I think a lot of angler's are not tuned into the real story on the weather in the Mammoth area and consequently are relying on the forecast for Mammoth Lakes which can be very misleading if you are fishing out in Long Valley (Upper Owens River, Hot Creek, and Crowley Lake).  Mammoth Mountain at over 11,000 feet essentially creates its own weather and the forecast for Mammoth Lakes is very accurate if you are planning to fish the Lakes Basin above town but falls short once you move 5-10 miles out into the valley.  In fact the whole idea of the Crowley Cam was to be able to see what was really going on at the lake since many days the wind is howling in town and dead still at the lake and vice versa. Long Valley and Mammoth Mountain are two separate and very different entities as far as weather goes.

We have had thundershowers predicted for Mammoth Lakes every day so far in June and indeed there have been showers off and on in town and up in the Lakes Basin many days one place or the other, but move only a few miles down to the Airport on 395, basically right next to Hot Creek, and the story is much different.  In the first 11 days of June there has been zero precipitation on 8 days and on the other 3 days it "rained" 0.01", 0.03", and 0.05" translated a chunk of clouds broke off from over Mammoth Mountain and passed over the airport, got the runway wet and were gone 15 minutes later. (My over simplification, but you get the idea)

Now, what about wind?  There are no predictions for anywhere except Mammoth Lakes and Bishop but an average with more of an emphasis on Bishop isn't bad for what you can expect for Long Valley, at least combined with the understanding that afternoon winds blowing in from the south is a local condition like the wind off the ocean everyday at the beach and that effects Crowley Lake in particular, but not so much Hot Creek and the Upper Owens.

So, let's take a look at this weekend as an example of what we can predict.  Using the links below and then clicking on the hourly predictions, the forecast for Mammoth Lakes on Saturday is for winds from the south and west starting at 2 mph at 8 am and increasing to 11 mph by 5 pm.  For Sunday it is 1 mph going to 7 mph for the same timeframe.  Bishop is 6 mph all day on Saturday, and 5 mph all day on Sunday again from the south and west.

You can do the math but I'd say for Saturday, Hot Creek and the Upper Owens will have minimal winds until about 3 pm then up to 8 mph in the late afternoon and Crowley will be fishable until at least noon.  On Sunday slightly lower winds for Hot Creek and the Upper Owens and Crowley will be good until 1 pm.  As to getting wet, you will have to be pretty unlucky to see any precipitation anywhere in Long Valley.

Lastly, for the East Walker you can use the Bridgeport forecast directly and for the Lower Owens you can use the Bishop forecast directly and both should be pretty accurate.  All the guys at the shop watch the forecasts and can give you an overall impression of the next few days for any of the areas we fish.  Give us a call if you are trying to make a decision on coming up and we'll do our best to give you our local forecast for where you want to fish.