Current Fishing Report

I had a chance to guide Ethan on the upper Sac today.  We had a great time fishing dries for about two hours this morning.  Fish were aggressively feeding on the surface and we had lots of grabs.  The fish weren't very big, but what a blast!  Wet wading this classic trout stream was a nice way to beat the heat.

Sam Robinette and I had the privilege of guiding Deborah, Jason, and their son Ethan from Virginia.  We began with an evening float on Tuesday.  Deborah and Jason hooked several fish in a very short amount of time - the largest being a solid and obese 20 incher!  there's no better way to spend a summer evening!  Fishing wasn't quite as hot today, but everyone managed to hook into some really big fish!  Family vacations are the best when you go fishing!

Katie and I took the girls to the Klamath this weekend.  We stayed at our Spey Camp which is about 3 miles up from the launch at Klamath Glen.  Camping was great and we had a ton of fun on the river, but the fishing is pretty darn slow right now. I spoke to some Fish and Game guys at the Blue Creek Riffle.  They were doing a hook-and-line survey (that means they get to fish!) and they had landed two adult steelhead that morning, including a 28" fish.  We saw just a couple of salmon guides working the river.  The local word is that a big bunch of fish moved through about 2 weeks ago and fishing was great.  Who knows when the next run will come in.  The river looks great, though.  We boated all the way up to Johnsons and saw a lot of great looking riffles.  By the time you get up there they could be filled with fish!

Mackenzie trying for a steelhead

Spey Camp 2016 swag

Picnic at the Blue Creek lagoon

BEARS!

4 days into the "re-opener" and the upper part of the Lower Sac is still fishing very well.  Today we hooked plenty of fish that would all have been the best fish of the day on most days on this river.  If the seasonal closure persists, as I'm sure it will, you would be crazy not to book a guide for August 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of next year.Today you could tell the fish were a little "over it" on this stretch of river.  I saw several large fish jumping out of the water trying to dislodge hooks attached to broken lines.  We still hooked quite a few nice fish, though.  There is a good caddis hatch in the afternoon.  The caddis are big, a size 12 at least and brown.  I imagine some of the fish that concentrated in the closed area the last four months will start to spread out throughout the river system.I'll be striper fishing next week for a nice change of pace.  Stay tuned! 

"Opening Day" for the 5.5 miles of river above the Highway 44 Bridge was today and it did not disappoint!  Since the end of March this stretch of river has been closed due to the endangered Winter-Run Chinook spawning season.  This is the 2nd year we have experienced this closure.  I am of the opinion that it is a good thing for our trout fishery since the closure timing and area coincides with the bulk of the trout spawning on the Lower Sac.The fishing was nothing short of amazing at times today.  I floated with clients Jerry and son Matt through the re-opened area twice today.  The first pass was okay and the boat traffic was off the charts.  The 2nd pass through in the afternoon was magical.  We rarely went 30 seconds without hooking a fish and Matt landed a real beast, a hook-jawed rainbow about 4 pounds!  The rest of the river fished well, too.  We landed a lot of 20" rainbows today all throughout the river.

Matt with a 22 rainbow

Jerry with one of several 20 rainbows

We just finished up another fantastic guide school.  Aaron, Rob, Dylan, and Drew was the dream team of students, who will all be guiding someday in the near future.  All venues fished excellent for us this week.  The Pit River is fishing excellent.  High stick nymphing is the most productive technique here until the caddis hatch is the evenings.  If you cover water and have good presentations, you will find plenty of fish.The McCloud River has also been fishing excellent.  Dry dropper is my favorite rig here.  If they aren't eating on top, go to a high stick nymph rig and cover water.  Every evening on the Mac provides good dry fly fishing this time of year.  Stick it out! Fall River has had some fun head hunting opportunities in the mornings for large fish eating calibaetis emergers and spinners.  Its a tough game to play, but more rewarding than just staring at a bobber and cleaning weeds off of it every cast.  Sinking line techniques are also working, pulling damsels and leaches.  Fishing has been shutting off by around 2pm, so good time for a break then go fish the hex in the evening.  It's been starting really late this year, at around 9:15 so don't pack it in too early. Hat Creek has been fishing great in the mornings and evenings.  Excellent trico spinner fall from about 8 to 10.  Fantastic caddis hatch in the evenings with a smattering of mayflies to keep you busy.  Mid day has been slow here.  The upper Rogue has started to get steelhead trickling in.  I'm heading up there this weekend.  Mornings are the best time to swing one up this time of year up there.  I will be back to guide it for the month of November after the Grande Ronde in October.Reports from the lower Klamath are good!  We start our spey camps down there August 1st and have one open spot left.  Contact me for details. 

