Fishing Report

Written by Lost Coast Outfitters

Filed under

frlakeoroville, frlowersac, Lake Oroville, Lower Sacramento River

Lower Sac & Lake Oroville Fly Fishing Report

Nov 15, 2024

Written by Lost Coast Outfitters

Lower Sac & Lake Oroville Fly Fishing Report

Captain Hogan Brown Reports on Nov. 12th, 2024

Lower Sac Striper Fishing - We have officially entered winter striper season with the time change and the first rains of the year. Usually, this means water temperatures drop to what we consider "winter temps," slowing the fish's metabolism and shortening the feeding windows during the day. With the fish being more lethargic, the number of calories they need to consume changes, meaning they tend to favor larger, more infrequent meals, in our experience.

Winter can be tough for striper fishing on the river and we traditionally say that it can be very good or very tough, with most of that being out of our control—or our anglers' control. That said, you never know unless you go, and some of our biggest fish of the year come during the uncertain winter months.

Lake Oroville Report - Lake Oroville is fishing fair to good as our fall/winter season gets underway. Wakasagi minnows are schooling in the backs of the forks and spotted bass are beginning to congregate around these schools. The key to catching fish this time of year is locating the schools of bait, so electronics are crucial to success. Early mornings have been best on sunny days and as the sun rises, it's important to focus on shaded areas, where fish pull off the bait schools. Float and fly rigs, with the float set at about 10-12 feet, have been most effective and flies like  Ragan’s Drop Dead Minnow are getting the job done.

Fishing should continue to improve over the next few months as rain starts moving water through the tributaries and creeks and baitfish move higher in the water column.

Capt. Hogan Brown

Fly Fishing Guide

Co-Founder of the Cal Bass Union

Owner Alluvial Marketing Collective

530-514-2453

www.hgbflyfishing.com

www.calbassunion.com

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Sacramento River Streamflows at Colusa

Lower Sac streamflow at Colusa

Weather forecast for Colusa, CA

Written by LCO Staff

Filed under

American River, Delta, Feather River, Fishingreport, frYuba, fryubariver, Lake Oroville, Lower Feather, Lower Sacramento River, Northern California, San Francisco Bay, Striper, Yuba River

Hogan Brown Reports 05/29/24: Lower Sacramento River Striper

May 29, 2024

Written by LCO Staff

Hogan Brown Reports 05/29/24: Lower Sacramento River Striper

Lower Sacramento River Striper Fishing – Fishing has been fair to good. Flows dropped this Sunday with the latest “pulse flow” and there was a bit of a weird cold front that moved through Saturday. Even with those issues fishing has been fair to good. There is a mix of fresh migratory fish, spawned-out migratory fish, and resident fish in the mix so lots of fish in the system.

Fish have been podded up a bit still, so it is not a steady bite as the fish move around, and finding fish is the key to stringing a day together. Most fish are in 2-8’ of water and type 7 or 5 shooting heads as clarity has improved drastically over the last 2 days are the ticket.

The long-term forecast shows weather in the low to high 90s and this should really stabilize fishing and conditions. That said the pulse flows can mess with the fish a bit as with this last one the river dropped between 1.5 -2’ in about 24 hours – pushing fish out of the water they were in and changing things overnight literally. The flow change does not mess with the stripers as much as it does the trout higher in the watershed but it does move them and that means finding them again.

June through July though should be great fishing with a phenomenal migratory run of fish and plenty of water to keep both the holdover migratory fish and resident fish happy.

June Open Dates 13, 14

Capt. Hogan Brown

Fly Fishing Guide

Co-Founder of the Cal Bass Union

Owner Alluvial Marketing Collective

530-514-2453

www.hgbflyfishing.com

www.calbassunion.com

Written by LCO Staff

Filed under

Delta, Feather River, Fishingreport, Frshastalake, Lake Oroville, Lower Feather, Lower Sacramento River, Northern California

Cal Bass Union Fishing Report

May 11, 2023

Written by LCO Staff

Capt. Bryce Tedford

Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta is still challenging to fish, been managing around 5-10 fish each day or over the past few weeks. Finding cleaner water can be difficult as silt is floating around with the tides. Water temperatures are around 60 degrees but clarity is only around 2’ or so depending on the tide. The Steve Adachi Black with grizzly hackle Clouser has been doing the trick in the dirty water! On a positive note, each day this past week we’ve had shots at a 10+ lb fish, a few solid 3-5# fish & some shakers in the mix. Hopefully, the waters continue to clear up & more fish show up soon for the Spring Spawn!

