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Okay Evan and his grandpa, Steve, were back for fishing day number two and we were on the Upper Sac. The river is down to it's summer levels with the flow at Delta is 244cfs. Water is crystal clear and while the salmon flies are peace out, there are still some large yellow stone flies, caddis, mayflies, and LOTS of midges hanging around. We fished at a number of locations south of Dunsmuir and while Steve was dialing in his tight line skills, Evan and I were focused on dry dropper techniques. Steve hooked a few fish in one of my favorite runs and then, when we moved and hiked a bit, Evan made a BEAUTIFUL cast, made a quick mend, and a nice rainbow SMASHED his yellow stone fly nymph. The grab was ridiculous and even though Evan was shocked by it, he set the hook and fought that fish and then we put it in the net! The colors were spectacular! Walk and wade trips are a lot of work, but the surroundings make for a great experience! Tomorrow we're back on the Lower Sac, so let's go...  High stick  This one ate a stripped PMD. Clearly not the smartest fish!  Castle Crags  All. By. Himself. |
Good Today was fun for my guests Mark, and his son Peter and daughter Stephanie. They are all new to fly fishing and wanted to spend their day on the upper Sac. Our morning was slow, but the action turned on by late morning and everyone started hooking fish. Mark landed a few fish before lunch, but Peter and Stephanie were on fire after lunch! They hooked lots of fish and both landed some decent fish in the 12” – 13” range. Water temps are becoming a concern, you can fish the mid river in the morning, but you’ll want to fish closer to Dunsmuir in the afternoon.  Mark with his first of the day  Stephanie with a really nice fish  Mark, Stephanie, and Peter enjoying the day |
Good I did a group trip with Brian Kohlman today I n the Upper Sac and had the pleasure of guiding Scott and Brent. We started off around 9:45am and had a decent amount of cloud cover, but by 11:30 we were enjoying nice sunshine. Throughout the day we went back and forth from tight line nymphing and throwing dry / dropper rigs. As expected, most fish were caught on nymphs but we had some nice action on the dry flies too... it's just a lot more challenging to hook and land those fish! After lunch we moved and hiked a bit and found a little "honey hole" that ended up giving up five nice 15-16 inch rainbows that fought hard, pulled line, and made some big jumps. And we didn't die trying to get them to the net even though those fish took enough line we had to land them down stream! Tight line nymphing can definitely be an extremely productive way to catch fish on these Northern California freestones, so if you are trying to get into the "Euro nymphing" or "Czech Nymphing" game, we can get you covered. Figuring out the sighter and length and multiple fly set up can be a bit challenging, but we can definitely get you dialed in. It's a really fun way to fish on rivers like the Upper Sac or the McCloud or Pitt. At any rate, we had a great day! The river looks great and is definitely a good option right now!  Grabby trout for Scott…  Bent rods are better!  A fat and healthy trout…  “One last cast…”  These Upper Sac trout pull hard! |
Good My favorite time to fish the Upper Sacramento River is in the winter. There's something about walking up and down the river looking for big fish that excites me. The theory is that there are fish from Lake Shasta that make their way up river for a little vacation, but who knows. The largest fish I've caught up there was taped at 26 inches and I've seen a few 24 inch fish too. My point? It's a thing. So I was excited to make my way to the Upper Sac for a little exploratory trip, specifically to use my Redington 4 wt. switch rod. Using a switch rod up there isn't necessary by any means, but it was nice to do a simple roll cast with indicators and then to be able to take the bobber off and throw some streamers. Well the river was as beautiful as ever and the floats were a tad over 700cfs. Once the river gets over 1,000cfs, there seems to be larger fish in the river, so that's usually my que. This trip didn't produce any fish over 18 inches, but I caught a handful of fish between 15 and 17 inches on tiny may fly nymphs. I also had one monster grab on the swing, but didn't connect. This week I'll be mostly on the Lower Sac, but for those of you who like the adventure of walking and wading and exploring, the Upper Sac is a great option! Not only are there nymphing and streamer options, hopper-dropper methods work great too!  A handful of trout.  Miles of beautiful water!  Beautiful spots. |
