Current Fishing Report

I have fished a few days on a few different sections of the upper Rogue. The river at Dodge Bridge is running around 1550 cfs, which is pretty low for this time of year. The river is a bit on the warm side down in the Grants Pass area. Not ideal conditions, but a few adult steelhead are being caught in the mornings before the sun beats on the water. Fishing mid day is rather unproductive. Things will hopefully pick up in the next few weeks. I'm heading to the cooler weather and river temps on the beautiful Olympic Peninsula next week, which will be a new featured venue for me this August and again in March where bookings will be extremely limited.

Gino and I had the opportunity to scout the Bollibokka Club on the McCloud River today.  No fishing, but we got to scout the trail system and get the lay of the land.  We're guiding a group of anglers staying on the Bollibokka in August.  We're looking forward to a lot of wet wading and hopper-dropper fishing!  Many thanks to Michael Caranci at The Fly Shop in Redding and to caretaker Bruce for setting up this scouting trip.

Gino Bernero overlooks the river

Gino surveys the scene

Great water for all techniques

The confluence with Chatterdown Creek

There are many beautiful riffles like this

The view looking down from the Way Station

Katie and I just got back from a great backpacking trip.  We were in search of Paiute Cutthroat Trout in the Carson drainage.  We didn't see any people for two days, caught tons of fish (even one Paiute!) and saw some incredible scenery.

at the trailhead

perfect ox-bows

Katie with her first fish of the trip

meadow stream fishing at its finest

a Paiute Cutthroat trout

rainbow trout

Llewellyn falls, barrier to rainbow trout

The holiday crowds and brutal heat has cooled off here in the Fall River Valley. The Hex hatch is still happening, though not quite as prolific as a few weeks ago. Clients are still hooking fish every night on the giant dry fly, and having lots of opportunities during the day on drys as well. Lots of grass in the river to contend with...lots of big fish too which makes it worth the effort. Some truly big fish have been landed this past week on drys by patient anglers. Prime time during the day has between 9am and 2pm. I will be taking my talents up north soon due to solid reports of steelhead being caught in the Rogue River and beyond. The Rogue is one of the best bets to swing up an epic wild steelhead in late July in the lower 48. Then in August, I will be on the famed Olympic Peninsula on the coast of Washington, swinging up steelhead and sea run cutthroat on those beautiful rainforest rivers...bookings will be very limited.

My client Dick from Sacramento landed an amazing fish today.  It was a perfect specimen about 5 pounds and 2 feet in length.  This fish is what every wild trout wants to be when it grows up!  The fish ate a size 14 pheasant tail and put up quite a fight.  It was a satisfying conclusion to a day of casting dries to fussy trout. The hex hatch was also red hot last night.  Dick had at least a couple dozen grabs and landed some nice fish up to 17.  These 17 fish looked pretty small after landing the giant fish earlier!

It barely fit in my net!

Our private section of Battle Creek fished really well today.  Ivan from Palo Alto was back for his 3rd trip on Battle Creek.  The fish were on the grab from the get-go.  We had a lot of luck with a size 10 Turck's tarantula, but our best fly was a size 12 parachute adams.  Ivan had one spot where he hooked five fish in five casts!  Our biggest fish was about 10, a great fish on a four weight rod.  We also saw a couple dozen spring Chinook today.  These fish are really amazing.  Just to see them is a treat.  They'll hang out in the creek until mid-September and then they'll spawn and die.  Last year Battle Creek had a record run of 700+ spring Chinook. 

Fall River is fishing rather well these days.  The hex hatch last night was pretty good.  It started early - our first grab was around 8:15pm.  There were a fair number of adult hexes on the water throughout the evening.  The fish weren't too picky on the fly last night, either.  We landed about 5 and lost many others.  Daytime fishing is good up until about 2:30pm, and then the fish take a little siesta.  We fished sinking lines all day today and did well.  The hex hatch is showing no signs of slowing down.  We saw at least a dozen hatch this morning on the upper river.

Robert with his first fish of the day

I guided Mike, David and Will on Lewiston over the 4th. The weather was perfect and the crowds minimal but the fishing was slow. We only managed to land 3 fish for about 4+ hrs of fishing, the fish we landed where caught striping various color small leaches on full sinking and intermediate lines.I saw very little insect activity, maybe due to a swinging barometer, the day before we had the most intense thunder showers here that I have seen here.I,m sure the fishing will improve.  

Dave with a scrappy rainbow

I had a great day today tagging along with some friends on the Middle Fork Feather.  We drove down within a few hundred yards on ATVs.  That made the hike a lot easier!  We got down there early, which was good because of the heat.  It was close to 100 degrees when we came out in the early afternoon.  We found lots of wild rainbows in the pocket water and plunge pools.  The biggest fish I saw were about 12 and the average fish were 8-9, but there were a lot of them.  The most productive setup was a Chernobyl ant with a size 14 beadhead nymph about 3 feet below.  The fish ate both flies, and the bigger fish definitely went for the dry.  It was a lot of fun going back to one of my old haunts!

