The Lower Sac Fly Fishing Report
A
nthony Carruesco, AC Fly Fishing
The Lower Sac has continued to kick out some great fishing over the past week. Still, we have yet to see the bigger hatches that the spring usually gives up. There are some spring Caddis still around, PMDs, March Browns and a few Salmonflies, but not in great numbers yet. Probably a symptom of the low water and more silt covering the gravel than usual.. Despite the lack of big bugs hatching the fish are still very healthy and eating well.
Check out some more photos from the river here
Aaron Gabriel, The Northern California Guide
I have to say that in terms of fish numbers on a day to day basis the Lower Sac is a very hard river to beat. I have been seeing a lot of bent rods around. Im not really a numbers guy so not sure how many we have been landing but if I where to guess 25-50 fish a day. The upper portion of the river (Keswick Damn- Highway 44 Bridge) will likely be closed at the end of April through July in order to protect an endangered salmon run. The rest of the river will be open to fishing under the normal regulations. It is PMD time on the Lower Sac with Salmon Flies, PMD’s, Spring Caddis and March Browns.
The fishing has been good all day with the really good fishing happening in the afternoon. Call The Northern California Guide At (530)356-2189 for a quality fishing experience.
- Brown Rubber Legs Size 8
- Amber Wing Princes 14-16
- PT’s beaded and un beaded 14-16
- Yellow Micro Spawn
- BH Epoxi Back PMD 14-16
- Peaches n Cream 14-16
- Quasimodo 14-16
Hogan Brown, Hogan Brown Fly Fishing
I have been on the Lower Sacramento River lately…
Been floating down low mostly between Anderson Bend Bridge. Fishing has been
good to very good. Traditionally lower floats are not known for their
bigger fish but we are getting some nice 18-20" rainbows as well as
plenty 16-17" rainbows. Hot flies have been Rubber Legs, Hogan’s Amigo
in Brown, Hogan’s March Madness Nymph, RK Flatulator March Brown, #18
Amber Wing princes and Dark Lords.
Lower Sac
Bass fishing out of chico - The water is warming up to about 60 midday
in the sloughs and back waters with a few fish starting to get active
but not many…last time out this last week I looked for beded up
largemouth and some smallies in various creeks mouths and didn’t find a
one. I did manage a few nice stripers during the warmest part of the day
but the recent rain and cold I am sure will slow down this bite.
Lower
Sac Shad fishing is coming up May is prime time and with the lower
water I have finding all sorts of great wade fishing spots to access via
the jet boat. Traditionally we fish out of the boat with minimal
opportunities to wade fish but this year there will be some great wade
opportunities.
Other River News:
Some interesting news coming from the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Follow the link above to read the entire article. Apparently, DFW thinks it will help protect our winter run Salmon to close all fishing upstream of the HWY 44 bridge (only taking away about a mile of trout water for us).. This seems like a pretty weak (and strange) effort, seeing as everybody that does fish this stretch targets trout.. Sure there is a very small percentage of by-catch that will occur and apparently that will cause enough harm to these fish? I would think that if CA DFW really wanted to provide some protection to these endangered fish, they’d limit the kill and take of Chinook Salmon below Anderson - where these fish are easily targeted and caught in the Summer and Fall. They might also be interested in making sure the flows aren’t dropped in the middle of November when these endangered, wild fish are in full spawn. The past couple of years have left a large percentage of salmon redds high and dry during the spawning season. A pretty sad sight. One thing this closure will do, is protect a lot of the wild spawning trout. I think any efforts to protect these fish are good, I just think this seems like a pretty bogus effort and there are much more effective ways to protect these endangered salmon.
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