Fishing reports, sports, booze, and tunes news

Spring is on the calendar but the weather seems like summer. Mid to low 90’s last week and over the weekend along with high 80’s and low 90’s forcasted for the week to come. That said the extended forecast has some 70’s and even some possible rain in it over the next 3 weeks. While it seems like summer weather I can’t imagine the heat is here to stay from the last week of April on.

The weather for the trout opener was beautiful and as good as I can remember. I remember previous years it has rained and snowed in the valley and the mountains on the opener. This year was mid 80s to low 90’s with little wind and great flows on pretty much every body of water. I took out some Cast Hope kids and mentors over the weekend on the Lower Sacramento so I did not get out on any trout water that opened. I did talk to a few people that fished up on the Fall, Pit, and NF Feather and fishing was really good. I am going to get out fishing this coming weekend on my own and go check on a bunch of spots locally.

Lower Yuba River – Fishing has been good.  Fish are spread out in the riffles and flats with the higher flows (1800cfs). With good flows in the flats and the riffles fish have holding water in both and are spread out. Most fish are coming on PMD nymphs, Little Yellow Sally nymphs, and golden stone nymphs. There is some opportunity for dry fly fishing but nothing like previous springs with the high water this winter many of the caddis and mayfly hatches seem to be smaller. I am hoping this will lead to another summer of epic hopper fishing starting in late June and going through July.

Lower Sacramento River – Continues to fish really wel. With the jump in flows to 11,000 cfs the lower stretches of the Sac are turning on. Fishing from Bonnieview on down to balls ferry continues to be good with fish eating PMD nymphs, rubber legs, eggs, and caddis. As long as the weather stays night I imagine I will be staying down low on the river from Barge hole to Bend Bridge.

Lower Sac Rainbow 20"+

 

Nice healthy and Hearty bow from the Lower Sac

Shad – With this warm weather and increase in flows on the Sac out of Keswick I imagine the first shad should be showing around Chico soon. I will be out in coming week checking so shad reports to come!

Lower Sacramento Warm Water fishing – spring/early summer largemouth fishing is going in full swing. We have been catching good numbers of Largemouth bass over the last few weeks on subsurface and top water patterns. The small mouth bass should be turning on soon and moving into some of the creek channels to spawn as the water warms as well. I have yet to see any carp up on the flats but I am sure that is right around the corner as well.

Music News – one of my favorite bands came out with a new CD this last week that I have literally been listening to non-stop. The Appleseed Cast released Illumination Ritual and it is one of their best releases ever I would say, for sure the best sense Mare Vitals. The Appleseed Cast is not for everyone, but if you are a fan of instrumental Rock with some sparse singing mixed in it is solid stuff. Kinda of in the same vain of Explosions in the Sky, but I think a bit more accessable as most songs have some vocals and are around the 3-8minute range, not the sprawing 10-20 mins songs of Explosions.

My band The Remainder will be playing May 10th at Cafe Coda in Chico, CA with another great indie rock band, West by Swan if anyone has absolutely nothing to on May 10th. 

The Remainder preparing for their next show...outside drinking beer at the moment the pictures was taken...seriously we practice though

Sports Report – So the giants can’t seem to 1) hold a lead 2) seal the deal in extra innings…the good news they can come back from being down after loosing the lead but then loose the lead again, so the good news is they can come back. It is a long season and lets be honest they are scoring runs which has not always been their strong suit. That said their pitching has looked really good and really bad. Cain is concerning me…Lincecum jury is still out, he seems to be kind of hanging his toes over the edge, could fall of the cliff any minute. Like I said though it is a long seaon.

Notre Dame faired well in the draft with Tyler and Manti’ going in the first 2 rounds then a few other getting picked up in later rounds and then even more getting signed as free agents. Still dissecting the spring game…overall I was happy with how the defense looked but a bit concerned with how our QB looked.

From the desk of feather and fur – I get a bunch of emails with regards to fly tying, asking question, wanting tips, or just plain suggestions, so I am going to start writing about tying and what I am tying. Right now I am finishing up some samples of a new March Brown pattern that I developed this spring. Usually I don’t send a pattern up to Idylwilde until after a few season of testing but this thing hammered fish on the Sac and Yuba this spring for myself and others so why not. After that it is on to Striper and bass flies….One tip I can give everyone as they tie up spring striper and bass flies is if you have a pattern you like or works for you make sure to tie it in 3 sizes. I tie all my standard or go to striper and bass flies in small, medium, and large sizes for the given pattern. This is important as size seems to be one of the most overlooked areas of striper and bass fishing when it comes to flies. With trout most of us have size 18-12 of any nymph that we fish a lot and rarely do we have that spread in sizes of our favorite bass or striper flies.

