Late Spring is here and this week it may seem like early summer is here as well with day time temps in the high 80’s to low 90’s in some places. Lots of valley fishing is getting pretty good and with the trout opener this coming Saturday there is going to be TONS of places to fish in the coming weeks. There is TONS of great fishing coming up and dates are filling up fast. Here is what is going on and what dates are available.

Open Dates

May 26, 27

June 12, 13, 17, 23-26, 29,

July 1-3, 6, 8, 9, 11, 14, 16-25, 29-31

Weekday evening shad, striper, top water bass trips

May 20, 22-24, 28, 30

June 3-6

Lower Yuba is fishing very well and the dry fly fishing is getting pretty good. March Browns, PMD’s, caddis, little yellow sallies, and a few caddis are getting going in various parts of the river. Switching flies and methods throughout the day is the key to staying on fish. Fishing should only get better over the next few months and the crowds should thin out as trout season opens and people move to other bodies of water to fish. I would imagine that the flows should start to come up soon as snow begins to melt and farmers began to irrigate so keep an eye on that. May – July is a great time to be on the Yuba.

Lower Sac trout fishing remains good. The upper stretches are full of spawning trout so most of us have been from Anderson down river to give the spawners room to do their thing. Flows are starting to ramp up out of Keswick from 5000 to 7550 today and I imagine will continue to move up for irrigation and run off. 

Lower Sac Bass, Shad, and Stripers are all starting to turn on. The flows are pretty low down around Ord Bend at 5424cfs which leads me to believe that the increased water has not reached lower in the river yet or is getting pumped out between Ord Bend and Keswick. Not sure. Large and Smallmouth bass are pretty active in the sloughs and back waters along with the main river body as smallies began to stage to spawn. I have not heard or caught myself any shad or stripers up this high but as the feather flows have dropped dramatically the migratory stripers should be moving up river soon and the residents I am sure are getting active.

Lower Feather is fishing well for spring steelhead though the flows have dropped to 1091cfs. This is good for the “low flow” but is a not much running down the “high flow”. The drop in flows should push most of the spring steelhead up into the “low flow”. Most fish have been caught on san juan worms, princes, sucker spawn, caddis, and general attractors.

Trout Opener is April 27 ^th this Saturday! With the light winter and dry spring many spots are fishable and the weather will be really nice. Most peoples favorite trout spots will be fishable I imagine that most of the higher elevation spots won’t be accessible but some of my favorite spots on the NF Feather and NF Yuba are fishable and I imagine will fish very well. I have been talking to the boys up at Clearwater and under new ownership the lodge is making a ton of improvements. There will be a great fly shop open to the public and many other improvements. One of the best spots to spend the opener up there is Fall River. Should be a great season up on the Pit, Fall River, Hat Creek, and Baum Lake.

Kiene’s Grizzley Hackle Fly Shope Spring Expo – Just wanted to thank everyone that came out the expo this last weekend and stopped by the Cast Hope booth, listened to my presentation on Cast Hope, or bought Ice Cream to support Cast Hope. Tim Au Young, Adam Grace, and Tim Fox put on a great Expo and Ryan and I are very excited to working all the boys down at Kiene’s Grizzley Hackle.

The Fly Shop Trout Season Opener Party – Is this Friday April 26 ^th 10:30am – 4:30pm Cast Hope will have a booth and many vendors and presenters will be around. Shasta Trinity Fly fishers will be serving meat ball and sausage sandwiches with cole slaw and chips along with desert provided by the Shasta Mayflies. Even if you don’t fish or have any interest in fishing and just stumbled on to this fly fishing blog it is free food so make an appearance.

Great Discoveries – So one of the most amazing things I have discovered in a very long time I found on the way to the Kiene’s Grizzley Hackle Expo this weekend. Packets of tobasco hot sauce. I found them in the East 20 ^th Ave AmPm in Chico, CA. I would not recommend going there to find them though as I cleaned them out…literally filled my pockets with everyone they had.  Even though about looking under the counter for the back stock.