McGee Creek is a small, pretty Eastern Sierra freestone dropping out of a glacial canyon into the Long Valley flats near Crowley — more a hike-and-explore creek than a destination river, and all the better for it. It holds wild and stocked browns and rainbows in plunge pools and pocket water, with the canyon reach giving the kind of small-stream fishing where a short cast and a bushy dry are all you need, and the lower meadow water meandering quietly toward the reservoir. It's snowmelt-fed and modest, so it comes good after the peak runoff drops and stays fishable through summer into autumn, and it's a fine option when the bigger Crowley-area waters are crowded or blown out. Nothing technical here — attractors, a dropper, light feet, and a willingness to walk.

• Mixed

• Aquatic life: Impaired