Fall Fishing is picking up but for the most part is still limited due to lack of water and rain. There has been good fishing at times but it is going to be short lived without some good rain…

Lower Sacramento River Trout: I have been spending most of my time on the Lower Sacramento guiding for trout between Anderson and Jelly’s Ferry. Almost all the guides are fishing between Posse Ground and Anderson Chasing the egg bite/hatch. There is VERY limited numbers of reds and the few that are around get POUNDED early and often. When I put in at Anderson this week there was 20 trailers there taking out and I was the only boat putting in. I had Anderson to Barge hole to myself…it was AWESOME. Now I only saw 2 sets of reds the whole float, but the fish have to eat and are still feeding pretty regularly in what we call bug water. There was a bunch of  fish eating egg patterns on the few reds I found but most came on rubber legs, birds nest, and Olive Amigos. Talking to my buddies that fished the upper floats and chased each other down the river to redds all day our numbers have been about the same….So I haven’t gone up above Anderson in a few weeks and probably won’t for a while.

Lower Yuba River – River is still low and I tend to stay away from it when it is below 700cfs…it is sitting at 686 cfs now with a water temp of 55.6 so temps are good but flows are low. I have not been over there personally but everyone I have talked to said fishing has been tough. To be honest I probably won’t go over to the Yuba until the first big rain and the water comes up a bit to give everyone a bit more room to fish. Below a 1000cfs makes it tough for wade fishermen and drift boat fishermen to go exist.

Feather River – Feather has been decent. There is a fair number of smaller steelhead up in the Low Flow and spread out in the high flow. Things seem a bit late on the feather this year as salmon are still moving up river as a few of my buddies have been salmon fishing in the high flow and catching fresh clean kings. This river REALLY needs some rain and water to get steelhead moving up it or it will be another year of those fish going up the Sac. The Low Flow has been crowded as many of the Sacramento Area guides have been coming north due to the conditions on the American and the Yuba so there is a lot of guide traffic on the river.

Fly Tying…

I have made my big yearly switch from tying clousers to tying trout flies over the last few weeks. This usually entails a big order of the “newest” fly tying materials. One material company that I have been using a bunch of material from is Fly Men…the are working some great tiers like Blane Chocklett and a few others to create some really cool new products. The stonefly heads they call Nymph Head Evolution Stonefly Tungsten Beadheads I have been messing around with and I really like them…I must say I have not fished them yet so I can’t say how they fish but hey they look cool so we can only hope.

I also ordered a bunch of new material from Hareline. Some new to me dubbings, new colors of 3 tone rabbit strips, new hooks to me, and some other stuff that I will share as I use it and come up with some ideas. Most of the new hooks and material I got from Hareline will be for striper flies so it may be a while until I get around tying with them.

I also just finished up an article on fly design for I think (not sure when it will publish) the Nov/Dec issue of Cal Fly fisher where I talk about crossing over striper fly tying principles to trout flies so look out for that if you are interested in fly design and tying.

Tunes…

I have been listening so the new The World is a Beautiful Place and I am no longer Afraid to Die album Harmlessness…these guys are really cool. I couldn’t even tell you how many people are in the band…multiple guitar players, cello, violin, male female singers, drummers, horns, keyboards…all melt into a very math rock, emo, catchy loud quiet mix on epitaph records. The video below will give an idea…lots to digest.

The Irish…

Yes we beat USC…stressful week and game. I was feeling pretty comfortable with a 24-10 lead and then in a matter of minutes it was tied up and with in minutes after the half we were down 31-24…But man team 127 has heart and never gave up! Coming back to win 41-31 and sealing with win with 2 big interceptions. This team doesn’t quit man and is undeterred by failure and mistakes, they just keep battling. Now we have a bye to prepare for Temple who is 6-0 and is going to be a really big game for us. Atleast I have 14 days before my blood pressure climes into the unhealthy range again.