Good Yesterday, Brian Kohlman and I had an exciting day on the Upper Sacramento River with Jon and his family! Besides Jon, the adult "kids" were all new to fly fishing, but they picked it up really quick. The Upper Sac is a great river to learn how to fly fish on because it's beautiful, provides lots of great locations to fish, and the fish are generally pretty willing! The fishing started off fairly slow but that's pretty usual this time off year and it always seems like the fish don't start getting active until the sun hits the water a bit and the bugs start moving. We fished dry-dropper rigs as well as nymphs under indicators and hooked fish on both. In addition to seeing an otter and some birds, we noticed a few October Caddis fluttering around and it will only be a matter of days before you'll see a lot more of those getting the trout going, so keep your stimulators and other big caddis patterns handy! Our group had a lot of fun! Family, friends, and fly fishing... what more do you need on a Tuesday?  Where are those trout at?  Upper Sac trout are gorgeous.  What's not to smile about?  It's called walk and wade for a reason!  Caddis everywhere.  One last cast...  Some of them are tiny, but they are all beautiful. |
Good I had a really fun day with my guest Stephanie on the upper Sac. This was her first time fly fishing and she did amazing! We were fishing a dry-dropper and it was the ticket. She got lots of grabs on both, but the nymph was most successful. She landed a nice 12 inch fish which capped off our time together! |
Good I had a fun day with my guests Ron and Dave while exploring
the upper Sac. We fished different spots
with the morning being slow. After lunch
the action picked up and our day ended on a great note when the fish began
feeding on the surface and we got to fish big stimulator patterns! Dave and Ron had several grabs each which
made for some very exciting moments.  These are everywhere!  Dave working the seam  Ron hooked-up |
Good I took buddies Ron and John out on the Upper Sac today. We did a noon-to-dark trip so we could fish the evening hatch. It was a good call! Nymphing was pretty good during the day and we had quite a bit of surface action during the evening hatch. The hatch was a mix of caddis, little yellow sallies, and mayflies. We didn't see golden stones, but got quite a few grabs on big dries nonetheless. The big fish of the day was a brown trout about 18" that ate a big dry fly at dusk. Wet-wading was very comfortable during the heat of the day but we switched to waders for the evening hatch. We lucked out today and had two great sections of the river all to ourselves.  John fishing the pocket water  Ron landing a fish |
Great Spent several days this week on the Upper Sac fishing various techniques. Stone flies are hatching everywhere. It's not too hard to figure out what's on the menu for these fish- keep it simple! Nymphing/high-sticking is by far the most productive method to getting hookups. Swinging/stripping a sinktip line through the deep pools has been working too. The evening "magic hour" can come+go pretty quick so have a dry fly rod ready to fish- rigged and ginked!  Upper Sac rainbows fight hard!  Andreas w fish on |
Okay Guided Brandon & Donna on the lower + upper Sac. This was their first introduction to fly fishing and they did great! We've all been rookies at one point or another but Brandon + Donna did really well learning everything from how to cast to how to read water. Good times with good people!  Brandon with his first fish on the fly  Donna with her first ever trout!  Upper Sac |
Good I had a chance to guide Ethan on the upper Sac today. We had a great time fishing dries for about two hours this morning. Fish were aggressively feeding on the surface and we had lots of grabs. The fish weren't very big, but what a blast! Wet wading this classic trout stream was a nice way to beat the heat. |
This is what the Upper Sac looks like at 3500cfs! Photo taken from Sims footbridge looking upstream. |
Okay I guided the Upper Sac today. We sampled three sections of the river, from Pollard Flat up to Dunsmuir. There were a lot of golden stones flying around in the afternoon. We got a couple grabs on golden stone dries, but I bet it will be incredible this evening. The fishing was so-so for us today. We had to cover a lot of water to get a grab. We caught a few small to medium-sized rainbows on nymphs. Water levels are nice and low and the river is highly fishable.  Hooked up on the Upper Sac |
