Current Fishing Report

 The Fall Season is a special time for fishing guides. We start getting out of the hot, long days of summer and into warm days and cold nights. The fishing is just GREAT now with the weather change, and the only thing that could make it better is dropping the wind so the dry fly fishing picks up. If you can break away, get up and go fishing!

I guided Father and Son duo Don and Ben from Pleasonton the last two day's. The weather ranged from sunny and warm to cloudy, windy and heavy rain ! We welcomed in the first real fall/winter storm on the last day of Summer, over an inch of rain in the last 24 hrs in Redding !. Hopefully it's a prelude to a much needed wet winter. The fishing was up and down but we managed to land some nice fish including three rainbows over 20

Don with a Dandy !

We had an outstanding day on Fall River yesterday.  We got schooled pretty badly in the morning by big fish eating dries.  There was a huge callibaetis spinner fall and the fish were gobbling them.  It was hard to find a pattern that the fish liked, and even tougher to get their attention with so many other bugs on the water.  Our luck changed in the afternoon, though.  We switched over to nymphs and had a 3-hour pillage fest the likes of which you rarely see on Fall River.  We had several doubles and the average fish was about 16 inches.  Our best was a 19 rainbow that was nearly 3 pounds.

Steve with the big fish of the day.

It has been in the mid 80s with cloudless skies for the past week, which is not exactly steelhead weather...but I'll take it.  I have spent the last 3 Septembers in BC, and it seemed to always be cold and rainy prior to this season.  I had a great week of angling despite the perfect summer weather, fishing with other hopelessly addicted steelhead bums on the famed tributaries of the Skeena.  The low and clear water on a particular river has provided the opportunity to sight fish to steelhead over 20 lbs...truly amazing.  They are pretty difficult to catch in this situation, but we managed to land some absolutely amazing specimens this week, and lost quite a few others.  

Jim from steelhead camp with a lovely hen

traveling in style, with cold beer in hand

Truly mega steelhead over 20lbs

mist on the river...classic steelhead moment

Sunshine and chrome...good combo

I guided Steve and Jim from the East Bay on the Lower Sac. They wanted to mix there day up with nymphing from the boat and also get out and wade, swing some flies and hopefully fish some dries. We hooked some fish on the drift while nymphing and Steve was able to swing up a couple of nice Rainbows on his 4wt Gary Anderson Spey Rod. Unfortunately the dry fly action never got going, other than the occasional Dragon fly fluttering about the hatch was non existent which left the fish uninspired ! Having said that they each hooked fish and had a wonderful day on the river!

light weight spey in action

Nice Bow

Katie and I just got back from a great trip to the Bow River in Alberta, Canada.  We took a group of 14 anglers to North Bow Lodge, which is located right on the Bow River about 45 minutes from the airport in Calgary.  It was a great group of people.  I had fished with most of them before and we made some great new friends, too. The lodge is right on the river in a prime location.  You can walk right out and fish a lot of water on foot right in front of the lodge.  The lodge is located in the middle of one of the most popular floats on the river.  Our group was guided for three days by the guides from Country Pleasures Fly Shop in Calgary.  Most of us floated in drift boats, but two of the guides used jet boats on the lower end of the river.  Katie and I fished with three different guides and got to experience three different sections of the river, from downtown Calgary all the way down past the lodge. Our group persevered through some challenging weather.  Fishing was great the first morning, but shut down in the afternoon as a storm rolled in.  The next day we had about an inch of rain, which was enough to blow out certain sections of the river for part of the day.  Conditions were the best on our last day.  There was still a fair bit of color in the water, but the fish were feeding and most of the people in our group did well. The Bow River is a big river like the Lower Sac and you can fish it many different ways.  The great thing about it is that you can do very well on dry flies, hopper-dropper, and streamers.  Our group did very little nymph and indicator fishing.  Katie and I caught fish primarily on big grasshopper dries, but also had action on small dries, nymphs under dries, and on streamers.  Our average fish was about 17.  The biggest fish landed in our group was a 22 rainbow.  Some in our group caught rainbows up to 21 on small dries!  Bow River rainbows fight incredibly hard. Another whole facet to our trip was seeing a river that had just been through a 100-year flood this spring.  Calgary was in the news in June and July because of the extensive flooding on the Bow River.  The Calgary Stampede was nearly cancelled.  Needless to say, the river took a beating.  We floated through town where the damage was the worst.  The river shifted hundreds of yards in places, destroying parks and bike trails and footbridges over the river.  On the lower river there are massive piles of sediment, many new channels, and many collapsing banks.  It will take a few years for the river to get back into balance again.  The fact that our group still hooked many 17-21 rainbows just two months after the flood is testament to the quality of the fishery.  It will only get better over the next few seasons. Many thanks to Stu & Michele at North Bow Lodge and to Mike Gifford at Country Pleasures Fly shop for helping us to put this trip together!  The lodge was great, everyone enjoyed the food, and many in our group are already planning a return trip! 