Leslie releasing a Fall River beauty

Small creek fishing has been excellent

Aaron rigging for success on the Mac

Leslie and Rob working on dry dropper guide techniques

Dylan and Drew figuring out the best lie

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 just finished up two days of really good fishing on the Lower Sac with clients Chuck and Bill.  We fished Posse Grounds to Anderson yesterday and Bonnyview to Balls Ferry today.  Fishing was on fire at times, with multiple 18" rainbows coming out of certain spots.  The fishing was good in the morning, excellent around lunch time, and generally slowed down around 2:30pm.  The weather was really hot in the afternoon, especially today.  Fish are mainly eating small mayfly and caddisfly patterns right now.  The size and condition of the fish is excellent right now.  We landed several 18" rainbows that were close to 3 pounds in weight.  Flows have been steady at 10000cfs for almost a week now and the fish really seem to like it!

Chuck with a big one

Lots of quality rainbows today

Brian Kohlman and I took our 2016 Guide School students out on the Lower Sac today.  We have four great guys in the class this year.  Some had rowing experience already, others did not.  They all learned a ton about rowing and they caught some great fish in the process.  The river fished very well today and we hooked a lot of 18"+ fish.  The biggest was about 21".  The grab was really good throughout the whole day.

hooked up

Dylan with a big one

Drew with his first fish of the day

Rob with a big one

Aaron with a nice rainbow

I fished stripers today with Don and Mike from the Santa Rosa area.  The weather was perfect (not overly hot) and we hardly saw any other boats on the river.  We covered about 20 miles of river by the end of the day.  We started off with some good action, but then fishing was tough from about 11am to 2pm.  The bite improved in the afternoon, though.  Don finished the day with at least five fish, the largest about 3 pounds.  Mike landed a couple of larger schoolies too.Visibility is improving and the weedbeds are starting to come in.  The river looks a lot better than it did just 10 days ago.  I anticipate more fish and more big fish once the weedbeds become established and the forage fish arrive in good numbers. 

After the busy 4th of July weekend, the weather has cooled off a bit and everything is fishing pretty good in the Intermountain area, especially the hex hatch on Fall.  We have some prime available dates left in July before we kick off our steelhead season in August on the Klamath.  We still have a few spots open for Speycamp, please contact me with any questions.  

The McCloud is one of the most beautiful rivers in the states

Tony hooked up on the Mac

Tony from SF anticipating the best hatch in the West

A dog makes the hex hatch more fun!

Hat Creek has been good mornings and evenings

Scott Saiki's client for Tuesday, June 28th just had to cancel his trip.  Scott is now available to fish the Fall River, Lower Sac, or pretty much any other area fishery.  The Fall River is fishing very well right now, with the hex hatch being the big draw.  Get in touch if you would like to jump on this prime date!

I did my first-ever striper/hex combo trip yesterday.  We fished the Lower Sac for stripers until 2pm and then headed up to Fall River for the hex hatch. We had pretty good striper fishing, albeit for small fish, in the morning and then the hex hatch was about as good as it gets.  My clients Frank and Doug landed close to ten big fish on hex dries last night.  Pretty amazing, especially considering the windy conditions.  All of the hex fish were 16-19" and were great fighters.The fishing was challenging during the day today.  We landed just a couple fish, but one of them was Doug's best Fall River fish ever, a 21" rainbow.The hex hatch was really good again tonight.  The wind totally changed from last night and there were way more bugs, so our flies were a bit outnumbered.  We landed four or five nice fish.  Frank and Doug have done the hex hatch many times over the years and they thought this year was the best they've ever seen.Dax and Leslie have opened up some dates in early July - come up and experience the hex hatch.  

Doug with a 21 rainbow

that's a fatty

fish on during the hex hatch

I spent a half-day this morning on the Sac with longtime clients Frank & Doug from the Sacramento area.  It was their first time fishing for stripers and they had a blast.  We didn't get any big boys today, but we hooked about a dozen schoolies in the 10-16" size range.  The water clarity isn't the best right now - it's coming out of Keswick pretty green.  That makes it hard to sight-fish for larger fish and see when other fish are chasing the flies.  We saw some pretty nice largemouth and smallmouth bass in a couple of sloughs, but they were surrounded by thousands of baitfish and didn't seem to be hungry! 

