Jon Baiocchi reports on 6.14.19

The phone has been ringing of the hook the last couple of weeks and folks are itching to get out and fish, unfortunately, prime time is still a ways off for great trout fishing. I will can tell you this, we will experience really good fishing from July until late fall, and the dog days of summer might not even happen. For people who do not live in or near the Northern Sierra it is difficult for them to understand just how much snow is still up high and that it all still has to melt. Water agencies, law enforcement, and counties have been issuing warnings on recreation in or near rivers, and even closing some off totally to the public. Here is the scoop on waters I have been scouting, fishing, and guiding on:

North Fork Yuba River -  Flows are ripping especially near the top of the watershed where the river channel is narrower. Water temps are in the high 40’s. I won’t even begin to get serious about fishing/guiding here until the 2^nd week of July. The upside is we will have a great mid summer and fall season here.

Middle Fork Feather River – out of all the rivers, the Middle Feather is the lowest, and with more fishable water. Graeagle area has been best, just remember the flows increase as you move downstream of Jamison creek. Fishing has been good with both indicator rigs, and limited dry fly sessions. Gray Drakes, BWOs, and caddis are active. Now is the time to fish the MFFR, once flows drop in the upper watershed, the bigger fish move downstream into the canyon.

Lake Davis – The lake is at full pool which I dislike, there are minimal peninsulas and coves, and lots of willows in the water (great habitat for the bass though, if you’re into that sort of thing). Established weed beds are deep, and the shallows will take a while to become fertile with bug populations and weeds. Damsels are not out yet, but there are Calibaetis and blood midges out. Water temps are right around 63 degrees. I will know more next week as I’m hosting a 3 day fish out for Gold Country Fly Fishers.

Frenchman Lake – I do like Frenchman at a fuller pool unlike Lake Davis. Conditions were good a month ago, but now are poor. I would focus on the north end of the lake early in the morning, then mid-day switch to a break away indicator 20 to 25 feet down with blood midge pupa or (hint) Zebra Midge. Frenchman’s biggest bug populations are chironomids and Calibaetis mayflies. Look for much better conditions this coming fall on both stillwaters as more trout will be planted and lower lake levels.

Truckee Area – The flows have come down on the Big Truckee a little bit, but still big. It will continue to be a yo yo effect with flow levels due to so many contributing factors like air temps that effect the melt, releases from dams, and inflows from tributaries. Yeah, there are some hatches out, but those fish are not looking up. One tactic you can implement is to fish accurate size and profiles of those nymphs active under the water’s surface. Bob Quigley’s Green Drake nymph would be a prime example.

Your best bet right now is fishing Prosser, Stampede, and Boca reservoirs. Fish where the inflows coming in and beyond the last riffle by about 200 yards. There are dry fly opportunities as well. Indicators rigs, slow stripping intermediate lines, and dry/droppers rigs are all productive. Be patient, conditions will change for the better in a month or so. See you out there!

Dave Neal reports on 6.14.19

LCO 6/13/19
Lower Sac

If you enjoy fly fishing in Northern California you better not be taking any "rest
days"; right now. Some of the best fly fishing of the year is happening now and
things will get better in the coming weeks! So many options (which include
trout of course) but throw Bass, Stripers and American Shad in the mix and it
becomes head spinning the number of great fishing options that exist within 1-3
hours of where you live. 

Since I need to focus my energy I will talk about the trout fishing for now…
Lower Sacramento River flows have dropped to 10k in Redding and the fishing
has been improving (mostly been pretty damn good already). We are seeing
good numbers of caddis, little yellow stones and pmd’s in the morning and
afternoon and these bugs are driving the trout fishing right now. We are also
beginning to see prolific ped’s in the evening time… leading to an impressive
spinnerfall in the early mornings.

Fishing all the usual suspects for summer caddis will get you in the game… tan
Birds Nests, tan Silvey’s, cinn Poopahs, and maybe tie up some other flies that
these fish don’t see every day (stick with brown, tan, rusty shades). Be open to
throwing some PMD stuff like small #16 Pheasant Tail variations, Hogan’s S&M,
Nose Pickers, Peaches & Cream, etc… I like the brown S& M early in the morning as I believe the fish eat it as a drowned spinner just as well as a nymph.
Cannot wait for July and August on this river when the caddis really get going!
The evening dry fly fishing can be lights out after sunset on those hot summer
days!

Currently, I have a few days open at the end of June and I would be stoked to
fish with you… June 24, 25, 26, 27.
One last note, it’s not all Lower Sac fishing right now. Flows on the Upper Sac,
McCloud and Pit River are coming into fine shape. Walk & wade season is
underway on these amazing wild trout rivers. Some of the best dry fly fishing of
the season will happen over the next few weeks. Come up and experience it!

Putah has been flowing at 360 CFS and fishing great. As expected it has been crowded if you want to get the guide hole you need to get there early. Remember its light at 5:30 right now!

I caught wind of a plan to kill off all the stripers and largemouth bass in the California Delta. The organization that is pushing this is the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta. When you do some digging into this coalition you will find they their first success is addressing "significant water supply impacts of water conveyance restrictions that greatly limit water supplies for farms, residents, and businesses."  This is not a conservation organization, this is a California Agriculture funded organization working to grab more water from the Delta. Killing off these game species will remove thousands of water advocates from the area and beyond. California Delta bass and striper anglers have played a large roll in the water conversation that has positively benefited salmon and steelhead. Don't be fooled, this is nothing more than a thinly veiled plan to reduce opposition to water draws in CA Delta. 

