Lake Davis and Feather River Fly Fishing Report

Jon Baiocchi reports on 6/2/2016

Last week’s unsettled weather brought a mixture of rain, wind, sunshine, thunder, and hail. If you didn’t like the weather, all you had to do was wait ten minutes. The cooling trend brought down water temps to 53 to 56, but as of today they are on the rise again ranging from 57 to 60 degrees. It also put a slight halt to the hatches. All this will change once we get an extended period of warmer weather. Fishing pressure has been on the light side until this holiday weekend, the lake was busy. Overall Lake Davis is fishing good one day, fair the next, and days like today were really tough. Moving around to various coves and points is necessary, but once you have found the fish it’s all about putting in your time with good presentations.

Blood midges have waned for the time being, as have Callibaetis mayflies. There are more active spinners right now, and the spinner fall commences in the late afternoon. Damsels were really affected by the cooler weather, I have not seen as many as I did a week and a half ago. I’m also seeing many juvenile damsel nymphs which I’m not usually accustomed to seeing.  There are many smaller types of chironomids in the mix too. Lots of food for the resident rainbows.

There have been more rising fish than the previous weeks, and the size of the fish are large, many with big shoulders. For rigs, a floating line with a long leader stripping damsel nymphs has been effective. Indo set ups have been successful targeting both the upper water column, and just off the bottom. A indicator you can move quickly is beneficial when targeting different depths. Flies – Albino Winos, Flashback PT’s, red copper Johns, and brown wiggle tails are getting the grabs. The best is yet to come in the next 4 weeks, make a plan to fish Lake Davis, and get in on the damsel game.

The Middle Fork Feather River

The MF Feather is just coming into shape, water temperatures need to come up a little more, then its game on. I have not had a chance to fish it, but I’ve gotten some good reports from fellow anglers. The North Fork Yuba River is high and cold. Today I poked around and was surprised to see many Golden Stone adults ovipositing on the water’s surface. Green Drake mayflies were out with both duns and spinners. It’s frustrating to see good hatches, but the conditions for fishing are just not quite there yet. The river should be fishable in 3 weeks or so.  Get out there, and enjoy the great outdoors.