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Fishing Report

Central Valley Fly Fishing Report

Central Valley Fly Fishing Report
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. 
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Central Valley Fly Fishing Report

Central Valley Fly Fishing Report
Captain Hogan Brown Reports on 3.4.20
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.
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Central Valley Fly Fishing Report

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. 

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Central Valley Fly Fishing Report

Central Valley Fly Fishing Report

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. 
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Lower Sacramento Striper Fly Fishing Report

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

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

Lake Oroville Fly Fishing Report

Capt. Hogan Brown reports on 5.30.19

Lake Oroville is fishing really good and is full to brim with some really cool structure and such to fish. There are flooded trees and flats where the carp, bluegill, crappie, and spots are moving into and with water temps in the 60's everyone is on the feed. Good time of year to fish the float n fly, strip flies, fish top water, and even drop some crawfish patterns along snags and trees. 
Carp fishing on a few of our local reservoirs is fishing very well as well with so much water the carp flats are FULL and the fish are taking full advantage. There is nothing more challenging in fresh water then fishing to tailing or cruising carp in the flats. 
Open Dates:
June 13, 14, 18, 
July 10, 19, 24-26, 31
Aug 1, 3, 31
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Foothill Bass Fly Fishing Report

Capt. Chuck Ragan reports on 4.11.19

The Foothill lakes continue to produce some awesome days for bass on the fly.  Temps have changed and some waters are warming and clearing and fish are beginning to show up on streamers and the strip. 

Good to great numbers and every now and again a sizable fish as well as by-catches of rainbow trout. If you haven’t experienced bass fishing in the foothills,...

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Lake Oroville Bass Fly Fishing Report

Capt. Hogan Brown reports on 3.18.19

Been spending most of my time on Lake Oroville fishing for spotted bass. Water temps are up a bit and the sunshine is out. The spots are spread out between winter mode, pre-spawn, and even a few spawning fish I think. Fishing the float n fly is catching fish and we have been getting on some stripped fly bites midday in the coves where water temps are up. As the...

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Lake Oroville Fly Fishing Report

Capt. Hogan Brown Fly Fishing Report

BEST FISHING RIGHT NOW is the valley reservoirs and foothill bass lakes for spotted bass. I have been out on Lake Oroville and we have been getting nice pre-spawn spotted bass in the 2-4lb range. 

Not huge numbers of fish but good fish, though with a stable lake level we should see the numbers increase over the next week. 

There are tons of water falls and creeks...

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