Discount Days August 2, 3

Evening Trip: $200 for two anglers - $50 discount
Half Day Float Trip: $275 for two anglers - $50 discount 
Full Day Float Trip: $350 for two anglers - $75 discount

Options: 
Float the Lower Yuba - Good nymph fishing with the possibility of some dry fly fishing. 
Float the Lower Sac - Good nymph fishing through the Lower stretches of the river down through red bluff.
Float the Lower Feather - Chance at some early season steelhead.

Striper fishing on the Lower Sac - Evening, half day, or full day options.

Walk and Wade fishing on the NF Feather

*all full day trips include lunch and drinks along with use of rods, reels, and lines along with all your flies and tackle.
*half day and evening trips include a snack and drinks along with use of rods, reels, and lines along with all your flies and tackle.

Back from Vacation...

So the family and I took our annual summer vacation on over to Santa Cruz. This time we timed it perfectly leaving chico right before the 100-110 weather hit...in previous years we get home right as that weather hits. Sitting around the house today and tomorrow getting caught up on Cast Hope, HGB Fly Fishing, and plain old life before I hit the road for a 3 day cast hope camping trip then back home to guide for a few days and then off to a family camping trip. The end of July is usually my time to get some fishing in on my own and take some time to be with the family, but there is plenty of good fishing to be had so here some reports and ramblings...

The Santa Cruz Report...I love Santa Cruz and our family vacation was great this  year as our boys are finally getting to the age where traveling and vacations can be relaxing at various times. We rented a beach house with my parents up from Seabright Beach and hit up the board walk, beach, down town, Henry Cowell State park, roaring camp train...full trip. It is so nice to get out of the valley heat in July and have the cool weather of the CA coast to escape to. One of the highlights of the trip was hitting up a college fishing buddy Ryan O'Donovan's coffee shop and coffee roasting place VERVE Coffee Roasters. They have a really cool coffee shop down town, a shop at 816 41st Ave,  and then a coffee bar and their Roasters at 104 Bronson St. Verve is really unique, high end, quality coffee and all hand roasted daily. The amount of knowledge that goes into roasting, sourcing, and just preparing coffee is mind numbing to me. Ryan took us on a tour of the roasting facility and i had no idea what goes into to high end coffee. So proud of Ryan and blown away with all that he has accomplished with VERVE in 5-6 years. Check out there website and order some coffee, cool merchandise, or if you are in Santa Cruz hit up one of their locations!

http://www.vervecoffeeroasters.com

Ya no big deal Grandpa...Conditions look great for a swim

Hunting Dinosaurs in Henry Cowell State Park on Fall Creek

Lower Yuba - Guided the Lower Yuba before leaving for Santa Cruz and fishing was good. Tried throwing hoppers to no avail but caught plenty of fish on Jimmy legs, S&M PMD's, and Birds Nest. Fish were holding in the runs and deep flats, pretty standards spots for the 1700cfs flow. Put the boat over a few bods of salmon in the lower river and even saw a few shooting up some riffles which was really cool. Good sign for the Yuba to have salmon moving up at the end of July. Yuba should continue to fish good through July and August. I will be guiding out there a bunch over the next month.

Solid Yuba Fish

Gear Report - This is the time of year where pro staffers began to get all the new gear that is coming out  for 2014 to fish...I was fortunate enough to get one of the new Scott Radian Rods. The Radian won best of show at the recent Fly Tackle Dealer show which means of all the new products introduced this year it was consider the most innovative and best...needless to say it also won best new freshwater rod. I got the 9'6wt and have fished it a few days on the Lower Yuba with the new AirFlo Super Dri Xceed Trout Line.  This rod is by far one of the best Scott Rods I have ever cast or fished. The promotional line for the rod is "Where fast meets feel" and this is a great way to describe it. It is incredibly light weight and feels in hand much like the G2 but has the back bone and power of a much heavier fast action rod. I threw the standard Lower Yuba nymph rig with the rod and it turned it over and cast it with amazing ease but also allowed for fine mending and line management using just the tip. If you are in market for a new high end rod or just want to cast a high end to see what the difference is between an american made high end rod and a price point $200-300 non-Murica made rod check out the new Radian. 

http://www.scottflyrod.com/catalog/details/radian

Sports Report - We are closing in on the 30 day mark before Notre Dame will take the field against Temple on August 31. I know not the highest level apponent but lets be honest many programs will play some cup cakes week one or mid schedule like many SEC teams. I recently got the Blue and Gold Season Preview and am diligently reading it page to page one bowel movement at a time. I won't lie I am nervouse about this season and we will know I think at Week 2 against Michigan at Mich how things, aka Tommy Reese, is going to go. 

Lets be honest I love the Giants and have been watching every night pretty religiously, but some nights it is hard to make it through the whole game when they are playing so bad some nights. Hopefully they can keep it interesting through the August and September or it is going to be hard to keep watching.

short report and pics...

The Weather had been great here in chico the last few days. Nice warm days in the 90’s with cool mornings and evenings. Perfect for summer striper and trout fishing. I have been chasing stripers mostly over the last week. Here are some pics and short reports…

Lower Sacramento River Stripers – Like most fishing we have been having fair to great days of striper fishing. Most people are hooking a fair number of small fish and then a few nice 5-10lb fish a day. We have had shots at some monsters on a few days as well with some big schools of laid up fish along weed lines and even had a monster follow a smaller fish we hooked. Even hooked a nice fin clipped steelhead on a clouser earlier this week. Summer striper fishing on the sac for the resident fish and hanger outers migratory fish is a tough game. Some days it seems easy some days it seems there are no fish for miles. Either way it is a great way to spend a day on a really cool stretch of water and all most people need to see is a 20-30lb fish follow their fly and they will cast for hours.

