I am taking vacation the week after Labor Day weekend and I am having a hard time trying to decide where to go. I was thinking of checking out Thomas A Edison Lake and the surrounding area, or I was thinking of starting up at Virginia Lakes then going down to the upper Owens and working that from above Crowley down through Big Pine. I am leaning towards the latter as I kind of want to try out my father-in-laws fly rod he just gave to me. Any suggestions?

I talked with a guy 2 weeks ago who had fished Edison. He said the lake was very low, at around 45% of capacity. They shore fished and had poor luck. He also said boat launching was not an option. I also saw several dead or nearly dead 14-20" browns coming out of the power generator at Huntington when I was there. Apparently they are getting sucked through from Edison. The fish did look like solid trout.

The upper section of the Owens (like above the Alpers farm) seemed to have a lot of small hard to catch fish last time I fished there. There were a lot of guys fly fishing and catching 6 inch trout, or nothing at all.

The Owens right above Crowley can be fun. I've fished there a couple times and it seems to have a nice mix of planters, rainbows that have been in there a while, and browns. Good place for lure fishing and great shore access.

Below Crowley is the gorge, which is reputed to have great brown trout fishing for numbers. Maybe the fish are bigger down there now too? I don't know, never been down there.

The lower sections outside of Bishop are a lot like the sections right above Crowley. You might get bigger rainbows down there also - more Alpers and fish that have been in there a while. There's not a ton of easy shore access down there though so it can be crowded by the road access points. Some guys float it. That looked pretty darn cool to me.

There was a piece in Western Outdoor News a while back about some guys who kayaked it. It didn't sound like a good trip for a novice kayaker but if you knew what you're doing with river kayaking it could be a cool thing to try.

hope that helps.