Guide Jason Eggleton holding a Rainbow caught by Katie

This was a typical fish for us

Katie was top rod the first day

Andy and Tim with guide Mike Guinn

Katie's hopper was well-chewed by lunchtime

Andy and Tim with guide Mike Algar

Andrew & Katie at the boat launch

Katie's big fish on day 3

The Bow is a great river for wading, too

The view from the upper deck at North Bow Lodge

Jason with Bernard's big fish

Catherine always catches big fish

The whole group on the deck at the lodge

With good numbers of Steelhead moving into the Rogue River we set our sights on the upper Rogue right now. The Salmon season closed on the Upper Rogue September 1st, so lots of room to fish. I've been hooking nice fish in the early morning using traditional swing techniques, but I'm sure you could hook some fish on dead drift techniques also. As we move into the prime time for the summer run Steelhead we will also get into more fishing pressure. Last year I guided a number of days in November with great success and no pressure, so if you can't make it to Southern Oregon in October try some Steelhead fishing on the Rogue in November 

I just wrapped up my hosted week at Z Boat lodge on the Lower Skeena River.  Brad and Kim have a terrific operation here, with stellar guides and accommodation.  We had a typical week of steelhead fishing, with some amazing moments fishing the lower Skeena and its tributaries.  Thanks to Paul, Dennis, Pete, Bruce, and George for joining me in one of my favorite places on Earth.  Great times were had on and off the water that made a truly memorable trip.  I will book two weeks next year in September.  Spey Casting legend Brian Niska, one of the best casting instructors I have worked with will be taking the operation over next season. I am fortunate to be spending a total of six weeks here in BC.  Overall returns are low, but I have managed to hook epic fish on the hallowed waters of the Dean, Kispiox, Bulkley, Morice, Skeena, and Copper.  Pressure is very low this year, and the weather has been superb.  Its also nice to be around such amazing anglers who share my love of speycasting for steelhead.   I will be on the Ronde for the whole month of October until mid November at Speywater Lodge, which is totally booked.  Then I will head to the Trinity to join the Confluence crew Andrew, Gino, and Randy in late November until Christmas, and still have available dates.  

Dean River guides April and Steve from Blackwells Lodge

Dennis and Greg, and epic chromer

Dennis and Greg, again

The Gooch, again

The crew on Z Boats deck overlooking the mighty Skeena

Paul in the moment

Fish on in a 200 yard perfect swing run

epic dog pic

Pete Notz in the first spot he fished

Our Bow River Trip starts tomorrow!  Katie and I fly out of Redding first thing in the morning.  We are really looking forward to a great fishing trip with some of our best clients.  Check back next week for photos and a write-up of the trip!

 I was able to get an early scouting trip in on the Lower Klamath, the Salmon season is ramping up and along with it Steelhead ! There was the usual boat traffic that accompanies the Salmon run but it was not very difficult to find water to myself, especially in the afternoon. I hooked 4 nice sized half pounders and 2 adults, 5 of the 6 came in about a 40 min. flurry of action when the sun, moon and stars aligned, thats Steelhead fishing ! 

28 8lb Bright Hen !

High flows are scheduled for Pit 5 this weekend, Sept 7/8.  If you were planning to fish Pit 5, you should consider heading to Pit 3 or 4 instead.