It's tricky because I love salmon and steelhead in California, that being said the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems are destroyed, possibly beyond repair from a native and anadromous species standpoint. This destruction happened at the hands of California Ag and urbanization. The issues are numerous... complex waterway acts like a maze for returning and exiting salmon and steelhead. Dams block anadromous fish from hundreds of square miles of historical spawning habitat. When I go through the threats to anadromous species in California Trout's SOS report the following issues are more substantial threats than alien species: major dams, agriculture, grazing, residential development, urbanization, instream mining, transportation, logging, fire, estuary alteration, harvest, and hatcheries. Curious to get your thoughts on the issue. My 2 cents, if we follow this plan we will end up without salmon, steelhead, or stripers and the California agriculture industry will get all the water they want. This is not about a story about farmers trying to make a living or stripers eating salmon/steelhead, its a story of greed, gross overproduction, and food waste. If you want to be a part of this conversation DFW is hosting a meeting 6/12 in Redding and many are showing up to express their concerns for this plan.

If you do not agree that striper and LMB should be eradicated sign the petition here

Max Salit reports on 6.6.19

McCloud River 

After plans for a float trip fell through, there was one river in CA
that I knew I couldn’t pass up for a long weekend getaway to start up
my trout season: The McCloud River. The flows were considerably high
for the time time of year but after all the rain and snow last winter,
this was expected.

The weekend started with sunshine and massive salmon flies and stone
everywhere. We didn’t see many fish rising but the dark lord nymph
game was strong.

Working the water efficiently and covering the ground was mandatory
because the river access in many areas was limited due to high flows.
We fished the accessible stots we could as hard as we could and worked
the holes and deep channels with streamers. The latter paid off with
midday a 21’ brown on the LCO recommended Dali Lama streamer.

On Saturday night the rain came in…hard. It remained on and off rainy
all Sunday and made one clear change to the fish and river: lots of
small mayflies popping and plenty of fish rising. This gave us an
opportunity to tie on some tiny dries that ended up with rewarding us
with more nice fish.


My takeaways:

Its ALWAYS worth the drive.

Plastic Tarps are worth their weight in gold when camping in the rain.

Always bring dry flies… you never know when you will use them.

Browns are aggressive and temperamental meat eaters they will surprise
you with their ability to smash a fast moving big chunky fly.

Matt Koles reports on 6.6.19

Rolling right into summer on the Truckee River.

Thing is though, we still have a mid-April snowpack. However, it does look like monsoon season is over. It’s rained every day for the last 2 weeks. Just big puffy Simpson’s clouds and perfect weather now.

As far as the snowpack. I think the water will stay up into the first week of July. Hard to say is the water will mud up or not with hot weather. Right now, clarity is actually really really good.

So now that I can wear shorts it feels a little more like summer in Tahoe. Usually, we’re thinking about green drakes and things like that. With the water so high, ain’t gonna be much fishing on top until she comes down. Flows have came back up to 3k here in the Hirsch, as they’re dumping water out of Donner Lake. Remember, there’s 5 lakes that contribute to the flows of the Truckee River and they are all full.

I have 3 spots left for the Tight Line Nymph Clinic on Saturday June 15th. Get some!

Fly Fish The Surf

Evan Praskin reports on 6.06.19

Stripers, Stripers, Stripers!!! They are here people and ready to play in beautiful Monterey. “West coast stripers? You guys get a bass run over there?” Yes we do, and if you look into what California has to offer, you will quickly see that it has the most amazing and divers water system and these fish have maximized on it!

Sunday morning and it just so happened to be my birthday. Low tide at 4:30am, first light at 5:20. Joined by my good friend Tom, we walked the path down to the beach and immediately noticed a shore break caused by a very close and deep shelf, some serious striper water. Loose sand and a steep beach meant we needed to be on our game safety wise. First few casts were kelp groomers (40lb leader played a big role since we were able to rip through most the kelp without snapping off flies). Once we found some clearings it was game on. 4th cast I’m hooked up, good fish 20” and she christened my Beulah surf rod. Toms next cast, wham he sticks another fun sized fish.

We kept walking and looking for clearer water and as soon as we got through the kelp it was fish on. The trick was to lay out an accurate cast to avoid landing on the balls of kelp, and giving it a 10 second count (if possible) so the fly is retrieved below most of the debris. Strip strip pause and repeat. Mix up the retrieve and allow for some hard stops that make those clousers drop if possible. This isn’t always accomplishable and depends on the waves. 

The most important advice is to stay in contact with your fly, always be sure you are dragging it on the strip to detect a bite and set the hook. As the morning went on, the tide increased making the waves pounding the shoreline pretty gnarly. This began to limit our shots at good casts, but thanks to the big gun two handers we were able to continue cautiously. 

totaled an incredible 8 fish all keeper sized and released safe, a session for the books. The big fish went 28” and what a battle on the fly rod, strait corked the 7/8 Beulah switch with huge heads shakes and line ripping dashes

6” clousers chart/white, white/white, and blue/white were the ticket. Stop by the shop and pick up some Steve Adachi specials and go hit the surf! It has been a bit of hit and miss on the beach, but that’s how surf fishing goes. Never give up! That next session or next cast could make up for all those blank days. Hope everyone has a great summer, we’ll see you on the beach!