I have been on a real bender...in many respects. Guiding all over the north state, drinking all sorts of booze, and not getting any where near the recommended amount of sleep. Good news is this will make for an interesting fishing report. If you read no further, fishing is good in the North State so go somewhere and fish.

I spent 5 days sense I last reported up at Clearwater Lodge up on the Pit River in the Fall River Valley. An amazing place in a truelly unique part of Northern California. I fished all the spots and here is what I found.

Fall River - I spent 3 days and nights on Fall River. I would rate fishing as Fair. PMD’s are hatching around 10-noon on most days and fish are chowing on the surface. Each pod seems to key on a different stage of the bug. Mandatory flies and the flies that catch almost all my clients fish are Q’s Hackle Stacker, Q’s Sparkle Stacker, Q’s Flag Dun, Hogan’s SIM Mayfly, and Hogan’s Sipper. Nymphing after the hatch was tough. Managed to nymph up some fish on 16 and 18 Brown S&M nymphs and simple stuff like no bead no flash 18 and 20 Pheasant Tails. The nymph grab was tough though. Did swing a few SIM Flies on intermediate lines and type 2 sink tips to scrounge up some fish but nothing really went off after the PMD hatch. Fish seem to be really podded up and not spread out so it is key to find the pods of fish.

HEX HATCH - it is going pretty strong on warm days. The hatch seems to be up to about Confluence right now. I get out on the water about 8pm and swing Q’s Emerging Hex Nymph on a type 2 sink tip or an intermediate line or sit and watch the sun set behind Mt. Shasta and have a few beers or Cocktails. This seems to be the most popular pre hatch activity. The hatch has been starting about 9-9:15pm and good numbers of fish are up on the surface eating duns. Most of my clients fish have been coming on Q’s Hex Paradrake and Q’s Hex Pop Corn Cripple. Most anglers are getting about 20-30 minutes of fishing the hatch as the warden is out making sure no one is fishing past legal fishing hours (half hour past sun set).

Hat Creek - Fishing on hat has been fair to good. I spent a few morning sessions down on the Lower Creek and did well. Good numbers of Salmon Flies and Golden Stoneflies are flying and crawling around. Fishing a Jimmy leggs with a small red copper johnson or Red Wire nest dropper caught fish nymphing. Once the fish started rising throwing a Grillos’ El Camino in Gold with a little black sharpie touch up brought a few nice fish up. During the late afternoon and evening throwing smaller caddis patterns like the fastwater caddis and Kingrey’s Better Foam Caddis in Olive or tan rose some good fish in the Power House #2 Riffle.

Lower Sacramento - I floated the Lower Sac 2 days this last week as well. Fishing was good. Spent both days between Bonnie View and Balls Ferry. Fish ate Jimmy Leggs, #10 copper bead natural birds nest, #12 copper wire nest, and fox’s pooph. Fish seem to be keying on caddis more then they were a week ago. The PMD hatch has started to thin out and caddis and big stones are becoming the main meal ticket. Fishing should continue to be good throughout the river and as the weather heats up over the next week I am going to be looking to the lower floats myself.

America’s Fish (aka Bass) - in celebration of the independence of our nation from that bastard king George and the Brits fill a cooler with domestic light beer, get in an aluminum boat or pull a pick up truck up to a pond and drop the tail gate, string up a rod with a deer hair popper, and go bass fishing for a few hours one evening this week. Bass are in their summer pattern and nothing beats a good top water evening with some cold beer.

The fish that eat trout and salmon smolt report (aka striped bass) - Striper fishing is turning on from what I have heard on the Lower Sac outside of Idylwilde City. There has been some nice fish caught over the last week. I have heard personally of a 20lber and a 40lbers, both on flies. I have a few days off here over the holiday weekend and will be fishing out there myself. We are approaching prime striper time so over the next few weeks I will be guiding and fishing out there a ton. There is nothing better then hitting the river during the hottest part of the day and pulling on some big stripers.

Beer Report - I am on serious detox right now (I know I am a pussy, candy pants, candy cane, pink triangle...feel free to inject your own adjective I can take it)....I have vowed to not drink until July 4th. Call me a pussy but my liver needs to come up for air for a while. Two stints at the Clearwater guide house has taken my digestive track and liver to the brink and I need both to function so I am giving them a few days off...Busch tall cans (aka the Mike Peters pro model), Bud Light Lime (Darrin Deel/Brannon “Sanchez” Santos pro model), Crown Royale (death), and what ever cocktail my clients were mixing out of a cooler in my boat killed me. I just don’t recover like I use to...I figure this burning feeling/sour rot gut can’t be good. Oh and it seems to always go away when I stop drinking from like noon until 11pm everyday for a few days. I ain’t a doctor though.

Tunes for people that use to like punk but have gotten older but still like punk every once in a while - So if you read my last post you know my theory on road tripen music. Before I took off on my last stint of guiding/driving I bought the new Rise Against CD “End Game”. Now I am by no means a long time Rise Against fan. I listened to the CD on I tunes as it was on sale and it sounded good...Something to keep me awake on the 3 hour drive back to Idylwilde City after guiding the hex hatch on fall river at like 11pm. This is a great CD good fist pumping, Pennywise style punk. I can’t say I am a huge punk guy but I dig old pennywise, NOFX...you know the good stuff, snakes and sparklers.

Thats it...Happy 4th and check in next week...Time off is usually an interesting thing in Idylwilde City.