Well after a last minute law suit by Westlands Water District aka Darth Vader, to stop what everyone else in the world thought was the right thing to do, the water is now flowing ! At this time the release out of Lewiston Lake is about 1400 cfs. The release is scheduled to ramp up to 2650 cfs by midnight tonight and then ramp down to 850 cfs after Tuesday and stay at 850 cfs until Sept 19th and then ramp down to 450 cfs till mid October. This is the medicine that the Trinity and more importantly the Klamath needed, water temps in the Lower Klamath have been hovering around 70 - 74 degrees for a month or more. This flushing flow should reduce stress on the fish and hopefully flush out any pathogens that have been building with the low flows and high temps. To date there has been a decent run of Summer Steelhead that have entered the Klamath and most of which are headed for the Trinity, the cooler temps in the river will entice more Steelies to leave the salt as well as an estimated 272,000 Fall Run Chinook. Looking to be a good year, despite the efforts of Darth Vader ie; Westlands Water District !    

Fishing is good on Fall River right now.  I guided Jerry from Lodi and son Greg the last two days.  We had some great moments, including some 18+ rainbows eating dry flies.  The dry fly fishing is really good right now.  We've had opportunities on spinners and duns from 8:30am until the wind comes up, usually around 2pm.  There are countless big fish to target with dry flies right now.  The toughest thing about it is that most of them are eating spinners, and there are so many spinners that our odds are not great.  Try spinner patterns that look a size or two smaller than the ones you see on the water.  It's a mix of trico, callibaetis, and PMD spinners right now.  The duns start to come off around 10, but get thicker around noon.  The river is a ghost town this time of year.  Lots of fish and hardly anybody out on the water.

On a dry fly

Greg caught this one-eyed trout on a small nymph

I can't take any credit for this (other than for watching the kids), but my wife Katie went salmon fishing with some friends today and caught this huge king salmon on the Lower Sac!

Katie Harris with a massive salmon

Gino and I just finished up three days of guiding on the Bollibokka Club on the McCloud River.  What a place!  The lodging and cooking facilities are excellent.  When you drive into the property it feels like you're stepping back into history.  The river itself is the same McCloud you would recognize from the public water upstream, just bigger.  There are also more long flat sections and riffles.  There are definitely some large rainbows on the Bollibokka, although they are not easy to catch.  The McCloud River down there is a very physically demanding river and the fish are no easier to catch than on any other part of the McCloud.  The allure is the privacy, the diversity of water types, the trail system, the history, and the presence of some larger fish.

There are some nice rainbows on the Bollibokka

pocket water galore

There are many smooth sections like this

Lots of beautiful riffles

Is this a spotted bass?

fish on

Mike with a nice one

I guided Sarah and Ryan from Genoa Nv on Sat., we had perfect weather for August, low 90s, partly cloudy and just a slight breeze. It was the nicest day I've had on the Lower Sac in some time, unfortunetly the fish didn't take notice. We floated from Bonneyview to Balls Ferry and fished hard but were only rewarded with a few fish. There was little to no insect activity through out the day so I guess the fish took the day off. Tomorrow will be a different story, always is. The flows have begun to drop and stabilize, currently 11,982 cfs, after the summer peak flows, the fishing will only get better on the Lower Sac from here on out.    

hard earned rainbow

Fishing continues to be really good on Fall River.  There are very few other fishermen out this time of year and we're getting some good hatches.  There are PMD spinners in the morning, PMD and callibaetis duns from 10am until 1pm or so, water boatmen mid-day, and caddis and hexes in the evenings.  Lots of damselflies around now, too.  The hex hatch is still productive.  Bill and Chuck from the Bay Area both caught fish on hex dries.  The evening fishing has been pretty outstanding on all techniques.

Bill with one of his best fish

Chuck caught a lot of big fish

Chuck got this one on a hex dry

I fished the Upper Rogue yesterday with my good buddy and stellar angler Charles from Flywater Travel. We put in at around 6 am and Charles landed a nice wild steelhead at around 7 on a nice traditional fly swung on a floating line. We had a few other encounters that did not yield a fish, but it is great that there are finally some biters around. Cooler temps are expected next week, so fishing should pick up a bit, but it is still an early morning game for now.

I took Sam and Jim to the Upper McCloud today.  The river fished great and we didn't see any other anglers.  There were hundreds of people out enjoying the waterfalls, but nobody fishing where we were.  We had good luck on dries (elk hair caddis and hopper patterns) and nymphs.  We hooked a couple of truck trout, but mainly caught wild rainbows up to 9 inches or so.

I took the guide school boys out for an evening of hex fishing tonight.  The hatch was surprisingly good.  Sam and Jim each broke off a nice fish on the hookset and Jim landed an 18 rainbow.  We had about 10 grabs on the big dry fly in all.  Not too bad for late July!