Lower Sacramento Fly Fishing Report

Dave Neal Reports on 12/23/2015

Fishing on the Lower Sac has been pretty decent this week and has offered up a great alternative to the Trinity for us. I’ve been fishing the upper reach, Posse to Bonnyview areas a few days this week as the lower river has been too windy and/or dirty with runoff on the days I’ve been out there.

The fish are not chowing in every run, but where we found them they were holding thick as thieves with multiple double-hookups and fish on every pass. We are fortunate to have this incredible tailwater fishery flowing right through downtown Redding. The L Sac is a fantastic winter river with lots of days providing opportunities to tangle with big, strong, wild trout from 16”-22”+.

Recent rainstorms have blown out the lower river. I drove over Cow Creek on the morning of 12/22 and it was huge and muddy. I couldn’t help think about the number of winter salmon and steelhead blasting up these Sac River tributaries right now. Winter is finally here and it’s been a long time comin’.

As far as bugs and fly patterns… there’s been a prolific bwo hatch (tiny bugs #20-22) beginning late morning through afternoon, along with some lighter and larger (#16) mayflies coming off for about 2 hours early afternoon, most days. I’ve even seen some small dark caddis popping on a few “better weather” days. But… the fish are chowing on eggs, and variations of egg patterns, especially when the rains dirty up the river a bit. I’d imagine we are going to see periods of turbid water from here on out and eggs will always be a big factor over bugs on these days.

As far as open dates for either the Trinity or L Sac… I have only a couple dates open in January. February has some availability but filling fast. I’ve begun booking dates for the L Sac March/April – early spring is my favorite time on the Sacramento River! If you want to schedule a group trip with multiple boats get on it soon…