George Revel Report on 6.24.2021

Fishing was excellent mid morning from 8-11am or with some Trico and PMD spinner falls. In the evening the Pmd's and Sallys were coming off with regularity. We predominantly fished dries during these prime times. In the middle of the day nymphing and leeching was the ticket as fish moved to their deeper mid day hiding holes. 

Like clockwork, the fish start sipping trico spinners at 8am. The tricos lay trapped in the surface film of the water. Trapped after laying their eggs the night before the spent spinners float downstream and collect in the seams and swirls. 

The rainbows jockey into position to sip these tiny bugs with gentlest of ease. The gentle sip is the tell-tale sign that fish are eating spinners. With no concern of the dead bug flying away the fish can afford to such laziness in eating their breakfast. For this reason, even the slightest drag on your fly will not be tolerated by your quarry. Pair that with crystal clear water slowly meandering and you have the recipe for a chess game that can ensue for the coming hours. Stealth and presentation become paramount. Fishing become more akin to hunting. 

My spring creek spinner leader is 12ft 4x with 3ft of 6x fluorocarbon. The fluorocarbon sinks just below the surface film of the water removing the dimples the tippet causes on the surface film of the water. These fish will not eat your fly otherwise. 

To catch this fish my client and I slowly got into position and watched the pod until we spotted the largest fish in the pod. We watched him sip flies at very regular intervals. Knowing where he was eating was likely several feet behind where he was holding, we slowly positioned ourselves to make a perfect presentation. A quick pep talk about how one bad cast will put this whole pod down and description of the cast that I thought would fool the fish was spoken softly so as to keep our nerves down. We made a cast well upstream of where the big fish was feeding, trying to be careful to not put the fly in line with one of the other smaller fish that were feeding in the area. To catch a smaller fish would be failure and put this larger fish down. The cast landed exactly where it should have. The arial reach mend put the line above the fly so as to avoid a noisy on water mend. Seeing where the fly lands is so important in spinner fishing because often the fly is very hard to see as it lays flat on the water. We feed the line down to the fish with zero drag. My heart was pumping knowing that this drift stood a real chance.  Just as I was beginning thoughts how to phrase our next cast the fish rose to sip the fly seemingly in slow motion. 

Rebecca and I headed up to Clearwater Lodge to fish Fall River & Hat Creek. We fished late on Sunday evening on the powerhouse 2 riffle. A storm was blowing through leaving sporadic raindrops and cracks of thunder. The 1 billion mosquitoes out were a sign of a good hatch to come. I was thankful for the Simms Bugstopper Shirt and Ben’s 100that I had brought in anticipation of this particular...

Wildwaters reports on 5.1.19

Hat Creek

Although Hat Creek was a very social scene and crowded Saturday Sunday proved otherwise. Our guides and clients found very good fishing at the Power House 2 riffle both days with Sunday being far fewer anglers.

The creek is in excellent shape running a bit high but gin clear. We witnessed occasional PMD’s and Caddis but nothing to get excited about….yet. This is...

Aaron Gabriel reports on 6.28.18

Hat Creek

I have been fishing the rifle portions of hat creek. Czech Nymphing with a small soft tackle, size 16-18 as my top fly and the dropper has been a small jig style fly with a tungsten bead, size 14. 

This has been producing incredible action for 6-12 inch fish with the occasional large trout, 14-20 inch. If early morning fishing is your thing don’t forget the...

Day 2 of 5 Rivers Challenge: Another fun day and happy anglers fishing the wild trout waters of Northern California– Fall, Pit, McCloud, Upper Sacramento rivers and Hat Creek. We have 8 two-person teams out on the water, testing their angling skills to see who catches the most fish and the biggest fish. Congrats to Steve Johnson and Mikk Anderson for both catching a 19” from the Pit and Fall rivers. So far the competition has one team far ahead the rest, but with one more half-day fishing today, let’s see how it turns out. Thanks to Mike Wier for the photos; he joined teams on the McCloud River and Hat Creek, with a little hex in the evening on Fall River. 

Golden Stones, PMDS, and caddis pupa are to be expected this time of year. 

Hex’s are popping on the Fall River too!

Dave Neal reports on 5.24.18

Hat Creek 

The crick is fishing well and is pretty consistent this time of year. Cloudy and rainy afternoons can lead to epic conditions! I like fishing Hat and Pit 3 in the same day for a contrast of experiences (nymphing Pit early and then hunting w/ dry flies on Hat for the evening). Or fish Fall River and then Hat for another change of pace. Look for lots of small...

7/27/2017

Hot, Hot, Hot! With temps in the high 90′s to 100′s fish will be relaxing in the middle of the day… as should you! It’s all about the morning and evening. If you are a die hard to fish in the middle of the day find white water, shade and deep pools. 

You should be fishing caddis, Pmds, small soft hackles, ants, grasshoppers, and LBS (little black shit)