Open Late Winter and Early Spring Dates
Feb 8, 20,
March 5, 19, 28, 29,
Apri 1, 2, 9, 30
Email for Striper and Shad dates for May-October if you are
looking to book early.
It has been raining for what seems like well over a week and
rivers have been going from near flood stage to high and off color. When not raining
the wind has been ripping and blowing across the valley as snow dumps in the
mountains. All good news for rivers and fish as worry of drought and apocalyptic
water shortages have plagued California but has made it tough for actually
getting out on the water. In the end though being able to fish when ever and
where ever December through February is a symptom of a drought and not normal.
Normal is having small windows between storms to get out and fish local rivers
for a few days before the next storm moves in.
The Lower Yuba has been in desperate need of a big water
winter and it has seen some great pushes of water the last week or so. Releases
from Englebright peaked at around 8000cfs with flows down deer creek peaked
around 3000cfs with total releases hitting 12,000cfs through Marysville. While
flows dropped for a brief respite mid week this last week both deer creek and Englebright
are racing back up as they swell with all the rain from Friday. There should be
some great fishing over the next few weeks as this pattern of storms moving in
every few days is forecasted to repeat. The key will be to time your fishing inbetween storms as the river
comes into shape. Feb - April is really shaping up for some AMAZING spring
fishing on the Lower Yuba River.
Feather River Spring steelhead fishing this March-April
should be very good. As Lake Oroville fills we should see more “normal” spring
flows on the Feather and another great spring steelhead run on the feather with
fish holding throughout the high flow and into the low flow. I like to spend
most of my time fishing the spring run with swtich and light spey rods swinging
flies as these fish are some of the most apt to take a swung fly in the valley.
Lower Sacramento River Trout winter fishing has been good
but with the rain most of the river below clear creek has blown out and while
the upper most stretch from Posse to Bonnie remains fishable I think it is only
a matter of time before Lake Shasta muddies up and the hole rivers colors up.
With any luck thought March and April will again be two of the best months of
trout fishing all year on the Lower Sac and with good snow pack and rain this
year should be great.
Lower Sacramento spring Striper fishing should be great this
year as we will finally have some decent spring flows to move the migratory run
of fish up river around Butte City and Chico. This hasn’t happened the last few
years as releases are minimal in April and May from Shasta and run off is non-existent
down the tributaries
LATE SPRING AND SUMMER STRIPERS, SHAD, BASS, CARP – With the
sierra snow pack and rian so far this winter and the forecast of more to come
it is going to be a great spring/summer/early fall striper year in 2016! Book
NOW for the best dates as they are already booking up!
CHECK OUT the latest issue of Fly Fishermen Magazine and Cal
Fly fishers for articles on Striper fishing on the Lower Sac (Fly Fisherman
Magazine) and the spread of techniques through the world of fly fishing (Cal
Fly Fisher) this month.