Booze News – Margarita season is upon us and I have been mixing up Lime Juice, triple sec, tequila, and a shot of orange juice margaritas way to often. These things go down way to easy and get me south of sober way to quick. Because of this I bought some beer to fill in the gaps so to say…Some bud light lime (my go to yard work beer) and some Modelo Especial (my go to sit on the couch summer beer). I have yet to buy and Sierra Nevada Summer Fest but I hear this years is pretty solid.

Stay hydrated while doing yard work my friends

Fishing report, Expos, Fairs, and Great Discoveries

Late Spring is here and this week it may seem like early summer is here as well with day time temps in the high 80’s to low 90’s in some places. Lots of valley fishing is getting pretty good and with the trout opener this coming Saturday there is going to be TONS of places to fish in the coming weeks. There is TONS of great fishing coming up and dates are filling up fast. Here is what is going on and what dates are available.

Open Dates

May 26, 27

June 12, 13, 17, 23-26, 29,

July 1-3, 6, 8, 9, 11, 14, 16-25, 29-31

Weekday evening shad, striper, top water bass trips

May 20, 22-24, 28, 30

June 3-6

Lower Yuba is fishing very well and the dry fly fishing is getting pretty good. March Browns, PMD’s, caddis, little yellow sallies, and a few caddis are getting going in various parts of the river. Switching flies and methods throughout the day is the key to staying on fish. Fishing should only get better over the next few months and the crowds should thin out as trout season opens and people move to other bodies of water to fish. I would imagine that the flows should start to come up soon as snow begins to melt and farmers began to irrigate so keep an eye on that. May – July is a great time to be on the Yuba.

Lower Sac trout fishing remains good. The upper stretches are full of spawning trout so most of us have been from Anderson down river to give the spawners room to do their thing. Flows are starting to ramp up out of Keswick from 5000 to 7550 today and I imagine will continue to move up for irrigation and run off. 

Lower Sac Bass, Shad, and Stripers are all starting to turn on. The flows are pretty low down around Ord Bend at 5424cfs which leads me to believe that the increased water has not reached lower in the river yet or is getting pumped out between Ord Bend and Keswick. Not sure. Large and Smallmouth bass are pretty active in the sloughs and back waters along with the main river body as smallies began to stage to spawn. I have not heard or caught myself any shad or stripers up this high but as the feather flows have dropped dramatically the migratory stripers should be moving up river soon and the residents I am sure are getting active.

Lower Sac Back Water

Lower Feather is fishing well for spring steelhead though the flows have dropped to 1091cfs. This is good for the “low flow” but is a not much running down the “high flow”. The drop in flows should push most of the spring steelhead up into the “low flow”. Most fish have been caught on san juan worms, princes, sucker spawn, caddis, and general attractors.

Trout Opener is April 27^th this Saturday! With the light winter and dry spring many spots are fishable and the weather will be really nice. Most peoples favorite trout spots will be fishable I imagine that most of the higher elevation spots won’t be accessible but some of my favorite spots on the NF Feather and NF Yuba are fishable and I imagine will fish very well. I have been talking to the boys up at Clearwater and under new ownership the lodge is making a ton of improvements. There will be a great fly shop open to the public and many other improvements. One of the best spots to spend the opener up there is Fall River. Should be a great season up on the Pit, Fall River, Hat Creek, and Baum Lake.

Kiene’s Grizzley Hackle Fly Shope Spring Expo – Just wanted to thank everyone that came out the expo this last weekend and stopped by the Cast Hope booth, listened to my presentation on Cast Hope, or bought Ice Cream to support Cast Hope. Tim Au Young, Adam Grace, and Tim Fox put on a great Expo and Ryan and I are very excited to working all the boys down at Kiene’s Grizzley Hackle.

The Fly Shop Trout Season Opener Party – Is this Friday April 26^th 10:30am – 4:30pm Cast Hope will have a booth and many vendors and presenters will be around. Shasta Trinity Fly fishers will be serving meat ball and sausage sandwiches with cole slaw and chips along with desert provided by the Shasta Mayflies. Even if you don’t fish or have any interest in fishing and just stumbled on to this fly fishing blog it is free food so make an appearance.

Greatest discovery sense the Americas

Great Discoveries – So one of the most amazing things I have discovered in a very long time I found on the way to the Kiene’s Grizzley Hackle Expo this weekend. Packets of tobasco hot sauce. I found them in the East 20^th Ave AmPm in Chico, CA. I would not recommend going there to find them though as I cleaned them out…literally filled my pockets with everyone they had.  Even though about looking under the counter for the back stock. 