Another HOT day in the North State, seems like there is no escape with this heat wave extending all the way from the Northwest to the Southwest. Redding hit a high of 115 on Tuesday but I would estimate that on the river it was closer to 100. The fishing was decent, we hooked fish throughout the day and they were nice sized, healthy, chunky, rainbows.The fishing on the Lower Sac will only get better as the summer rolls on and the fish become more accustomed to the Summer flow regime.Don't let the summer pass you by without spending a day or two on the World Class Lower Sac !

another chunky rainbow

We had a really good morning today on Fall River.  Bob & Kathy hooked and landed quite a few fish on nymphs.  Our biggest fish was 17, and we caught a lot of small and medium-sized fish.  There is a decent PMD hatch from 11am to 2pm right now.  Fishing was tougher after lunch.  We tried to catch some fish on dries but the risers were pretty spread out.  It was pretty amazingly hot out there today.  Cooler weather would be nice. 

Bob's big fish of the day

Fall River is providing some stellar opportunities for the dry fly fisherman at the moment, both during the day and hex hatch in the evenings. I have been out hexing the last 16 nights, and have a pretty good understanding of where the fish are. Pressure is high, except where I have been fishing. There were 3 nights that it didn't happen, but we hooked fish anyway. I'm sticking around in July to continue pounding these fish...inside joke. Some killer technical dry fly fishing can be had between around 11 and 3 during the day for some very large fish looking up.

Captain Ferber heading out for the hex hatch

The weather was hot on the Mac today but the fishing held up fairly well.  We pretended that we were in Montana and fished dry/dropper all day.  We had a lot of fish come up to look at or eat our Chernobyl ants and a lot more ate the nymph dropper.  Our biggest fish was only about 12, but it was a lot of fun.  The fish are pretty packed into the shallow riffles and pockets right now.  A lot of the really obvious buckets and pools are fishing pretty slow.

We had good fishing today until 11am and then it totally shut down on us.  It turns out the flows went down and back up today by about 1000cfs.  Not a recipe for success on the Lower Sac.  Fortunately we landed two really nice fish before the bite turned off.  Both were on small olive mayfly nymph patterns.  There was a huge PMD hatch, size 18-20, from noon until 4pm.

The crazy weather continues.  It was actually overcast and relatively calm all day today.  That made for a great PMD hatch, but the fish were super selective.  It was challenging to see and to select a fly that they would eat regularly.  We got a few good fish 12-16 on nymphs, though.  We did well on the hex hatch despite HORRIBLE conditions and absolutely no hatch.  Tom and Mary Ann landed five fish, pretty good for no light, no hatch, and no bugs!

I fished Lewiston over the weekend and it fished Very Good. The fish are spread out and not podded up like earlier in the season. The dry fly action is limited to VERY technical midge fishing to smutten trout, why not they have a billion midge to choose from. Swinging and stripping small leeches is a different story, the fish are aggressive and the takes solid. The grab has been solid from around 9 am to 3 pm and there is plenty of lake to find some solitude. I have often wondered whether the sores I have noticed on some fish were caused by Lamprey, last year I swore that I saw a fish swim by with a Lamprey attached, it was confirmed yesterday when I landed  a fat 16 rainbow with a fat 10 lamprey firmly attached.The water in Lewiston Lake does not warm up in the summer like most lakes in the state, the water stays cool all summer and the fishing will be consistent through the Fall.Get off the couch and book now!   

Plenty of Fat Rainbows like this in Lewey !

More than Trout in Lewey !!!

Last February we hosted the local chapter of Project Healing Waters, sponsored by the Shasta/Trinity Fly Fishers.  Read what they had to say about their trip to Eagle Canyon:http://www.shastatrinityflyfishers.org/phw.html

A lot of folks got scared off the last few nights with the strange weather we have been having here in the FallRiver Valley. The fish and hex bugs don't seem to mind. Jon and Steve took over Jon's brother's trip who bailed out. We hooked well over 20 fish, had 4 double hook ups, and landed over 10. Thanks to Jon's brother making the introduction to good fisherman possible on the best hex night of the season. The night before Jonny and I hooked over 20 fish as well. We did not see a single other boat where we were fishing the last two nights. Epic.

Jonny on the spot

The month of June is shaping up just like it should, great fishing and great weather. Lots of summer time hatches are appearing in the mornings and evenings and Confluence Outfitters is taking advantage of those hatches every day. If you can break away give us a call and get up to northern California for some fantastic fishing 

The Pit River has been fishing well for the angler who is willing to charge around and cover water. There are some slow periods of the day, but when it on, it is on fire. Nymphing or dry dropper rig is your best bet to get into fish. Black size 14 nymphs have worked best for me.