NorCal Fly Fishing Report

Dave Neal Northern California motivational report:

May is a great month for Nor-Cal anglers. If you have buddies or fishing partners who suggest or make remarks that they are bored or generally unmotivated to go fly fishing right now… you need to get some new buddies and fishing partners, immediately!

A lot of great fishing is happening right now all over the north state and will get even better in the coming weeks. Shad, bass, and stripers should keep valley anglers busy and in the thick of adventure for weeks to come.

Personally, I’ve taken a little time off this past week to decompress from steelhead season and before a busy summer trout season gets going. A buddy and I threw some poppers on a local quarry pond the other day and I’ve poked around a few creek mouths for smallies. I have a striper trip planned next week on the Sacramento River and who knows maybe even a shad trip or two is in my future?

As for trout fishing… the Lower Sac continues to be pretty damn good. We are seeing daily pmd’s in the afternoon and solid numbers of ped’s coming off in the evening. Rumors of dry fly fishing opportunities in select areas at the key times have kept me on point for noses.

We are seeing steady caddis activity in the afternoons along with yellow sallies and a few larger stones fluttering around as well. Flows are up to 6,500cfs today, which is a great flow, allowing for some longer floating options for those of us who don’t use motors on our drift boats.

As we move into middle May, the one river I am most excited about is the Pit River. It is by far and away my favorite walk & wade water and I plan to spend a lot more time on it the next few weeks and months to come… so stay tuned.

My next available dates are in June so if you want to get out and walk & wade the Pit, or float the L Sac, or fish dries on Hat Creek you have a couple weeks to plan: June 1, 3, 8-16, 20, 21, 27, 28