I guided John & Patty again today for a half-day on the Upper Sac. We started in Dunsmuir and it didn't seem very fishy, so we moved downstream to the middle part of the river. Patty hooked a huge fish on a brown rubberlegs in one of my favorite spots. It was a long battle, but the fish got the best of us in the end. We got one more fish on a rubberlegs and another on a tailwater tiny. John landed a fish on a copper john fished under a Stimulator. We saw a few October Caddis flying around and even got one fish to strike our stimmie. There are tons of October Caddis shucks on the rocks at the edge of the river. If you like fishing big dries in the afternoon and evening, this is the time! |
I spent the day with Harry and Dave from Sebastopol. They wanted to learn some new water on the Upper Sac, so we fished four different spots between Conant and Ney Springs. Today was not a big fish day. We did well with a prince nymph and micro mayfly nymph in the morning, then the rubberlegs worked well in the afternoon. The highlight was catching some small wild rainbows on dries in the later afternoon. Water temps are great right now, about 53 in the morning.  Dave on the Upper Sac |
Gino and I took our clients to the Upper Mac and Upper Sac today. It was a double Upper day. Both rivers are still higher than normal for this time of year, but they're fishing just fine. We did well fishing hopper-dropper style on the Mac. Nymphing with indicators was the best bet on the Sac. We fished the Dunsmuir area. Not a lot of big fish around, but we landed numerous wild trout.  Molly fishing a productive pool  Dax at Mossbrae Falls  Above Mossbrae Falls |
I guided father/son team Ivan and Greg today on the Upper Sac. We started above Dunsmuir where the water was nice and cool. In fact, the water was only 50 degrees when I checked it at 11am! The fishing was a little slow at first, but then we started hooking small and medium-sized wild trout in most of the pockets we fished. We did well with a brown jimmy legs and a twenty-incher size 12. The twenty-incher didn't quite live up to its name, unless you count the inches of fish cumulatively. Both Greg and Ivan got back into the groove of pocket-water fishing after a break of almost 6 years from fishing. By the end of the day they were short-line nymphing pros.  Ivan with a fish on |
Brian Kohlman and I just spent two great days with a group from Santa Rosa. They stayed at the House on the River, formerly the Delta House. What a fun place to stay, and it's right on the Upper Sac. We fished the Upper Sac the first day and fished the Mac today. There are October Caddis shucks on the rocks on both rivers. The trout in the pocket water on the McCloud were pretty eager to grab a size 10 Madam X. The October Caddis and the big white aquatic moths are flying around in good numbers.  October Caddis  Dan with a McCloud rainbow  Upper Sac |
I took Mitch from Bend out on the Upper Sac and McCloud today. We fished the Upper Sac near Dunsmuir in the morning. Conditions were perfect, with water temps around 50 degrees in the morning. The fish were in their happy place until Mitch came along. He hooked and landed lots of fish, with one about 18 and another fat 16 bow in the mix. Big rubber legs nymphs were the ticket in the morning. They were all beautiful wild rainbows. It was an excellent morning of fishing.
The Upper Sac was a hard act to follow. We fished Ash Camp on the McCloud in the afternoon. Mitch started off with a small brown and hooked about ten more rainbows up to 12. Smaller nymphs like Morrish Anato Mays worked well.  Mitch with beakie |
I had a great day guiding Graham and Kate from the Bay Area today. We started off on the Upper Sac at Cantara Loop. We fished some dries and some nymphs. Graham had a couple good tugs on the nymph and Kate had some good dry fly grabs. We moved down to the Dunsmuir City park for lunch. The hatchery rainbows were very willing, plus we hooked a small wild fish. Graham cleaned up on nymphs fished with and without an indicator. We finished up at Ash Camp on the McCloud. It was nice and cool down there, but the fishing was pretty slow. We caught a couple of beautiful wild McCloud rainbows and lost a few more.  McCloud Rainbow  High-sticking the McCloud |
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