Kiene's Grizzly Hackle Spring Fly Fishing Expo

Ryan and I will be down this Saturday at the Kiene's annual parking lot fair with a booth set up showcasing our guiding and cast hope. I will be presenting around noon about Cast Hope and tying some flies at our booth. Scott Fly Rods, Simms, and Echo/Airflo will be there as well with all the other major reps and manufacturers.

What Kiene Says about the Event...
There will be casting demonstrations, fly tying demonstrations, fly fishing presentations, and manufacturer representative ready to inform people about the latest and greatest fly fishing products. There will also be three different raffles with awesome prizes. Two of the raffles are free, the third raffle has premium fly fishing product prizes that can be won by tickets which are awarded for every $50 spent at our shop during the expo. There will also be free food and drinks. We hope to see you at our inaugural Kiene’s Grizzly Hackle Spring Fly Fishing Exposition on Saturday, April 20th, from 9am until 4:30pm.

Up date from the last week

Spring weather has been here one day gone the next lately. Early this week the weather was gorgeous and then a pretty decent storm that dumped some serious rain moved in Thursday. There is suppose to be some rain and clouds for the next few days then by Monday it is suppose to be back to 70s and even some low 80s spring weather. I have spent most of my time this week on the Lower Yuba and exploring some bass spots. Here are some reports and what is coming up…

Lower Yuba

Spent a few days on the Lower Yuba this last week. Fishing was very good. We had 20-30 hook ups each day and a few fish in the 18-22” range though most were in the 14” range. Flows have dropped to right around 1000cfs. I hope this is short lived and flows will come up again soon with some rain and/or run off on its way. While most people are looking for dry fly fishing this time of year I found very little of it. We caught all our fish on nymphs and while there were fish coming up but most were one and done. There was a few march browns spinners around the bridge and a say maybe half dozen on the water drying their wings through out the day. I think if you hike up from the bridge and get into the canyon the march brown hatch might be pretty good. The canyon shields the wind and breeze which can really put these bugs down.

Most our fish came on a new march brown nymph I am working on the S&M PMD nymph. We did catch some fish midday on copper bead birds nest and red copper johns. Nothing on the Jimmy leg or sucker spawn. The fish seemed to be concentrated on drop offs and the deeper water down from the riffles. Saw a few caddis but nothing that lead me to fish any caddis larva or pupa. PMD’s, Caddis, and Little yellow sallies should get going soon as there is some warm weather forcasted for the next week. April and May are one of favorite times to be on the Lower Yuba. Great time for dry fly and nymph fishing.

22" Yuba Fish from the last week

Lower Sacramento

Lower Sac is still fishing well. Fish are fattening up for the spawn and mayflies are still the main food. Things should start to get a bit tough in the upper river as fish began to spawn but this usually means the mid and lower river get going which have some of the coolest floats on the river.

Lower Feather

I have yet to get out for the spring steelhead on the Lower Feather but I continue to see pictures and hear reports of good fishing. Should get good over the next month as the caddis start to get going consistently.

Clearwater Lodge

I will again be guiding a limited amount up at Clearwater lodge on the Fall River, Pit River, Hat Creek, and Baum Lake along with a few other spots. This is a great place to get away and fish some of the best trout water in the state.

Shad

Shad fishing is about a month away as fish usually start getting caught around the first week or two of May with fishing peaking the last two week of May through the first two weeks of June. I have many evening shad trips available for the coming season but they book quickly.

Bass, Carp, and Stripers

Spring and Summer are prime Bass, Carp, and Striper time. I spend most of my free time fishing on the Lower Sac in the sloughs and flats chasing  bass and carp as well as chasing stripers in the river throughout the summer. I have many different Bass and Carp spots outside of chico as well as some smallmouth bass spots East of Chico up in the foothills. Striper fishing will pick up Early May and last through September with the prime time being Late June through Late August.

Sports Report

I love this time of year!!! The NCAA tournament and the start of baseball are about as fun a time of year for sports. The Giants have looked good so far taking 2 out of 3 from the dodgers and 1 so far from St. Louis in 1-0 win for Zito. So far so good for the G-Men. I am a bit skeptical about the Torres/Blanco rotation in the outfield and we are not scoring runs like I would like. 6 hits today and we score 1 run on a walk…Not good. Still early and situational at bats are tough early in the season I just am a worrier.

On a side note HGB Fly Fishing bought its first sports franchise – the Chico East Side Little League T-Ball Mud Cats. Ticket sales have been a bit slow but we are hoping things pick up. Squads playing good ball and enjoying their snacks so all is well.

Big League

Booze and Fired Cooked Meat

Upgraded the booze lately. Been drinking some “Shift” by New Belgium Ale. I have been a on a burger kick the last few days as well. Mixing some blue cheese into my ground beef patties and cubed cheddar cheese as well.