Lower Sacramento Fly Fishing Report
Anglers in Northern California should not be sitting down right now unless it’s in a vehicle traveling to go fishing! Nearly every river up the I-5 corridor from Red
Bluff to Mt Shasta and over towards Fall River Mills is fishing good to excellent right
now. Get out there!!
Lower Sac
Flows are creeping up towards summer release, and the upper river is around 10k – which is a high flow!! Embrace the long float program and see some new water.
The higher water levels make it easier to cover more river miles. Forget back rowing the same runs over and over and don’t even get me started on the motor-up and lap program. This is the time of year for doing long floats and covering lots of water on full days, or doing half-days AM or PM sessions.
I really like the change of pace of the lower river floats this time of year. If you have only fished the Lower Sac from Posse to Bonneyview or Anderson River Park but have never explored below that… you are missing out on beautiful sections of the river around Cottonwood and further down that is much more scenic and quiet compared to the hustle and bustle of Redding.
The fish are generally smaller but way more aggressive, and there are lots of different types of water that hold trout. You can also do some side projects in the many tributaries for smallmouth bass and other species. Caddis rule right now so have plenty of Hydropsyche pattens in sizes and shades of brown, tan, cinnamon, burnt orange, etc.… the bottom of the river is absolutely
Loaded with caddis larva. This summer could be epic! On any given day you will also see PMD’s maybe some small BWO, golden stones, little yellow Sally
stones, a few Salmon flies and perhaps some drakes and other mayfly species on the cloudier days.
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