So the family and I took our annual summer vacation on over to Santa Cruz. This time we timed it perfectly leaving chico right before the 100-110 weather hit...in previous years we get home right as that weather hits. Sitting around the house today and tomorrow getting caught up on Cast Hope, HGB Fly Fishing, and plain old life before I hit the road for a 3 day cast hope camping trip then back home to guide for a few days and then off to a family camping trip. The end of July is usually my time to get some fishing in on my own and take some time to be with the family, but there is plenty of good fishing to be had so here some reports and ramblings...

The Santa Cruz Report...I love Santa Cruz and our family vacation was great this  year as our boys are finally getting to the age where traveling and vacations can be relaxing at various times. We rented a beach house with my parents up from Seabright Beach and hit up the board walk, beach, down town, Henry Cowell State park, roaring camp train...full trip. It is so nice to get out of the valley heat in July and have the cool weather of the CA coast to escape to. One of the highlights of the trip was hitting up a college fishing buddy Ryan O'Donovan's coffee shop and coffee roasting place VERVE Coffee Roasters. They have a really cool coffee shop down town, a shop at 816 41st Ave,  and then a coffee bar and their Roasters at 104 Bronson St. Verve is really unique, high end, quality coffee and all hand roasted daily. The amount of knowledge that goes into roasting, sourcing, and just preparing coffee is mind numbing to me. Ryan took us on a tour of the roasting facility and i had no idea what goes into to high end coffee. So proud of Ryan and blown away with all that he has accomplished with VERVE in 5-6 years. Check out there website and order some coffee, cool merchandise, or if you are in Santa Cruz hit up one of their locations!

http://www.vervecoffeeroasters.com

Ya no big deal Grandpa...Conditions look great for a swim

Hunting Dinosaurs in Henry Cowell State Park on Fall Creek

Lower Yuba - Guided the Lower Yuba before leaving for Santa Cruz and fishing was good. Tried throwing hoppers to no avail but caught plenty of fish on Jimmy legs, S&M PMD's, and Birds Nest. Fish were holding in the runs and deep flats, pretty standards spots for the 1700cfs flow. Put the boat over a few bods of salmon in the lower river and even saw a few shooting up some riffles which was really cool. Good sign for the Yuba to have salmon moving up at the end of July. Yuba should continue to fish good through July and August. I will be guiding out there a bunch over the next month.

Solid Yuba Fish

Gear Report - This is the time of year where pro staffers began to get all the new gear that is coming out  for 2014 to fish...I was fortunate enough to get one of the new Scott Radian Rods. The Radian won best of show at the recent Fly Tackle Dealer show which means of all the new products introduced this year it was consider the most innovative and best...needless to say it also won best new freshwater rod. I got the 9'6wt and have fished it a few days on the Lower Yuba with the new AirFlo Super Dri Xceed Trout Line.  This rod is by far one of the best Scott Rods I have ever cast or fished. The promotional line for the rod is "Where fast meets feel" and this is a great way to describe it. It is incredibly light weight and feels in hand much like the G2 but has the back bone and power of a much heavier fast action rod. I threw the standard Lower Yuba nymph rig with the rod and it turned it over and cast it with amazing ease but also allowed for fine mending and line management using just the tip. If you are in market for a new high end rod or just want to cast a high end to see what the difference is between an american made high end rod and a price point $200-300 non-Murica made rod check out the new Radian.