Capt. Patrick MacKenzie

Napa & SF Bay have been slow for stripers due to turbid water conditions. Lake Berryessa & Lake Sonoma have been firing for all bass species, panfish& crappie. Hot bobber bite, streamers working as well. May is the month for topwater bass on Berryessa & Lake Sonoma.

Capt. Hogan Brown

The Valley River Striper fishing is picking up for migratory and resident fish. The migratory fish are up through the system of the Yuba, Feather, and Sacramento, and river conditions are starting to shape up that will allow fly anglers to really get after it.

Ryan Williams

Lake Oroville and Clear Lake are about as good as it gets right now with options for float n fly, stripped fly, and top water fishing. Water is warming and fishing should be good through mid-June.

John Fochetti

Lake Shasta is nearly full and fishing has been good. Water is warming and fish are chasing bait through the water columns. Float n Fly and stripping flies is catching good numbers of largemouth, spotted bass, and smallmouth bass.

Written by LCO Staff

Filed under

American River, Delta, Feather River, Fishingreport, frputahcreek, Frtruckee, frtruckeeriver, Lake Oroville, Local Surf, Lower Feather, Lower Sacramento River, Lower Yuba River, Putah Creek, San Francisco Bay, Truckee River, Yuba River

Lost Coast Outfitters Fishing Report April 2023

Apr 18, 2023

Written by LCO Staff

Lost Coast Outfitters Fishing Report 4/15/23

Spring Fishing has begun! We are stoked to have the report back up and running. We are now working with additional independent guides throughout Northern California as well. Ready to provide a consistent source of up-to-date information for all of of our local waterways and beyond.

The Bay/Beach: The beaches are on the edge of turning on. The bulk of our beach adventures have had to occur further away from home.. areas such as Monterey and Santa Cruz have found schools of striped willing to take a fly. As the bay clears up and water temps begin to rise slightly, more fish will become readily available off of Ocean, Baker and Crissy!

Take a look at our Local Surf Clinics or Call the shop for more info!

Lower Sacramento River:

The Lower sac is currently on fire and fishing great. The section above Highway 44 closed on April 1st and will remain closed until August 1st when it reopens. It does not matter though because the rest of the river is putting up some big fish. The flows are sitting at 3,120 below Keswick and the higher up tributaries have already cleared up. Most of our trout waters are already back in play. In the last week we have seen big hatches of PMDs, march browns, BWOs and black caddis, varying day to day based on sunlight and clouds. We have been catching fish on size 14 march brown pheasant tails, size 16 black fox's pupas, size 16 olive S&Ms, peaches and cream, tech junkie, black birds nests, sweet peas and sucker spawn variations. As temps continue to rise the hatches will get bigger and little sallies will be in play, as well as hopper dropper being a good option in the feeding lanes of the skinnier riffles.

Lower Feather River-

The Lower Feather River flows just dropped to around 1100 in the low flow but it still around 9k in the high flow. We have been catching fish in both. There are a lot of fresh spring steelhead in the system and April and May are some of my favorite months to be out there. I was out there three days ago and fishing was great, lots of suckerfish are stacked up and getting their black stripes on the sides in their normal haunts, putting the steelhead on the chow. Go to flies have been sucker spawn and alevins as well as red headed step childs and caddis. Similar to the Yuba's current big water state, soft seams and slower runs will often be the best producers. The spring is the best time of year out there to swing a fly out there and they eat it aggressively.

Call Ben Thompson to get out on the Lower Sacramento Or Feather River: 916-743-8290

Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta

Delta is still challenging to fish, been managing around 10 fish or so over the past week. Finding cleaner water can be difficult as silt is floating around with the tides. Water temperatures are around 60 degrees but clarity is only around 2’ or so. The Steve Adachi Black with grizzly hackle Clouser has been doing the trick in dirty water! On a positive note, each day this past week we’ve had shots at a 10+ lb fish, a few solid 3-5# fish & some shakers in the mix. Hopefully the waters continue to clear up & more fish show up for the Spring Spawn!

