at Highway 395 in the tufa area just north of the National Forest Visitors Center, where you can get specific directions to the parking area.) The natural habitat of lower Lee Vining Creek has been greatly restored in recent years, with tree plantings, root wads added to the creek to create deeper pools, and the return of side channels. All this has improved the health of the creek’s ecosystem and its fishery.
Another way to access lower Lee Vining Creek is with a kayak or canoe. An offshoot of the dirt road mentioned above leads to a boat ramp. Launch your craft there, paddle through some of Mono’s most spectacular tufa formations, and in about a mile, you’ll come to the mouth of Lee Vining Creek. I guarantee you this will be one your best outings ever, whether you catch a fish or not.
Mill Creek
Mill Creek begins high in another alpine paradise known as the Twenty Lakes Basin. (More on this area later.) There, the small creek can be fished for golden-rainbow hybrids and brookies.
From the Twenty Lakes Basin, Mill Creek, now joined by other small creeks, roars over the mountainside as Lundy Canyon Falls. (An intrepid hiker can hike from the Twenty Lakes Basin on a three-mile trail right alongside the falls on down to Lundy Canyon, before eventually arriving at Lundy Lake. If you want to skip the hike back up, arrange for a car shuttle or a nonhiking driver.) Brook trout can be readily caught throughout this stretch, especially in the several beaver ponds in the creek’s lowest part before Lundy Lake. Lundy Canyon is also a favorite place to see birds and spectacular fall foliage.
Mill Creek can be fished below Lundy Lake all the way to Mono Lake. As at Lee Vining Creek, the natural habitat of lower Mill Creek, from Highway 395 to Mono Lake, is being restored, which bodes well for the brown trout fishery presently in place there.
To access Mill Creek above and below Lundy Lake, there is a plainly marked road to Lundy Lake at Highway 395.
Gibbs Lake and Gibbs Creek
Worth mentioning here are Gibbs Lake and Gibbs Creek, principally because they hold golden trout. They do require a strenuous three-mile uphill hike to reach them. In addition to the fishing and beauty of the surroundings, massive old-growth Jeffrey pines enrich this hike. The trailhead to Gibbs Lake can be reached via Horse Meadows Road off of Highway 395 north of Lee Vining.

Gibbs Lake, although small, is not easy to fly fish due to surrounding trees and bushes. To increase your odds of hooking a trout, cast near the outlet.
An almost sure way to catch goldens there is to fish the start of Gibbs Creek from the lake, before it plummets down the hillside in a long cascade. Follow the creek as you descend back down, and wherever you can find a piece of holding water, you’ll also likely hook a golden.

The Tioga Pass Area
Leaving the Lee Vining environs, let’s return to Tioga Pass and the numerous waters where wild trout can be targeted.
Two lakes easily accessed and visible from Highway 120 are Ellery Lake and Tioga Lake, each heavily planted with hatchery rainbows. Wild brookies and perhaps an occasional brown can be picked up, primarily near the shorelines and inlet creeks. The same holds true for Saddlebag Lake, which is reached via a plainly marked dirt road off Highway 120, the same one that goes to Sawmill Campground. But the best way to experience what this area presents is to fish the nearby backcountry lakes.
On the road to Saddlebag Lake is a small parking area and trailhead to Gardinsky Lake. It’s a hike of only a little over a mile up the hillside to the lake, but the elevation gain is 800 feet. What greets you are a serenely beautiful lake and its surroundings, sweeping scenic views, and hungry brook trout.
Beyond Saddlebag Lake is one of the most picturesque and fishable areas in all of the Sierra Nevada — the Twenty Lakes Basin. It is in the Hoover Wilderness, giving it added protections. Its user-friendly topography holds a surfeit of small lakes, most situated alongside or near the eight-mile loop trail that begins and ends at the far end of Saddlebag Lake. To reach the trail, you can either take a boat taxi or hike around one side of Saddlebag.
The Twenty Lakes Basin affords exquisite fishing for wild trout in a sublime high-alpine setting. Although a day trip is easy, a backpack outing allows for fishing more lakes. (Permits from the Inyo National Forest for camping are required.) The fly fishing there can be exceptional. Almost half the lakes hold golden-rainbow hybrids (especially Odell and Upper and Lower Twin Lakes), the majority hold healthy brookies, and at least one holds rainbows (Steelhead). The small outlets and streams connecting some of the lakes can also be fished, including Mill Creek.
Yosemite National Park
The eastern entrance to Yosemite is just beyond Tioga Pass. When the National Park Service ended stocking in its parks back in the 1970s, many of those waters became havens for wild trout, especially native fish, thus making our national parks great places for angling. This includes Yosemite.
Yosemite has numerous lakes definitely worth a fly fisher’s time, with five trout species available in them. (My article on this topic appeared in the June, 2017 issue of California Fly Fisher.) Here, I will describe only the waterways closest to Tioga Pass, which makes them an easy day trip from Lee Vining.
The four major creeks in the vicinity of the Tuolumne Meadows Lodge are Cathedral Creek, the Dana Fork of the Tuolumne River, the Lyell Fork of the Tuolumne, and the main stem of the Tuolumne. In each case, you can park your car, walk a bit, and begin casting. You can also keep walking and fishing for the rest of that day and beyond.
The simplest of these streams to fish is Cathedral Creek. It runs through Tuolumne Meadows adjacent to Highway 120, and is easy to pass by. For someone who likes to make long casts to wary trout, however, this stream is hard to beat. The fish are primarily browns, and they can be found in any holding water on this long, slow-moving creek. The deeper pools can hold browns up to 13 inches, perhaps bigger. A fly fisher is going to have to cover a lot of water to score catch multiple fish, but you’d be hard pressed to do it in a more splendid locale.

