Lower Sac & Steelhead Fly Fishing Report

Anthony Carruesco reports on 1.5.17

We are getting a lot more precipitation up north here than we’ve been used to the past few years. It’s stayed nice and cold for us too to keep some of that snow up in the higher elevations. As much as it hurts having to cancel trips in the winter due to rivers blowing out - It’s nice to know that this rain and snow is ensuring us a good spring and summer water season to follow. Big water years are directly correlated with healthy returns of Anadromous fish in the coming years. So we’ve got that going for us… which is nice.
                                                                                     
Lower Sacramento River

The Sac is currently flowing at 5,000 cubes out of Keswick. She jumped up to 10k for a couple of weeks and just dropped back down to the standard winter flow of 5k. Winter fishing has been good to very good for all of the anglers in my boat.

We are expecting another great Spring/Summer season on the Sac especially with the higher projected flows this summer due to Lake Shasta filling up quick. I love big flows in the Springtime out here.. Early March usually kicks off the first big batch of Caddis hatches of the year. From there the PMDs, and March Browns get rolling. The fishing typically stays very good as we move from March into the early summer months. My calendar is starting to book up for those spring trips so jump on the dates you want soon to ensure availability.    

                                                                             
Winter Steelhead

Unfortunately, there’s not much good to report on the Trinity or Klamath still. There are certainly a few fish to be had on most days but catching more than a couple right now is considered a success.. It is apparent that the compounded years of drought in Northern California are finally catching up with us.  With that being said, the Winter season on the coast is just getting started and there are a whole new set of opportunities. We had a few very good days prior to Christmas.. we are currently playing the waiting game for the weather to clear and water to turn green again. When the next window of good water appears, my hopes are high of running into a mess of dime bright fish.