Update for those that need updating.
So weather has gone from Rain and Cold to HOT…Fish still need to eat and people still need to fish so here is what I know about a few spots, why sports give me ulcers, and what things I have been drinking to toast the spots I fish and deal with the teams I love.
Lower Yuba – I have been on the Yuba a bunch recently and fishing has been pretty good. I would say that it has been best through out the day on cooler days but even when the weather has warmed up (like Saturday) it has been good. On the warmer days there seems to be a bit of lul during the hottest part of the day. I have been starting late morning and taking off around dark. Nymphing has been catching the most fish as hatches have been sporadic and inconsistent. I have been catching most of my fish in the deeper runs and flats. Focusing on the deep water below the riffles and slower flats, changing up to lighter weight when fishing the slower water. At 1400cfs the flats have decent flows and the fish are taking advantage of it. Most of the water I am catching fish in is not accessible to the wade fishermen and I have only gotten my clients out to wade fish once or twice over say half a dozen days on the river in the last 2 weeks. Evening hatches have been a mix of light olive to tan caddis and small light color mayflies. Caddis are a size 16-18 and Mays are a 18-20. I have had clients hook fish on both caddis dries and mayfly dries while the hatch is sputtering off. My best nymphs have been the S&M PMD, olive and tan birds nests, rubber leg stones, Jimmy legs, and a few new patterns I have been working on. Mainly small mayfly nymphs, caddis pupa, and rubber leg stone patterns have been catching the fish.
Lower Sacramento Trout – This is the time that I spend time fishing the Lower stretches of the Sac. This last week I spent 5 days between Balls Ferry and Bend Bridge guiding. Fishing was good to very good while the weather was totally crazy, pouring rain to roasting heat. Redding got over an inch of rain between Monday and Tuesday and the lower river did come up about 1000cfs and picked up a bit of color but the fish didn’t seem to mind to much. The flows are high through here to begin with and fish were holding in many of their normal summer spots eating big stones and bird’s nest. July is a great time to fish the lower river; if you can stand the heat there are good numbers of trout to be caught.
Lower Sacramento Stripers – it is go time for stripers on the L. Sac. Every time I have been out scouting we have caught some decent size schoolie fish and many shakers. I even took my two boys out on Fathers Day and they both stripped in their first stripers. I hooked them and handed off the rod…Proud dad. July and August are prime time to chase these fish from Butte City up through chico.
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| Oliver's First Striper |
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| Becket's First Striper |
North Fork Feather - The river is low man, and low like... now I realize how bad a winter we had, low as it is when I
fish it in September for the Isonychia hatch. Bad news. I struggled over 3 days to catch fish on the main stem of the river. We hooked a few fish but they were small guys and not the fish I expect when fishing the North Fork Feather. We did find some nice fish up the Caribou stretch where flows seem a bit more normal but still low.
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| Low Water on the Main Stem |
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| Tight Pocket water up through Caribou |
Sports Report – Lets be honest it has been a tough few weeks for my teams. Notre Dame took a big hit with the De-Commit of Eddie Vanderdose and their starting QB getting busted for Academic impropriety and having to sit the season out…Another year of Tommy Reese may just kill me. Couple that with the complete implosion of the giants and more specifically their pitching staff and things are going bad…With the Giants I am past yelling at the TV, drown myself in drink, and hoping for wins. I watch small victories now, like “good job we made it through the first inning with out giving up a run”, “way to make a throw to first Pablo”, “good job to get through a lead off double or single”…tough, but small victories and great plays by Brandon Crawford keep me watching.
Beer Report – So I have been branching out a lot lately. Tip money in my pockets means some good beer to drink. I have been on a Lagunitas and Stone Brewery kick lately. I had a bottle of Stone Cali-Belgue IPA that was awesome. One of the best IPA’s I have had lately. I also tried a big bottle of the Lagunitas Lucky 13. A good red ale but nothing I would buy again, if bought for me though I would not turn it down. The best I have had lately is the Lagunitas Undercover Investigation Shut-Down Ale. This is a limited release in honor of something that happened in 2005 with them…It is a great bitter ale that goes down really easy.
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| Not a bad line up |