Call Bryce Tedford for trips on the Delta year-round: 206-696-2437

Lake Berryessa - 59-63 f

7-9ft via

Float and fly bite is solid and will continue to be for the next two weeks. Right now the best bet for lakes in the Bay Area. Lake is 9ft below spillway.

Lake Sonoma - 48-55f

2-5tt via

Float and fly bite is also happening, but only on dry creek arm, warms spring side is still very dirty. Bait is abundant and the lake is full!

Napa River / Bay 58-61f

Water still dirty in the SP bay/Central Bay. There is clean water and stripers to be caught, but we won’t see a big push of fish until second or third week of May. Stay tuned.

Call Patrick MacKenzie year-round for guided trips on the Napa River: 707-721-6700

Hogan Brown Reports Lake Oroville Bass-

The lake is nearly full, water falls are flowing, and timber is flooding. Fish are on the feed during the morning and afternoon with a bit of a slowdown from 11am-1pm. Fishing the float n' fly is catching the most fish but fish are shallow enough that a popper dropper or streamer rig is also getting fish. Fishing should remain good through April into June

Ryan Williams Reports Lake Oroville-

The prime spring season is slowly shaping up. Water temps are still cold at 52-56. Once the temps hit 60 the action will really turn on. When this happens the 50-100+ fish days will start on the main lake. Still waiting on the topwater & streamer bite to begin. Should begin around the 60 degree mark or even a bit less. For the time being it's all float n fly. Going anywhere from 6'-9' leaders. Currently we're getting about 20-40 fish per day between two anglers. Lots of really nice bass being caught lately, hard to find small ones. Big full bellies getting ready to spawn in the next month or so. The bite is going all day. Mornings and evenings have been best, but we are catching fish throughout the afternoons. Some afternoons have really shaped up to fish really well, producing bigger fish. As far as structures go, we have been fishing lately on points, tributaries, and shade in various canyons.

If you are itching to try Float and Fly Fishing with a fly rod The Cal Bass Union can get you Dialed in!

Get on the water with the Union!!

Matt Heron Reports on the Truckee River-

Although the Truckee River looked like it was going to blow out last week with the warmer temperatures, in the end, it didn’t. The water definitely came up on the CA side but has been receding by the day.

With all the snowpack this year, I’d still call current conditions pre runoff. The river is up, a bit off color (2-5ft of visibility) depending on day and location but is nowhere near what it’s going to be when we start to see consistent air temps in the 50-65 degree range…it’s coming.

Flows are hovering just under, and just over 1,000 cfs. in town and through the canyon.

As far as fishing goes, it’s exactly as we’d expect…size, not numbers (with exceptions!). Most fish our guides are running into are in the 13-20 inch rage with opportunities each day for a true Truckee River giant. These conditions are why we love the spring! Typically, the Truckee kicks out way more rainbows then browns but the tides are turning. Browns love the spring and big water and it’s starting to show with more browns in the net by the week.

Flies- Our crew is getting fish on a variety of nymphs: rubberlegs, skwalas, eggs, worms, march browns, and of course baetis and midges. If the water starts to get muddy, you can typically take baetis and midges off the menu and go bigger with more flash. 3-4x tippet will do the trick this week.

If you get lucky you may run into a few noses even with the water being up. Look for baetis, march browns, midges and skwalas. You never know when that 24in brown will let is guard down on a well presented dry. And yes, it does happen this time of year.

Not surprisingly most fish are being landed on bobber rigs, Euro set ups and streamers. If you’re a streamer angler, now’s the time.

This season’s bookings are in full swing, here’s a taste of what we have going on: full and half day guides trips, NV side float trips, our daily classes on the ponds will start around mid May, and our wildly popular 2 Day Truckee Trout School dates were just announced for this summer (101, 201 and Youth/Family).

Get out on the water with Matt Heron!