Lower Sac Trout – I have not been on the Lower Sac in a few weeks but have heard from talking to other guides that fishing has been pretty tough. Key seems to be to stay out late or do and evening float. Fish seemed to be keyed into the hatches in the evening and kind of sit and sulk until then.

Lower Yuba Trout – I have not been on the Lower Yuba lately as well but will be over the next few weeks. Fishing I have heard has been good though but mainly fishing nymphs. The hopper fishing has been so so and yet to really get going from what I have heard. That said I would not hesitate to throw some hoppers around midday in likely water. The flows are up around 1700 and this creates some nice holding water along the bank and willows. Best hopper water is the deeper buckets along the banks with a bit of current going over or along them.

Sports Report – no comment regarding the giants. Gonna keep things on the positive with good fishing reports.

All the news...

It is that time of summer where people take breaks for vacations, family trips, and such, maybe putting the fly rods away in exchange for family size tents, ski boats, and amusement parks. Many are wrapping up their celebration of the independence of our nation from the crooks the British by drinking, eating meat, and blowing up fireworks, but the fishing goes on…

Lower Sacramento River Trout – I have not been on the Lower Sac sense my last stint during the cold rainy to apocalyptic heat of a few weeks ago. Flows remain around 15000cfs out of Keswick and high down through the river. Talking to a few of my buddies that have been out there fishing remains good in the lower stretches and July is one of my favorite months to fish down from Balls Ferry to Red Bluff.

Lower Sacramento Stripers – IT is striper time in our neck of the woods. The heat wave seemed to put the bite off a bit and focus the fish on eating during the morning and evening but with more normal summer weather forecasted for the next week fishing should stabilize a bit. We have had a few good fish and a few good numbers days. Nothing earth shattering in size has been caught yet but I’ll take good numbers and schoolies any day.

 

Nice Striper

Lower Yuba River – I have not been out here in a week or so either. Flows have come up to around 1600cfs, which is a great flow! Hoppers should be moving around if they didn’t get cooked during the last heat wave, and with more normal summer temps forecasted over the next week the hoppers and caddis should get a bit more active. Not a bad place to go spend an evening this time of year.

Clearwater Lodge – I have spent most of my time up at the lodge lately and Michelle Titus the new owner has the place humming. It is great to see such a loving, hospitable, and dedicated person purchase and take over the lodge. Good to see Clearwater back to what it can be.

           

Fall River – The hex hatch has been great one night poor the next. Mainly depending on the wind. If the wind comes up in the evening the hatch is no good. I had clients out fishing it a few nights and each night we hooked good sized fish, one taking us into the backing a few times. We were averaging about 3 fish to the boat each night and many more blow ups and misses. The PMD hatch has been good during the day with windows to throw dries to rising fish and on most days good nymph bites.

New Fox's Mother Superior ... Far Superior

no better setting

Baum Lake – This is a great place to take beginner or advanced anglers as you can target the schools of truck trout or hunt out the bigger native fish. I had some experienced clients this last week hook into some of the bigger native fish and get schooled on 6x and midges and then I took my two boys out and they beat up on the truck trout…a bit of everything for all ages and skill levels.

Oliver Getting it done...all on his own I might add

Beckett getting it done...with some help

Booze News – I have been sticking with pretty standard stuff for the last week the highlight of the last few weeks was when I came home and my sister in law who works at Sierra Nevada had left me a bottle of the ne Ovila Belgian Style Golden Beer from Sierra Nevada. I have yet to try it but I have heard from various beer sources aka my brother in law that it is amazing…I am saving it for the first 20lb striper of the year.

just waiting for a 20lber...or the end of the season

Garden News – I am totally addicted to growing my own vegitables. My tomatoes, potatos, cucumbers, lemon cucumbers are tearing it up this year. A little bummed on my bell pepers and jalapenos as they are not getting it done like they usually do. My boys have been eating cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, and home made salsa for pretty much every meal.

 

The Brown family will survive the apocalypse on fish and salsa and a side of cucumbers and lemon pepper

Sports News other wise known as the reason I drink – The giants are killing me. I haven’t made it passed the 5^th inning for a few weeks as I can’t stand to watch such atrocious situational hitting and no good news on the horizon. Angel on the 60 day disabled list is not good news. I don’t think I realized how much of  a leader and emotional force  Angle was on the team. The pitching staff is excruitiating to watch as well.  Kickham has been toughest to watch…our big young lefty hanging sliders and off speed pitches that literally get destroyed. Kid needs to learn to barry those balls in the dirt. Watching Cain get crushed and knocked out after 2.1 innings last night agains the dodgers was rough…Gonna be a long July I think.  

Cast Hope - Pledge Drive is wrapping up but we still have a few of these really cool custom Galvan Reels...

Custom Bling

New Tunes - We were Promised Jet Packs...just bought a few of these guys CD's...Love them so far. Great Swedish Indie Rock...little moody, little rock, little math rock, just enough catchy.