Up coming dates and Fly Tying Day

 As we move on into December Here is what is coming up…

Lower Sac is moving into its winter season as most of the fall salmon are dying off and the trout are moving from the redds back into what we call bug water. Winter is a great time of year to fish the L. Sac. It is traditionally when we catch some of our biggest trout of the year along with some nice winter steelhead. I prefer to fish lower in the river this time of year when conditions allow and we even occasionally run into some dry fly fishing during midday baetis hatches on some of the flats lower in the river.

Lower Yuba like the lower Sac is moving into its winter season. Fish are moving from the redds into bug water and are starting to eat some small flies. There is still a few caddis sputtering off on warmer days and the first wave of baetis is hatching as well. As we move into to December we will start to see the true BWO’s coming off and some of the more technical dry fly fishing of the year will be available. With a few more rains we will see the river dirty up a bit and we will be able to fish some big nymphs and nymphing should pick up. I have already hooked the first big winter steelhead of the season and these fish while few in number start to show through December. Swinging flies is an option in the winter as well as the salmon smolt get bigger and fish are more willing with a bit of color to the water to hit a streamer.

Butte Creek is open and I have already hooked two nice adult steelhead in the lower creek. December and January are usually the best months to float or walk and wade this little gem for both trout and winter steelhead.

The Feather River is still cranking out some fresh steelhead and should fish through the end of November into December. If you did not get a fall steelhead this year yet there is still a few weeks left I think on the feather to get your fish before they start focusing on the spawn.

I have a few winter dates open and would love to get some people out. Here is a list

Dec. 19, 21-23, 31

Jan. 4-7, 12, 13, 19-21, 26, 27

California Fly Shop’s Fly Tying day

I will also be part of the California Fly Shop’s Fly Tying day this Dec. 1^st. There will be a long list of good tiers

Hogan Brown

George Bouvoin

Ken Brunskill

Ben Byng

Elaine Cook

Bob Davis

Captain Kevin "KD" Doran

Scott Hoff

Gene Kaczmarek

Dave Kruss

Dave McCants

Mike McGuire

Steve Potter

Walt Robinson

John Ryzanych

Bill Scharninghausen

Clifford Sullivan

Chris Walters

The event starts at 10:30 and lasts all day. Parking & lunch are free.

California Fly Shop

985 Industrial Road, Suite 106

San Carlos, CA 94070

650-508-0727

www.CaliforniaFlyShop.com

Fishing and the fighting Irish

Spent a few days sense the last report guiding the Lower Sac and the Lower Yuba. Fishing was fair to good at times but for the most part the fish seem to have entered their late fall funk. Pretty much gorged and feasted on eggs for like 4-6 weeks and now are just hunkered down watching some football and digesting. We did catch fish on both rivers and winter fishing should get going in the next few weeks and with that the fish will get into their winter mode.

The Lower Sac was a bit off color when I fished it so we had to head up and do the Possie to Bonnie View float. We hooked and landed some really nice fish but we did have to work for them. Most were hooked on small midge and mayfly nymphs in the 18 variety. We did hook a few fish on attractor egg patterns and beads. We did find most of our fish in bug water and not sitting in the redds but there are still some fish hanging in various redds. I would expect the river to be tough for a week or so more and then the baetis will get going and the fish will get feeding again.

Lower Sac 20"

Lower Sac piggy

The Lower Yuba had great clarity late this week. I would say fishing was fair. Again like the sac most of our fish came on small mayfly and midge nymphs. Fish seemed to be holding in bug water and the fishing did seem to be better in the upper river. I tend to think that fish move up river this time of year following the late run salmon and looking for eggs that still may be around...that or fish in the lower river just go into a food coma. We did get some fish on caddis and saw a few fish feeding on the surface but nothing consistent. I don't think we got one grab on eggs even when fishing behind some fresh winter salmon cutting redds in the lower river. I am sure the fishing can be good on any given day this time of year but I think as we move into to december fishing will get more consistent as baetis hatches become more regular and fish move into their winter haunts and routines.

The IRISH!!!!
Yes the Irish finished up 12-0 against USC last night and how fitting that the season ended with an 8 play goal line stand. I was fortunate enough to be watching the game with my dad and two boys. While this puts us into the National Championship for me the undefeated season is the real prize. Without a playoff I can't feel that any team is a true "National Championship"contender. I would love to see a playoff with Oregon, K-State, Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, and Notre Dame...then we would see who the Champion is. Either way I hope last night solidified Manti's bid for the Hiesman and I am ready for the best time of year...college bowl season!!!!

A Short report and a day off...