The weather has been very sporadic in June here in Nor Cal.  Mt. Shasta got a beautiful blanket of fresh snow a few nights ago.  It makes for beautiful sunsets on Fall River as you await the hex hatch.  Some of the windy and cooler nights this past week kept the hatch from happening, but overall its been a superb hex season despite the unseasonal weather.  The hatch is happening both above and below the confluence, which makes for a nice displacement of pressure.  Don't drop right below somebody when there is two hundred yards of open water above them.  Llights!  If you don't have proper lights on your boat, at least have headlamps and flashlights.  Better yet, Shasta Angler in Fall River has the proper lights for you, the game warden and other anglers don't care if your crappy rental boat isn't properly equipped with lights...its the operator's responsibility.Hat Creek has been decent in the mornings and evenings, kinda tough during the day.  The warmer weather will help hatches.  The Mac has been the typical McCloud.  At times you wonder if there are any fish or insects in the place, then all of a sudden it turns on and you are hooking fish all over the place.  Afternoons have been better recently for me.   I only have a few more days available for trout season.  Fishing should be great these next few weeks. 

Our pet hex!

Leslie on a remote Nor Cal freestone river

Hiking around in the beautiful forest the Mac runs through

The Mac!

My favorite hatch of all time is on Fall River, 20 minutes of glory!

Leslie and Alex Ferber casting dries on the Fall

Fished this past week all around NorCal working on a project with GoPro and Cal Trout. Over the course of the week, we fished the upper Sac, Hat Creek, the McCloud river, Klamath river and Fall River. The weather was cold and rainy, but the fishing still managed to be great. Fished with nymphs, streamers and dries, and caught fish with each set up. I even managed to swing up a bass. It was an awesome week, and with the weather starting to warm up again, the hatches should really start to pick up again.  On Fall River the past few days, the Hex hatch is really going off. This is my favorite hatch, not just because of the aggressive takes, but also because watching the sun set over Mt. Shasta is never the same experience twice. 

A nice one at the lakes

Fall river sunsets

Best hatch and the best beer

Mikey Wier with a nice rainbow

The weather has been very unpredictable this spring, but the fishing has remained consistent and today was no exception!  We had rain yesterday and this morning, but despite the weather - the fish were super grabby for Bill and Ken.  We never saw another boat all day and fishing was simply epic.  They had so many double hook-ups, that it seemed odd if one was hooked-up without the other.  Caddis patterns and mayflies nymphs were the ticket today. 

I spent the afternoon scouting for stripers with fellow guide Sam Robinett.  I didn't have high expectations due to the high winds and cool temperatures.  Stripers generally like it hot.  We worked some of my favorite spots for about an hour and a half and then I hooked a very nice fish.  I saw it chase the fly right at the end of the retrieve, so I stopped retrieving and the fish gobbled the fly right next to the boat!  We had a lot of action in the next two hours on schoolies from 10 to 16 inches.  We finished off the day in a great carp spot and Sam landed a beauty!Pretty good action for non-ideal conditions.  I'll be striper fishing a lot from here on out through the end of September.  Come on up and see what it's all about! 

My first and largest fish of the day

Sam manhandled this giant carp

I fished Steve and grandson Chris today on Battle Creek.  We got off to an early start and the river was in much better shape than 2 weeks ago when it was too high.  I was sweating bullets by 2pm though as we had covered a lot of water without many strikes.  Right before our first hike-out opportunity the fish went on the grab.  We decided to fish a little more and my guys got to experience what Battle Creek is known for - tons of grabs on dry flies.  We landed fish up to ten inches and rose a few larger ones on a variety of giant dry flies.  The best flies were a pink hopper and a Turck's tarantula, size 8-10.  We saw some golden stones in the air, tons of hoppers in the upper part of the canyon, and lots of dragons and damsels.  We also spotted 4 or 5 spring-run chinook - really cool to see these huge wild fish hanging out in crystal clear cold water all summer. 

I fished the Lower Sac this morning with Steve and grandson Chris.  We floated Anderson to Balls which was nice and peaceful, but the cool weather seemed to throw the fishing off a bit.  We landed a fish fish, including two nice fat 16" rainbows.  By 1pm the wind came up made the fishing really difficult.  It was a great two days for first-time angler Chris, though.  He landed six rainbows on dry flies on Battle Creek yesterday and then caught a few fish today on the Lower Sac.We finished up our day in Red Bluff trying for shad but they were nowhere to be found.  Calm sunny weather should make for improved shad fishing. 

Chris with his first Lower Sac fish