Current Fishing Report

Today my guests Matt and Bob wanted to experience Hat Creek and the Pit River – two amazing fisheries within the intermountain region. We started our day at Hat Creek and had a very successful morning. Matt and Bob both hooked and landed several fish each. During our streamside lunch at Hat Creek Park, they asked about Burney Falls. We decided to make a quick stop to view the falls on our way to the Pit River and they were beyond impressed. Once at the Pit, they quickly learned just how challenging the wading is. We fished a couple different runs and they both hooked and landed some nice fish while capping off a great day! 

Burney Falls

Matt with a nice Hat Creek rainbow

Matt with a nice Pit River rainbow

"The website makes it sound like you're going to die if you fish the Pit... let's do it."  Matt came up from San Jose to check out some fresh water and was intrigued from what he heard and read about the Pit River. Within an hour Matt landed several hard-fighting rainbows including one that filled up the net nicely (pic attached). 

Matt with a nice rainbow!

Had a fun time guiding Steve on Burney Creek & Pit River. BC fished a little slow in the morning but picked up when the sun started to warm things up. Steve landed a beautiful brown and rainbow when the bugs started hatching! In the afternoon we hit up the Pit River and with the water slightly off colored we threw on a big stonefly and instantly hooked up w/ a hard fighting 'bow that Steve had to tease around some boulders before landing. If you don't mind getting wet the Pit can offer productive fishing all day long! 

The Pit River was good for us this morning.  I took buddies Mike and Mark from Pleasanton to one of my favorite parts of the river.  It didn't fish as well as I had hoped, but we still got into some quality fish up to 16".  A 16" fish on the Pit is a serious wild fish and very hard to land in the swift current.  We landed good numbers of rainbows plus a few grande squawfish and suckers.  The highlight of the morning was when Mark hooked an 8" rainbow and had a 5 pound plus fish leap out of the water several times trying to eat it.  That doesn't happen a lot around these parts.  Next time I visit that spot I'll bring my striper flies and see what happens!

Two "Whitewater Weekends" are coming up in August and September on the Pit River.  The releases occur in Pit 5 only and are scheduled for August 13-14 and September 10-11.  Flows are typically in the 425cfs range throughout the summer months.  During the whitewater releases the flows will increase to 1500cfs for the August event and 1200cfs for the September event.  Fishing will be next to impossible during these weekends on Pit 5.

I took clients Paul and Bill to the Pit River today.  We had a lot of fun and they both agreed that the Pit is a physically punishing river at the end of the day.  The grab wasn't red-hot, but we hooked decent numbers of fish.  We started in Pit 5 and worked our way up into Pit 4.  The lower end of Pit 5 is pretty big right now.  The tributaries are adding a fair bit of water, so finding good water is a little bit tough, even though the water is clear.  Pit 4 is in better shape - down to normal summer levels.  The nice thing about the Pit is that we saw zero other anglers.

Pit 5 is kind of big right now

Paul with a Pit River rainbow

Bill hooked up

Bill's big fish of the day

Andrew Harris will be at the Chico Area Flyfishers club on Wednesday Nov 11th.  His presentation will be about the Pit River.  The meeting starts at 7:30pm at the California Park Pavilion, 2365 California Park Dr, Chico.  Andrew has hundreds of Pit River guide trips under his belt - come to the meeting and learn about this great California trout stream!

I had a fun day on the Pit River today with father/daughter duo Rich and Nina.  FYI, the Pit River Road is still closed 24 hours/day a little ways above Rock Creek.  We came in from the Big Bend side and started in Pit 5 and worked our way up to Pit 3.  We did okay nymphing the deeper buckets, but the best action was with a hopper/dropper rig in the smaller, shallower pockets.  Nina rose fish up to 16 on her hopper pattern.  She had a lot of hopper grabs on pink and olive hoppers in the mid-afternoon.  The best fish to hand was a fat 16 rainbow on the dropper nymph.  Nice going guys!  Rich and Nina both survived the Pit without falling in and they both caught fish!

Hooked up

Nina with a typical size rainbow for today

Nina with a new fish pose

Rich hooked up

The Pit River fished well for us today, although the obvious nymph buckets did not produce very well.  I waded my client Tim to the far side of the river and we had excellent action on a hopper-dropper rig.  We did very well in the shade and in the water types that are too shallow to fish a nymph rig.  Fishing slowed down around noon so we moved over to Burney Creek.  It was nice to cool off in the spring-fed water and catch some nice fish near the waterfall.  We saw some golden stones and green drakes flying around, too. 

High-sticking the Pit River

Hopper-dropper rig

cooling off in Burney Creek

 I took clients Dave and Vanessa out on the Pit River for a PM half-day today.  Fishing was a little tough at first, but the bite turned on around 2:30pm.  Dave did really well with a hopper-dropper rig, getting action on both bugs.  Vanessa fished a nymph under an indicator.  There were a lot of little yellow stones in the air this afternoon.  Fishing was pretty good overall.  No big fish today, but pretty good action.

I spent the past weekend camping and fishing the Pit River. The emerald green waters and lush scenery were worth the trip on their own. There are inviting campsites right on the river. Scenery aside, the fishing was excellent. The fish were very active and I had quite a few hook ups.  The bows are strong and feisty and have their own unique rainbow hues. While there were small hatches here and there, fish were eating subsurface. High sticking and nymphing with an indicator were the most successful methods. The pressure was fairly low and I didn't have to skip any spots I wanted to fish due to other anglers. Wading at times gets a bit tricky, but the fishing was worth it!

My 2nd day with clients Alan & Brian was really good.  We tried our luck on the Pit River.  We didn't see a single other fisherman all day.  We started off with a 17 rainbow on the 2nd cast and the action didn't stop.  We hooked a lot of nice big fish up to 18 in the morning on a variety of nymphs.  The afternoon was good with lots of hookups on the dry-dropper rig, but not as many big fish.  We had a couple nice rainbows on the hopper today.  

Alan with the result of his 2nd cast of the day

Lots of fish like this today

   High whitewater boating flows are scheduled for Pit 5 two weekends in September.  On September 6-7 the flows will be 1,500 cfs and on September 20-21 the flows will be 1,200 cfs.  Normal flows are around 400-500cfs.  The high flows will only be in Pit 5, so if you want to go fishing on those weekends you should consider fishing Pit 3 or 4 instead of Pit 5.

Guide School 2014, day 5: We spent the afternoon working on freestone techniques on the Pit River.  Once we got away from the fly eating trees, the river fished incredibly well.  Students Leslie and Peter hooked and landed a lot of nice wild rainbows up to 18 today.  Most of our fish came on nymphs under indicators, but we also had fun with a hopper-dropper rig.  Our best action was in the afternoon.  The best fishing was in the fast water.

Peter with a nice one

Leslie with a big fish on the line

One of many quality rainbows today

Leslie's big fish of the day

Peter with a fish on

I had a great day with clients Dave & Darryl on the Pit River today.  We bashed around Pit 3 and lived to tell the tale.  The trout were really grabby.  Our best action was on a hopper-dropper rig in the shallower pockets.  We had grabs on the dry, but most of the action was on the nymph.

The rubberlegs was the key this afternoon on the Pit.  We spend time on various parts of  Fall River today but our afternoon on the Pit River was the best.  In under two hours, my client Chuck from Davis landed 5 really nice rainbows.  The biggest was 18 and well over 2 pounds.

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.

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.

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.

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