Winter Forecast and available dates

Winter is here….Sorta…we haven’t had much weather but hopefully we get some rain soon, but not to much. There is some great fishing happening right now and coming up over the next 2 months. Here is what to expect:

Lower Yuba is entering into its Winter stage. Baetis hatches are getting going providing some dry fly fishing on any given day and there are still some winter salmon around so fish are still eating eggs. The fall crowds have disappeared and fishing should continue to be strong through January. With some rain we should see some winter steelhead moving up river as well.

Lower Sacramento River is fishing well in the middle to lower river. Winter fishing is getting going on the Lower Sac as well. The baetis hatches are getting going, even providing some dry fly fishing on various days. There are still good numbers of half pounders and a few adult steelhead in the lower river and the big trout up through town are starting to feed again as well. Winter fishing on the L. Sac can be very good as this is when some of the biggest rainbows of the year are caught.

Butte Creek is fishing fair to good. We really need some rain to bring the flows up and move some fish up river. That said the creeks is fishing fair for trout and a few early steelhead. Floating the creek is tough at the low flows but not impossible. With a good rain storm this creek will really start to turn on.

Winter is a great time to get out and fish as the fall crowds have disappeared and the fish have to keep eating!!!

Available dates:

Dec: 16, 17, 20, 28-31

Jan: 2-8, 16, 21, 22

Last few days....

With a week off of school I have been guiding the last four days. I spent days on the Lower Sac, Butte Creek, and Lower Yuba. I floated the Lower Sac from Red Bluff to Los molinos looking for trout and steelhead two days with mixed results. Both days we hooked adult steelhead and a few trout but fishing was by no means off the hook. One day the wind came up after lunch and kinda shut things down but the second day the wind stayed away and the baetis hatch came off pretty solid. We had, as you can have some days, good dry fly fishing during the baetis hatch. One client wading a flat hooked and landed 6 nice fish on small baetis dries. Most of our fish came on small mayfly nymphs and egg patterns.


Butte Creek so far has been really low. It needs rain to bring the flows up and bring some steelhead up the river. While there are resident wild trout in the creek they are not the main attraction for most. Sense the flows are so low I opted to walk and wade with my clients. We hooked one nice adult fish and a handful of resident rainbows. Not a bad day but I prefer to float the creek and will probably wait until we get some rain before I head out there again.


The Lower Yuba fished good as well. Lots of grabby smaller fish and a few bigger fish. Most fish came on egg patterns, small mayfly nymphs, a caddis pupa later in the day. Fish seem to be holding in traditional bug water and have moved out of the shallows where most anglers look for them eating salmon eggs this time of year. While we did catch fish on egg patterns they were more attractor style egg patterns and not beads.

Over all winter fishing is getting into swing on all the rivers and I still have some Dec./Jan. dates available if anyone is interested shoot me an email.

New Nor Cal Report

New Nor Cal Report on the Idylwilde Blog...check it out and consider yourself informed when done.

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Reports and what is coming up...

Been fishing all over the place recently as there is a lot of places fishing well and the weather has most definitely turned from Indian summer/fall to winter. Here is what has been going on...

Lower Sac - I have been from Aqua Gold down to Los Molinos over the last few weeks and fishing has been good to fair to tough through out the river. I still have not run into much of an egg bit and I think most have written it off for this year...again. Most of my days have been down between Red Bluff and Los Molinos chasing trout and steelhead. Fishing has been pretty good. When ever we fish down here you are taking a few less trout in exchange for the opportunity of getting into a steelhead. Over the weekend we caught good numbers of nice size trout, fin clipped half pounders, and two adult steelhead. Most fish came on small flies which can make those bigger fish tough. A few fish came on eggs but most were on smaller mayflies and attractors.

Feather River - Feather remains fair as there are still plenty of salmon on redds down to Palm Ave and good numbers of steelhead in the river. That said there are alot of people chasing them. We got into a few half pounders and a few adults over the weekend on egg patterns. Nothing to get totally excited about but I was happy with our numbers based on the crowds on the river.

Lower Yuba - I am thinking of heading back over to the Yuba soon as the baetis hatches are starting. Ryan Johnston was over there this weekend and said that he had good numbers of fish but most were pretty small. He did get 3 fish on dries which is pretty cool. I would like to see a bit of rain add some color to the river and maybe kick up the flows a bit before I head over again but I may just say screw it and see if I can get into some dry fly fishing over there.

Butte Creek - The creek opens up Nov. 15 and as of now flows are LOW but that is pretty typical for this time of year with no real rain. I did see on the long range forecast that there is some serious rain coming in over the next few weeks which should help. The raft is ready and I am getting pretty pumped for a good Butte Creek season.

I think salmon season is about over...