Current Fishing Report

We are rescheduling our 2017 Guide School to July 8-15.  We still have room for 3 participants.  This one-week course is a great way to get your feet wet in the world of guiding.  The course is based in the Burney/Fall River Mills area and the field sessions take place on the Pit River, Hat Creek, McCloud River, and Lower Sac.

Spent another day scouting the conditions in Northern California. Spent an afternoon and evening walking and fishing Hat Creek. The water level was higher than normal for Hat Creek, but didn't present any issue with fishing except for wading the upper end of the Powerhouse #2 riffle. Walked the entire new access trail from the 299 bridge to the parking lot at Powerhouse #2.  It was good to see anglers spread out all up and down the river and not just packed into the riffle.  There was an abundance of weeds, bugs, and a consistant amount of fising fish at the lower end of this section.  Some anglers I watched were successful on dries.  I spent about an hour or so fishing and had success on dries over weed beds and behind structure, and then ended the night catching a number of fish nymphing the riffle.  Good things ahead for Hat Creek.

The new access trail allows for anglers to access all of the river.

Good weed beds.

Such a great place to spend the day.

Beautiful colors on the Hat Creek Rainbow

The past couple days has continued to produce some REALLY nice fish!  The fish were super grabby this morning and fishing was "Red Hot."  Jesse and Julian had an absolute blast, but after lunch things slowed a bit as a front moved in.  We continued getting grabs and hooking fish, but we had to work pretty hard for them.  The flows appear to be stable at 13,000 CFS, so I expect the fishing to improve on a daily basis!

I am heading down south tomorrow to kick off a ten-day tour of seven fly fishing clubs in southern California.  My presentation is called "Five Rivers in Five Days" and is about all the great fly fishing destinations in the Redding area.  I will focus on the Lower Sac, Fall River, McCloud River, Pit River, and Upper Sac but will also touch on the Trinity River, Eagle Canyon, Battle Creek, Manzanita Lake, and Burney Creek.  Those of you who have fished up here know you could easily spend 10 days up here and fish a different quality destination every day.  SoCal folks, come to your local fly club and see me!  My presentation includes maps, tips on techniques for our local rivers, and some great photography.  Here are the stops on the tour:Tuesday May 9th: Santa Barbara Fly FishersWednesday May 10th: Fly Fishing Club of Orange CountyThursday May 11th: Pasadena Casting ClubMonday May 15th: Golden State Flycasters, San DiegoTuesday May 16th:  Wilderness Club, West Los AngelesWednesday May 17th: Sespe Fly Fishers, VenturaThursday May 18th: Sierra Pacific Fly Fishers, Encino 

Just got back from a great weekend of scouting and fishing on some of my favorite water in Northern California.  Took my son, JT and his first timer buddy Gavin.  They did a great job of catching fish everywhere we went. There is bigger and dirtier water than we have seen in the past few years, but the fishing was still productive.  I stayed off of Hat Creek as everyone visiting the area seemed to be fishing there.  Some other waters proved to be challenging, but rewarding.  Both Burney Creek and the Pit River provided great opportunites for our group young anglers with nymphs and a great golden stonefly hatch.  Yes, Dry Flies!  We even caught a few fish on Fall River in our evenings.  With all of the water, I think things are shaping up for a great spring and summer up north.  Get out and fish.

Big water everywhere. Lake Britton spilling into Pit #3

How long you been fly fishin'?

First time for the big left hander!

First fish on a fly rod for Gav!!!

Success on a dry!

The edges of the Pit were very productive!

The Lower Sac is continuing to fish really well. Although it seems we went from spring to summer overnight, the past four days has been all about hooking big beautiful fish!  The flows will drop to 5,000 CFS by Cinco de Mayo, but will start coming back up to 13,000 cfs by early Sunday.

The Sac has continued to fish very well the past three days.  The fish are big, healthy and super grabby!  We landed at least one 20+ inch fish each of the last three days and most were in the 17-19 inch range.  The flows will continue to drop through Wednesday, but will likely come back up once the A.C.I.D. dam is in place.    

Scott landed this beauty on Friday.

Pat with one of many beautiful fish from today.

Flows are dropping quickly on the Lower Sac and the fish are responding in a big way!  The river was around 15,000cfs yesterday and down to 13,500cfs today.  As the flows drop a lot more water becomes fishable for us.  We had excellent fishing the last two days for rainbows up to 20".  There were a few small fish in the mix, but most of the fish landed were between 15 and 17".  Rich and Kathleen from Amador had a blast.

Rich with a nice rainbow trout

Kathleen with a big one

I had the honor of guiding the Project Healing Waters group again this year.  I had Felix, a USMC veteran and Wayne, a member of the Diablo Valley Flyfishers in my boat and they both hooked a lot of fish, including multiple double-hookups!  The flows are beginning to drop and should be down to 7,000 cfs by May 3rd.

