Holiday Hangover and some fishing

So my kids eyes are clearing up and they are starting to see straight again after about a week of new toys, massive amounts of sugar, long car rides, happy meals on the road, and complete christmas stimulation over load. Christmas is officially over as my wife took down the decorations and the tree has been relegated to the curb to be disposed of by the local boy scout troop in Lake Oroville as a new home to hopefully a clan of large spotted bass. I took some time off last week for christmas and to go see some family but got back on the water yesterday.

Conditions in Nor Call are a little rough right now but with no rain in the forecast conditions should pick up soon. I had Sunday and Monday booked and was lucky enough to get out yesterday, but my clients for today were set on fishing the Lower Yuba and after hearing how Ryan did yesterday I pulled the plug on that.   Here are some reports to fill everyone in...

Lower Yuba dropped Dec 29 from 4000cfs down to 3000cfs and has about 1-2" visability. Deer Creek is holding steady around 180cfs. This is not bad conditions, but the fish pod up at these flows and if you can't find the pods it can be a long day. If the flows stay at 3000cfs for a while the fish will move into higher flows holding water and fishing can really be fun as these spots are really fun to fish. Ryan got his clients into some fish but by no means was the day great. With no rain in the forecast I imagine the river will drop again here shortly and gain clarity on a daily basis so fishing should pick up by later in the week. Wade fishing at 3000cfs is not really an option so if you are looking to get out and wade I would think about going somewhere else.

Lower Sac The Deeler and I took a drive up to Redding Saturday to pick up my raft and looked at the Sac at various spots. The Sac around Red Bluff is border line fishable as most of the tributaries are pumping clear water and this offsets the off color water coming out of the lake. I think the lower floats on the Sac are going to be an option here pretty shortly.

Butte Creek is PERFECT!!! clarity and flows are great and the flows are slowly dropping. Prime steelhead conditions.

Feather River - the top section above the hwy 70 bridge opens tomorrow and at 1600cfs the low flow is going to be pretty tricky up there to get around. Ryan and I have been scouting a top put in with the raft to be able to float this section so at 1600cfs I think that is going to be the way to fish this. I guided the river yesterday and flows are high and clarity is about 1-1.5". It is a different river up in the low flow with 1600cfs coming down. Wading is not really an option in most of the runs now and the fish are spread out. We hooked 12 fish yesterday and all were nice fresh winter fish so there is still fish in the system and moving up river. Most fish ate big attractor glo bugs and alvins.

So far it has been a tough winter with all the water. I saw this graphic on a local weather site...kinda puts the whole winter in perspective so far.

lots of water for this summer