Putah Creek

Slow start to our Putah Creek Fishing Season. The rains kept us at bay due to limited visibility. Current conditions are challenging as Hwy 128 is currently CLOSED. This is a note pulled off of The Cal Trans Website:

[IN THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA AREA]
IS CLOSED FROM THE SOLANO/YOLO CO LINE TO 4.6 MI EAST OF THE SOLANO/YOLO CO LINE /AT PLEASANT VALLEY RD/ - DUE TO A SLIDE - MOTORISTS ARE ADVISED TO USE AN ALTERNATE ROUTE

Join us Wednesday April 26th from 5:30pm and on at the Shop for our

Putah Creek *Shop Talk*

Written by Lost Coast Outfitters

Filed under

Lake Oroville, Lower Sacramento River

Central Valley Fly Fishing Report

Mar 12, 2020

Written by Lost Coast Outfitters

Captain Hogan Brown Reports on 3.10.2020

Lake Oroville - Fishing has been good with stable weather. When the barometer changes like last weekend and the forecast this weekend fishing can turn off for a day or two. Fish are gorging on Wakasagi Minnows in the 1-2" size and fishing a float'n fly rig during the morning and switching a stripped fly set up ounce the water temps get up over 53 midday day. Best success is over graphed fish in 10-20' of water suspended under dead bait on the surface.

Valley River Striper fishing - Has been fair. Rivers are LOW and CLEAR making our resident stripers pretty skittish but there are feeding fish and water temps are warming but still in the "winter" range as day time temps are in the 70s but night time temps are still in the high 30s-low 40s. No reports of migratory fish showing up in the lower sections of our rivers but March/April is usually prime time. With low water though the spawn will take place MUCH lower then previous years. June -October is prime time for our resident valley stripers.

Written by Lost Coast Outfitters

Filed under

Lake Oroville

Central Valley Fly Fishing Report

Mar 05, 2020

Written by Lost Coast Outfitters

Captain Hogan Brown Reports on 3.4.20

Written by Lost Coast Outfitters

Filed under

Feather River, Lake Oroville, Lower Feather, Lower Sacramento River

Central Valley Fly Fishing Report

Feb 27, 2020

Written by Lost Coast Outfitters

Captain Hogan Brown Reports on 2.27.20

Lower Sacramento River - Striper fishing has been tough as the flows are as low as they get - 5000cfs coming out of Keswick and 5891cfs at Chico - With low and clear water stripers get pretty darn spooky but those with the game can still get bit. Like most places we need some rain and water to mix things up and make fishing a bit easier. We should start to see the migratory push of fish show up soon over the next month which will also mix things up.

Lake Oroville and Lake Shasta - are turning on with this early spring! Good numbers of pre spawn spotted bass are being caught on both lakes and with consistent weather fishing should be good on most days. Rain would help these fisheries as well to - getting some of the creeks and inflows moving would help congregate fish and move the bait around.

Lower Yuba River is fishing well with stable flows around 1000 - 900cfs. Flows are gin clear and while nymphing has been good dry fly fishing requires purposeful good presentations. Spring hatches are getting going with the warm weather and should continue to be good throughout the spring. We most likely will see little flow fluctuation due to run off and actually have a good fishable spring on the Lower Yuba.

Feather River Spring Steelhead Season is right around the corner as prime time is March through early May and with the light winter and early spring we are having we should actually have a good spring season out on the Feather. My prefered method for fishing the spring on the feather is swinging flies but nymphing catches plenty of fish as well.

Written by Lost Coast Outfitters

Filed under

Lake Oroville, Lower Sacramento River

Central Valley Fly Fishing Report

Jan 09, 2020

Written by Lost Coast Outfitters

Captain Hogan Brown Reports on 1.9.2020

Lake Oroville Spotted Bass Fishing has been hit and miss .... which really means the bite has been compressed in small windows. My experience is the fish eat during small windows and when they are eating they jump on the fly but when they are not they are hard to get to eat. So fishing can be good for an 30-40 minutes and then shut off for a few hours then turn back on, just depends on the given day. This rain that is moving in should mix things up and get many of the creeks flowing attracting bait and bass to the running water. The Float'n Fly method has been catching the most fish with water in the 50-53 degree range but slow crawling bait fish patterns ounce you locate feeding fish has produced. Fishing on the Lake will continue to improve through late winter and spring.

