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Red Hot The Lower Sac has dropped to 8000cfs and the dry fly fishing is really turning on. There are plenty of big caddisflies around, plus a few craneflies and mayflies. The big fish are looking up, and they don't get much bigger than the one Harvey caught today on a dry. Harvey rose quite a few fish, as did his wife Jeannette. The biggest was Harvey's 23 rainbow, a fish about 4 lbs! We didn't fish any indicators today, just dries and a few nymphs on the swing. We hooked several on a birds nest or poopah fished on a floating line with no weight.  Harvey's really big fish on a dry fly  Jeannette's big fish of the day |
Due to intense demand we will be auctioning off Opening Day, which is November 17th. The ebay auction starts October 1st at noon and ends October 7th at noon. The opening bid is $1000, which is our normal $200 per person rate for a group of 5. The winning bidder can bring a group of up to five anglers and will have the lakes exclusively for their own group on Opening Day. The lakes will be full of rainbow trout from 4 to 20 pounds which have been rested since last April. Many of the fish in the lakes have never even seen a fly! Fishing should be fantastic. Here is the link to the ebay listing:http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120984536970This is the 2nd year we've auctioned off the Opening Day on ebay. Last year it sold for $1151, just $151 over our normal rates. The Staudenmayer family, the winning bidders, enjoyed a fantastic day at the lakes. Three total beginners to fly fishing caught multiple fish and the more experienced folks hooked dozens of fish. Check out these photos from opening day last year:  Opening Day 2011  Opening Day 2011 |
Red Hot If you like to catch big fish on dry flies, book a trip with me on the Lower Sac. The caddis are hatching out of the shallow riffles and the fish are rising eagerly. This should continue for the next few months, but why wait? I guided my friend Mark Tompkins, his brother Craig, and their dad Bob today. They all hooked big fish on dries and nymphs.  On a dry fly  Craig caught this one on a dry  Bob's big fish |
Great I've been away from Fall River for about a month and much has changed. The water is higher and the weeds have grown in quite a bit. The river looks like it normally does, whereas in June and July it was low and not very weedy. There are fish everywhere, lots of them. The big fish are also spread out and present in large numbers. Yesterday we fished over some very difficult fish and got our buts kicked, only landing smaller rainbows. Today we found a run that held only big fish and they were much easier to fool. Lloyd from Livermore landed about ten fish before lunch time, all 12-18. In the morning there is a mixed spinner fall of callibaetis, PMD, and trico spinners. The PMD and Callibaeties duns start to come off around 11am. Each fish seems to be keying on a different bug, so the dry fly fishing was very challenging. We did much better with small mayfly nymphs under indicators. I took some great shots of the mayflies today from below the surface - take a look!  Lloyd's big fish  Callibaetis dun from underneath  Callibaetis spinner from underneath |
Great I took my client Lloyd down to Pit 3 for an evening session tonight. Things started slow, but everything changed when I switched to a size 8 rubberlegs nymph. That got their attention! Lloyd landed 4 and lost about 6 in less than an hour of fishing. We hooked fish from 12-17, all fat rainbows. There was quite a hatch right at dusk: a mix of mayflies, craneflies, and caddisflies. |
Great I took Harry and Ben downriver today, floating from Balls Ferry to Bend. We saw no other drift boats, and the fishing was better down there than it was up in Redding yesterday. Our best flies were rubberlegs and small beadhead pheasant tails. We caught most of our fish under indicators, but also hooked some fish swinging nymphs and fishing dries.  Ben's big fish  Harry's big fish |
Good I guided father/son team Harry and Ben today on the Lower Sac. We fished up in Redding. The river dropped 500cfs last night to 10,500cfs, but it didn't seem to affect the fishing. We had a pretty good nymph grab throughout the day, especially around 2pm. We caught fish on birds nests, poopahs, and S&M nymphs. The big caddisflies are just getting started in the afternoons. We saw plenty of fish rise. Ben landed a small fish on a dry and hooked a big one that got away. The afternoon dry fly fishing will only improve as the flows drop. If you're looking for a big fish on a dry fly, the Lower Sac is the place to be starting now and going through December.  Harry with a nice one  Harry was the hot rod in the morning  Ben was the hot rod in the afternoon |
There is a fire near the McCloud River. It is burning an area from Iron Canyon Reservoir near Big Bend north towards McCloud Reservoir. The fire hasn't reached the river itself yet. For now, the northwest edge of the fire is about 2 miles from Ah-Di-Na and the Nature Conservancy Preserve. Visit the following website for details:http://inciweb.org/incident/3188/ |
Lewiston Lake- Louie continues to fish well, albeit a little more technical. Site fishing for Rainbows in the 14-20 range is always exciting, the fish are keying in on midge emergers and dries, size 18-22.
Lower Klamath- A few Steelhead are starting to show along with the first push of Fall Salmon. The water temps still need to drop a few more degree's to get the Steelhead active. With the days getting shorter and air temps up river droping a bit the water temps should drop over the next couple of weeks.
Upper Rogue-The Rogue is fishing Good for adult Summer Steelhead and 1/2 pounders. Put your time in and hit the usual haunts and you should be rewarded with multiple oportunities through-out the day. Fish are taking flies swung on the surface in the morning and then switching over to sink tips when the sun is overhead will get the job done.  Upper Rogue Summer Steel |
Dax Messett will be hosting a trip to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico April 14-22, 2013. There is just one spot left on this six-person trip! This is the best place on earth to catch good numbers of baby and juvenile tarpon. Check out our Hosted Travel page for more details. |
Red Hot
Guess where I caught these fish! FYI, this was mostly sight-fishing with small mayfly dries.
