Lower Sacramento Fly Fishing

Dave Neal Reports on 10.6.2016 

Lower Sacramento River continues to fish really well, despite the fact that the much anticipated “egg drop” hasn’t begun in full force just yet… maybe another week before it gets silly.

I’ve been bouncing around a lot this week floating different sections of the upper river from Redding to Anderson and on down through Cottonwood. I enjoy fishing every section of the Lower Sac because each drift has it’s own unique scenery and cool features of river to experience.

At 7,000cfs the river is at a good flow for doing a variety of different floats. Seems that a lot of anglers are fixated on fishing the Posse Grounds to Bonney area on the Lower Sac. While this section provides opportunities for some of the biggest fish in the river – consider there are many other drifts to explore and experience and often enough you will have more solitude and will see less boats and anglers. As an added bonus… the further downriver you fish on the Sacramento system you have a better chance to run into steelhead.

There are simply not many salmon in the upper river just yet – and with the few salmon that are in… not many are cutting redds just yet. Trout seem to be getting excited anyhow and you will find some willing to eat the right egg patterns. Experiment a bit. Caddis hatches have tapered with the cooler weather, although we have continued to do well, especially in the afternoon, fishing the classic caddis patterns. Salmon continue to trickle in every day and the recent rain and cooler weather seemed to have helped get these fish moving a bit more this week. Things should only improve in the next week or two… stay tuned.