Guided the Feather yesterday on a two boat trip with Darren Deel. Fishing was fair to good. Both our boats hooked around 5-7 fish. We floated from Oroville Park down to Palm and hooked fish throughout the river all the way down to Palm. The fish we landed were clean looking fish and seemed on the fresh side. Definately not colored up fish that had been in the river for a month or two. This is good news as on most years by this time we are hooking fish that have been in the river for a month or so. Good to see some fresh fish and fish spread out through the high flow as well. Many years by thanksgiving the fish are all up in the low flow and look like they are getting ready to spawn. From the looks of it there will be some decent fish around through the end of November.

I had today (tues Nov. 20) off before getting back on the water tomorrow and went and waded butte creek. The creek had come up with the last rain and droped back into the shape this last weekend. I figured with the rain coming in this afternoon the creek would come up again, maybe even blow out, so this was a good window. I fished low in the creek right above the diversion dam figuring there might be some steelhead that moved up in the last few days. Lucky for me there was, I caught a nice buck and nice hen in two different runs. Both were great fish about 17-20" and fought like hell. Covered a ton of water to find them but well worth it. Good to see some fish moving into the creek early in the season and good to see some early rains. Might be able to get some raft trips in on the creek this winter.

Gonna get back on the river tomorrow...have to see what the rain does to see where we go.

Small Stream Buck

Butte Creek Wild Steelhead

Wild Hen

Pretty Special Place

Long Weekend Report

Fished the Lower Yuba and Lower Feather this weekend. Lower Yuba fished surprisingly well. Many years this time of the fall the fish go into a protein coma where the sulk on the bottom full of eating eggs for a month making fishing tough. This was not the case the fish seemed to have moved into their winter holding water...more bug type water...and are eating pretty actively. There was a decent size 14 light mayfly hatch and a few caddis hatching midday that brought a fair number of fish to the surface. Looked to be pretty good dry fly opportunity but my anglers were just learning the sport and still working on the whole nymphing game. We caught most of our fish on egg attractors and small mayfly and caddis nymphs and pupa. I was really happily surprised about how the river fished and excited for my coming trips out there.

The Lower Feather was another story. We floated from Oroville Park to Palm Ave and after last weeks multi boat trip where everyone hooked multiple fish and there was still great numbers of salmon around I was expecting a good day. I was surprised after the first few runs by how many salmon had disappeared...it was Jim Jones rolled through with the cool aid and everyone was drinking. The upper low flow is nearly devoid of salmon from what I saw with a few here and there as you move down towards the outlet. The high flow had a few here a few there as well but I would say it seemed river wide that 90% of the salmon are gone. This more then anything moves fish and mixes things up. We managed a few fish but nothing like it has been. The feather is an option all the way through the first part of January but the hot fishing of Oct early Nov is ending fast.

In other news...Notre Dame moves up to #3 in the BCS with the loss by the Tide...How great was that to watch. Texas A&M beat the tide. Notre Dame had a work mens like win against Boston College which was nice after the scare last weekend. We got Wake Forrest this weekend then wrap it up with USC. Things are looking good!!!!

Mid week news/late weekend report

I filled this weekends dates with 2 dates on the Feather River for steelhead. Fishing was good. There is fish spread throughout the river eating eggs and nymphs. Mostly where there are salmon spawning fish are eating eggs and where the salmon are beginning to thin out they are sitting back out of the shallower  water eating nymphs. The first wave of salmon seems to have died off or atleast moved into the "wondering the flats like zombies" phase and the second wave of salmon is up in the riffles sitting on redds. Egg fishing should continue for a few more weeks but it seems the salmon are thinning out quicker then I expected...that said there is still a ton of them.

I have not heard any reports on the L. Yuba but I am sure it is still fishing well. I will be out on the Yuba at the end of this week so I should have a better idea about what is happening out there then. The flows did drop down to 925 cfs but this is still higher then the normal 7-800cfs.

Notre Dame took atleast 6mos to a year off my life this saturday night as they barely and I mean barely squeaked by 4-4 Pitt...what the hell boys. Go into Norman and put 30 on Oklahoma and then it takes 3 overtimes and the grace of good to beat a 4-4 Pittsburgh team. This week we travel to face a 2 win Boston College team that usually plays us pretty well so who knows what to expect.

Got some great new music this week .... Got the New Further Seems Forever CD. Normally I would not have bought a new Further Seems Forever CD sense all their singers have sucked sense Chris Carraba...well Chris is back in the band and this CD takes right off where The Moon is Down left off. Brings me back to 2001 really quick.

Thats it for now...