Lake Shasta Bass Fishing - Took a trip up north to Lake Shasta to fish with my dear friend and guide John Fochetti out of his new boat this last week as well. First off Lake Shasta is an incredibly diverse bass fishery. ALL sorts of different structure and species of fish...we caught spots and small mouth but there are largemouth and mean mouth (smallie/spot hybrid) in the lake as well and some BIG fish as recent tournament bags have had double digit bass in them. John has the lake pretty figured out with the fly rod and once we dialed in what the fish were eating we were catching fish most places. Most fish came on small cray fish patterns dragged/jigged down slopping banks. Like Oroville this Shasta will continue to fish better and better over the next 4-6 months.

Valley Striper Fishing has been hit or miss...fishing can be really good for trophy fish when they are eating but the rivers have been crowded with gear fishermen and the fish don't eat every day. It is truly a game of putting in your time and being in the right place at the right time.

Written by George Revel

Filed under

Lake Oroville, Lower Sacramento River

Lower Sacramento Striper Fly Fishing Report

Sep 12, 2019

Written by George Revel

Lower Sacramento Striper Fly Fishing Report

Capt. Hogan Brown Reports on 9.12.19

Valley River Striper Fishing has been good. Fall (Sept-Nov) is always a great time to be on the water as the heat of summer subsides and the fish start to eat for the approaching winter. Fishing was a bit tough over the weekend with the pressure front that moved through but with stable weather sense Monday fishing has been good. There are many options this time of year for fall river striper fishing but most fish are still coming on fast sinking shooting heads but as flows began to drop fishing lighter lines will become more of an option. Salmon anglers are thick on most of our rivers and knowing where they are is key to finding fishable water.

Valley Reservoirs like Lake Oroville, Lake Shasta, Bullards Bar, Englebright and many others are starting to turn on with the cooler nights and days. While fishing will really pick up starting in November through April there are windows this time of year early and late in the day to catch fish as they go on feeding binges for the approaching winter. Fall fishing for bass can be some of the best of the season but being in tune with weather, barometric pressure, and sunrise and set times is critical. While many people began to turn away from bass fishing as the fall season sets in they end up missing some of the most voraciously feeding bass of the year!

Written by George Revel

Filed under

Lake Oroville, Lower Sacramento River, Lower Yuba River

Lower Sacramento, Lower Yuba, and Lake Oroville Fly Fishing Report

Aug 29, 2019

Written by George Revel

Lower Sacramento, Lower Yuba, and Lake Oroville Fly Fishing Report

Hogan Brown Reports on 8.29.2019

Open Guide Dates:
Nov: 9, 23, 25-27
Dec: 7, 23, 27, 30, 31
Jan: 2, 3, 8-11, 18, 20,
Feb: 1, 10, 15, 17, 29

Lower Sacramento River Striper fishing has been good. Water temps all over the river have come down and fish are happy and eating throughout the day down to Colusa. Salmon are in the river in good numbers and so are the salmon anglers and guides so knowing how to get away from boat traffic is very important to finding fish that will eat. Flows have not come down from their summer levels so shallow water fishing is still not an option on a regular basis but ounce we get that flow drop fall fishing should really get going and the I Lines and Type 3's will be the ticket. September and October are some of the BEST months to be on the river to chase the trophy fish and this year should be no different. Winter fishing should be good as well as long as flows hold and the river does not blow out.

Lower Yuba River is fishing good and while I have not been on the river a bunch of my buddies have and they have talked about some good fishing, but mostly from the drift boat. Wade anglers are struggling from what I have heard. That said picking and choosing your spots will help and I am sure there are plenty of fish to be caught.

Lake Oroville should start fishing here in the next few months and really hit its stride come November - April. Spotted bass fishing is best usually in Dec-March and is at its peak when NOTHING else is fishing!

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Fishing Report

Lower Sac & Lake Oroville Fly Fishing Report

Hogan Brown Reports 05/29/24: Lower Sacramento River Striper

Cal Bass Union Fishing Report

Lost Coast Outfitters Fishing Report April 2023

Central Valley Fly Fishing Report

Central Valley Fly Fishing Report

Central Valley Fly Fishing Report

Central Valley Fly Fishing Report

Lower Sacramento Striper Fly Fishing Report

Lower Sacramento, Lower Yuba, and Lake Oroville Fly Fishing Report