Another small stream here is the Dana Fork, whose origins are on the slopes of Mount Dana. It enjoys a long run, much of it alongside Highway 120, and ends where it joins the Lyell Fork to form the main stem of the Tuolumne. The meadow section is delightful for walking and casting to small browns and rainbows. Flowing alongside the road, it turns into a tumbling series of small cataracts and long cascades. Access here is easy, but the footing on the rocky streambed can be challenging. The Dana Fork overall is a good place to practice fly-fishing techniques while hooking enough small fish to keep things interesting.
The Lyell Fork has miles of long, deep runs in the lower and upper meadows and more tumbling water in its upper reaches. Two side creeks, Rafferty Creek and Ireland Creek, feed Lyle and keep its f lows healthy, even during drought years. You can hike on the very popular John Muir Trail along this small stream for many miles and catch fish at every stop, most of which will be small brookies. Browns occupy the meadow stretches to offer a more sporting experience and bigger fish. As with so many wild-trout waters, the ubiquitous brook trout usually come to dominate a fishery by outcompeting other species and with their ability to propagate profusely. This seems to be the case with the Lyle Fork.
The Tuolumne River
The famed Tuolumne River gets its start where Dana Fork and Lyle Fork meet. A bridge on Highway 120 crosses it, and parking is available, as is the start of the trail that follows the river all the way down to the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne. Here, we are reviewing primarily the very upper section, say a mile or two down the trail, which affords a good one-day outing.
The Tuolumne River plummets and cascades in this first part, creating large, swirling, deep pools. Cast a fly and watch a fish, either a brown or rainbow, come out of the depths and take it. The more serious fly fisher might probe the depths in hopes of picking up a bigger fish, perhaps even one measured in pounds. This is not your ordinary fly fishing, but the fishing might not be the most important aspect of this outing, because you will be engaged with one of the most beautiful rivers in the world.
If you continue on, you will arrive at the Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp, a distance of seven miles from the trailhead. There are the number of powerful waterfalls along the route. Go another three hand a half miles from Glen Aulin, and you will see the one-of-a-kind Waterwheel Falls. It is not really a falls, but rather a steep cascade where the force of the water is continually launched into the air in a series of “waterwheels.” One of my life’s regrets is that I have never seen this phenomenal spectacle.
If You Go…
The town of Lee Vining is near Highway 120 below Tioga Pass. It has an array of motels and restaurants to accommodate the many visitors. Among the latter is the long-standing Nicely’s Restaurant, with its diverse menu, and Bodie Mike’s Barbeque, where ribs, chicken, and burgers are available. The most widely visited is the Whoa Nellie Deli in the Tioga Gas Mart, located at the corner of Highways 120 and 395. It is reputed to have the best menu and food in the entire eastern Sierra. You can also stock up there on whatever you are looking for in your travels, including books, mementos, supplies, and the like.
Places to visit and learn about the rich history and environmental issues of this region are the Mono Lake Committee Information Center and Bookstore, which offers many resources on Mono Lake and other environmental subjects, and the Mono Basin National Forest Scenic Area Visitor Center, which houses a museum on Native American history in the region, a bookstore, and a theater where informative and spectacular films on Mono Lake and Yosemite are shown every hour during the season.
— Bob Madgic