Feather River Fly Fishing Report

Jordan Romney Reports on 3.10.2016

WIth the recent signs of El Nino that finally showed up most things are on hold for a bit. It looks like there is another thumping headed for us this weekend. Despite knowing I was heading to muddy water I ran up and fished the Feather with two other guides this week. It had been a few months of hiatus from that river so I was excited to just fish it myself for a change.

The spring fish have showed up from the word around the guide chat but not in full numbers yet. The water was cloudy, browner than I had hoped for like a mocha color. We had about a 2’ of visibility. I tried swinging for a good part of the day with no tugs. By the end we switched to the nymph rig and found a few fish. It was a lot of work for a few fish but it’s kind of the only game in town right now. The fish we did get were extremely feisty and worth the outing.

The general message for the feather right now is that there are some fish around but it takes a lot of casts and drifts to find them. You need to cover water and put your flies right in front of their faces. Try bright San Juans, bright eggs, and really flashy nymphs.

I finally had a chance to test out Rio’s Single Hand Spey line. I was blown away with the capabilities of the line. It was a pleasure to cast and swing streamers and soft hackles on a full floating mono leader. The other dynamics this line has is that it casts overhead very well too. You can shoot a lot of line with very little effort with it. I am still playing around with some versileaders on it and how it casts. This could be a very effective trout streamer line too. Clear your schedule and get on mine. Once these waters clear the fishing should be really good. The fish will be hungry and eager for meal. Make sure you clean your boots after fishing here. There has been mud snails discovered. We all need to do our part to help spreading them to other waters.