 Marcus is the man |
Red Hot I had the chance to fish with my old friend Mike Bias today. Mike is now an outfitter in Montana, based in Twin Bridges. He guides the Big Hole, Beaverhead, and Madison in Montana and the Henry's Fork and South Fork in Idaho. Mike's website is www.setsetset.com. We decided to do something different today and fish Henry's Lake at the source of the Henry's Fork. The lake is big, relatively shallow, and home to really large Yellowstone cutthroat, cuttbows, and brookies. It reminded me a lot of Crowley, with boats clustered in groups around productive areas. We fished sly lines and floating lines. I got one fish on a brassie under an indicator, but all the others came on small nymphs on a slow retrieve. My huge brook trout ate a size 18 beadhead PT nymph. Our best cutthroat were about 18. I was really excited to fish this lake - it's been on my list for a long time. I would go back in a heartbeat.  Biggest brookie of my life  Another look  Mike with a big yellowstone cutthroat |
Great Today was our second full day at the Stillwater River Outpost fishing with outfitter Mike Hillygus. Mike took me on a float on the Stillwater today. The Stillwater is anything but still. It's the most technical, high-gradient river I've ever seen anyone run in a hard drift boat. The rowing might be challenging, but the fishing is fun and straightforward. You can fish dry flies all day here, making quick casts to promising holding areas as you move along. Our best action came on hoppers, especially Morrish's hopper in a size 8. The fish I landed were from 9 to 16. I hooked one much larger fish on a streamer, too. This is a really fun river to fish and there are two other floats you can do when the water is higher. I want to come back in July and see what the upper part of the river is like.  There are countless places to stop and fish  A view of the three tent cabins right by the river  We boated over that in a hard boat! |
Good Last night we arrived at the Stillwater River Outpost (http://www.stillwaterriveroutpost.com/), a lodge on the Stillwater River near Billings. The lodge is operated by outfitter Mike Hillygus. The food and hospitality here is excellent - our first meal was rack of lamb. After a breakfast of biscuits and gravy, Mike took the whole lot of us on a float down the Yellowstone River. Mike took Katie's mom Mary, our daughter Mackenzie, and his two black labs in one boat. Katie and Madison and I followed him down the river in a raft. Fishing wasn't red hot, but we had plenty of strikes on our dry flies. Mackenzie and Madison fished with their snoopy poles. Madison even reeled in one of my fish! The kids were pretty wiped out by the end of the float. Madison fell asleep in her chair, hands still clutching a box of flies.  Our first family float trip!  Madison with her fish  Madison passed out |
Okay I fished with Mike from New York and his daughter Shannon today. The forecast was for 108 degrees, but I don't think it was that hot. We had a nice breeze and a layer of smoke from the Lassen fire that helped cool things off a bit. The small fish were eager in the morning, but we struggled to tempt the quality fish today. Mike had the fish of the day, an 18 rainbow on an olive micro-stone nymph size 18.  Mike's big fish |
Great I fished the Pit River today with Andrew from Colorado. It was super hot out so we spent the day wet wading. We caught numerous fish out of each section of the Pit River, starting in Pit 5 and ending in Pit 3. Pit 5 and Pit 3 were the most productive, but we had some excellent hopper-dropper action in Pit 4. We had plenty of exciting grabs on the grasshopper dry. Most of the day our best fly was a copper john size 16. Overall the river fished very well.  tough wading, but good fishing  It's a jungle in there  Lots of fish like this today |
Fishing on the Trinity should get off to a great start this fall due to some scheduled high flows coming soon. Starting mid-August, flows from Lewiston Dam will be increased to improve water quality in the Lower Klamath River. Flows will peak around 1500cfs in late August or early September and return to normal levels by September 25th. These high flows should bring plenty of salmon and steelhead into the upper Trinity River. I will be doing my first steelhead trips on the Trinity in late September. The Trinity River Restoration Program (see www.trrp.net) is active this summer, restoring two different sites. Follow the links to view maps of the areas being restored. Map of Junction City site:http://odp.trrp.net/FileDatabase/Documents/UJC%20Map%20for%20Public%20Posting%20-%2011x171.pdf Map of Steiner Flat site:http://odp.trrp.net/FileDatabase/Documents/LSF%20Map%20for%20Public%20Posting%20-%2011x171.pdf |
Good We spent the last day of our 2012 guide school on Fall River. The river was a bit slow, but Steve from Cloverdale caught a really nice rainbow. The fish weren't interested in the sinking line techniques today, but they would eat small mayfly nymphs under an indicator. We saw a few PMDs and water boatmen. We had an excellent guide school this year. We had four students with two instructors each day, so they all got plenty of personal attention. The students had many opportunities to teach skills to the entire group and to guide us in a one-on-one scenario. We fished the Pit, Hat, Upper and Lower McCloud, Lower Sac, and Burney Creek. It was a great time and our four students made great strides in learning what being a fly fishing guide is all about.  Steve with a big rainbow |
Great Hard to believe, but the hex hatch is still going strong on some parts of the river. Nobody is out fishing it, either. Guide school students Alex and Steve had a lot of grabs on their hex patterns last night. Alex was in the zone and managed to land five big fish up to 20 before it was over. There were good numbers of bugs and the fish were really hitting them hard.  Alex caught five like this last night |
Great Dax and I took our guide school students to the Pit River today. The nymph grab was on from the get-go. We took wild rainbows from 8-17 on a variety of nymphs, including black stones size 12, copper johns size 16, and black birds nests size 14. Pretty much anything worked! Flows are at about 330cfs in Pit 3. Wading is challenging but not impossible. The Pit is our most consistent summertime freestone fishery. Give it a shot!  Alex put me on this nice rainbow |
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