Winter just doesn't want to let go of the North State!  It rained off and on all day, but that didn't affect the fishing.  The fish seemed a bit more tight-lipped from the past few days, but we had a LOT of hook-ups throughout day and landed some beautiful fish!  The good news is there is no more rain in the extended forecast AND the flows will begin to slowly drop beginning tonight.  This is great news becase not only will we actually get to enjoy some beautiful spring weather, but it will also open more fishable water!  

Rob from S. Carolina with a beautiful fish!

The flows were raised to 30,000 cfs last Monday and have held steady all week.  I did some scouting with fellow Confluence Outfitter guides Mike Wright and Peter Santley on Friday, and we managed to hook into some very nice fish.  I guided a 3-boat trip this weekend with some very good clients.  It seemed someone was always hooked-up all the time both days.  I don't think anyone hooked a fish smaller than 16 inches, and there were several double hook-ups both days!  They seem to be more interested in egg patterns, but they're starting to eat nymphs.  As long as the flows don't increase, fishing should only get better as the visiblity increases.  Go fish!

I had the pleasure of guiding Dennis and George on the Lower Sac today.  The weather was ideal and the fish were super grabby!  The clarity seems to be getting better and I'm starting to see a lot more bugs every day.  Just as the conditions were starting to return to normal, we have another storm system headed our way this week - and the Bureau of Reclamation is raising the flows to 20,000 cfs on Wednesday.

This winter has been more challenging than usual for die hard Pacific Northwest steelheaders.  Every time the rivers dropped into shape, you had a quick window before another mega storm would hit.  If your timing was good, you had water you were able to stand in an enjoy the whole process and surrounding environment, maybe even swing up a chrome winter fish of a lifetime.  Or, you were in a wet tent, camper, motel or cabin drinking and playing cards waiting for the rivers to drop...which is still better than sitting in trafffic in my opinion.  The winter game isn't for everyone, thank goodness.  This upcoming week looks more of the same, Inquire about future availability for the Olympic Peninsula, we have a few more weeks here if the weather and fish are both going in the right direction.

The unicorn we are all chasing in the winter

With all the rain we received on Thursday and Friday, the river colored-up a bit.  After finishing my yardwork, we went out for a half-day float this afternoon and the river fished better than expected.  Dava hooked several really nice fish with an indicator rig, and I had a couple grabs swinging flies.  And this was after the 20+ boat Project Healing Water armada had already fished in front of of us.  I'm starting to see more bugs and take that as a good sign.  I expect the fishing to start ramping up very soon.  There's nothing like fishing the Sac in the spring!

 Andrew, Peter, and I had the opportunity to guide a great group of guys!  My guys had a very productive day - landing several really nice fish!  It seemed like at least one of the guys in the group would be hooked up at any given time.  They're all headed to Eagle Canyon and the chance to hook some REALLY big fish. 

I guided Allen and Jordan on a beautiful spring day.  The color and visibility seems to be improving every day.  They both hooked into several really nice fish and missed a lot of grabs.  The river is definitely getting there.  Conditions will continue to improve in the coming weeks, so now is the time to book your spring fishing trip!

Report by one of our regular guests Dave:"High winds made parts of the day tougher but we had a fairly consistent bite throughout the day. About half way through action on stripped flies slowed but the fish got grabby when we switched to nymphs under indicators.  We all caught fish and landed about 25 fish between the 3 of us with a couple in the 28” range. The fish looked at fought well with plenty of LDR's too. This was my third trip this year  and was my best in the 2017 season." 

I went out and scouted the Sac again today.  The river is starting to transition from brown to green, but the visibility is still pretty limited.  We hooked six fish, all in the 16+ inch range on a combination of rubberlegs and egg patterns.  I had to really think outside the box to find where the fish are holding.  The extended forecast is showing at least another seven days of dry weather.  With that, conditions should continue to improve in the coming weeks, and it appears the upper portion (above the Hwy-44 Bridge) of the river will not be closing on April 1st!

It's getting buggy at Eagle Canyon!  I stopped by for an hour this afternoon and the mayflies were really coming off.  A lot of fish were rising in both ponds.  I saw a few big fish in some very skinny water hunting for hatching mayflies.  There were a lot of baetis and callibaetis, plus a few terrestrials.  Not sure if they were termites or flying ants, but they were big and I'm sure the fish were eating a few.This is the best time of year to catch a huge Eagle Canyon rainbow on a dry fly.  I like to sight-fish in the shallows with a parachute adams and a small nymph dropper just about 10 inches below. 

Callibaetis

Baetis

Mating flying ants

Had a great weekend with Anthony and Tom. The weather and conditions cooperated and we were able to fish the Sol Duc, Hoh and Bohachiel. We hooked into a couple and landed a nice one.