Lower Sacramento Fly Fishing Report

Dave Neal, Reel Adventures Guide Service

The Lower Sacramento River has been lights this week! Colder nights and cooler daytime temps, along with some much-needed rain have kicked the Chinook salmon spawn into high gear. It finally feels like fall. From the Posse Grounds to Cottonwood the big kings are doing their thing and the fishing is a version of angler trick or treating – sometimes they get the treat sometimes they get the trick (your hook!!)

The trout in this system seem to be getting fatter and heavier by the day! It’s Alaska fishing right here in northern California. Throw in an occasional steelhead and the river can blow your mind.

This week I’m fishing with my buddy Anthony Carruesco along with a great group of clients he’s previously guided at the Kulik Lodge in AK. They live in Ennis, Montana. They came all the way out to California from MT to fish the Lower Sac in October. How cool is that? They wore huge smiles on their faces and over and over commented on how amazing this river system is. The Lower Sac is that good folks, especially in October. If you have never experienced it, or have struggled in the past, give this river another shot. You will not be disappointed. A quality local guide (there are many, many, great guides in Redding) and a day or two in a drift boat can make all the difference. Better put it on your calendar for 2015 since most of the best guides are already booked solid this month and the next (for good reason).  

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Aaron Gabriel, The Northern California Guide

It’s all about eggs and with historically low water levels this could be the best year ever to walk and wade this gem of a trout stream.  I have Openings Oct  29-30.  If wade fishing be careful not to walk on the mounds of gravel called “reeds” the salmon have enough trouble reproducing without anglers walking in their eggs.  If in an area of reeds walk on the sand that tends to pile on the down stream side this area is void of eggs if you are in sand the eggs are safe if in rocks smaller than 8" in diameter there could be eggs in danger assume any were else with rocks bigger than 8" in diameter is safe to wade.   Also if you are lucky enough to have a boat to access the river do not drop your anchor in these areas period!  

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Hogan Brown, Hogan Brown Fly Fishing

I have spent most of the last two weeks fishing the Lower Sac down low from Red Bluff to Woodson Bridge for trout and steelhead. As the upper river sees the egg bite and gets as crowded as it will be all year I tend to look to other floats. As good as the fishing can be up through redding floating through back yards with 20+ other drift boats is not my idea of fun. So, I head down river to look for steelhead that are moving up river to enter into many of the lower tributaries to spawn. 

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Anthony Carruesco, AC Fly Fishing

I just had a last minute cancelation for a trip on the Lower Sac. The river is fishing as good as it will all year right now. The Egg bite IS GOING OFF. The date is this saturday, the 25th of October. THIS IS A PRIME DATE.