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. 

Lower Sac Report

I was lucky enough to be asked to film an episode of “Fly Fishing the World with Conway Bowman”, a great TV show on the sportsman channel. I have known Conway for 6 or 7 years and I have worked with Justin Karnopp the producer of the show on other shows and with Idylwilde as he is also a contract tier for Idylwilde. We scheduled the filming of the show for this last weekend on the Lower Sac. They wanted to hit the spring caddis hatch.

Filming a TV show is always a stressful event for me as the pressure is on to put the fish on film. Luckily we had no problem with this as fishing has been lights out great on the Sac lately and Conway is a phenomenal angler. Coming from a salt background to trout fishing is a big change. Hook sets while fishing indicators, fighting trout, and all the line management of getting a dead drift is different. Conway had it all down though as he grew up fishing trout in Idaho and still does a bunch of trout fishing in the Mammoth area. What I found amazing was the shear focus he had, I think this comes from a salt background and just knowing that to make the show work he has to seal the deal on each opportunity. All that said by lunch of the first day we had put more then enough fish in the net for the show, but we kept fishing hard for the rest of the day and next.

We floated from Anderson to Balls Ferry the first day and Aqua Golf to Anderson the second. Bonnieview to Anderson seems to be the most crowded float but also seems to be cranking out the biggest fish. We hooked great fish both days but the bigger fish did seem to be on the Aqua Golf to Anderson float. Both days the top bugs were Jimmy Leggs, a new march brown nymph I am working on, and the S&M PMD. A few fish ate sucker eggs but not enough to say it was a hot bug. Fish seemed to be spread out in all types of bug water eating may fly nymphs in the flats and slower runs and Jimmy Leggs in the faster riffles. I tried like hell to get the fish to eat caddis but mayflies seemed to be much more to their liking this weekend.

Sports Report

I am loving the tournament. My bracket is in shambles even though I did pick a few of the upsets. I picked Harvard and Oregon, but no way did I have LaSalle and Florida Gulf Coast in the Sweet 16. I am pretty excited for this weekends games as any time under dogs make a run for it.

GIANTS open up the season this Monday April 1 in Los Angles and I would love nothing more then to take it to the Dodgers in LA for the opener. We have some serious questions though with the latest injury’s to Pablo and the question mark at Second base…I am sure Boch will put something together though.

Fermented Beverage and BBQ Report

It is transition time right now…I finished off some scotch this last few weeks that had been hanging around and I still have a really nice bottle yet to crack but I may hold off on it as the weather is heating up and it is feeling like Margarita time. Beer wise I have been straight domestics lately. Budweiser. Just seems natural as baseball is starting and I have been grilling some serious Carne Asada I have been getting from a local carniceria, El Torro Loco. Stuff is amazing and dirt cheap. I got a 6 pack of bud, enough carne asada to feed my whole family and have left overs, chips, and fresh salsa verde for $17. Awesome. So, I am thinking this weekend may be the first margarita weekend at my house as I am also planning to put in my garden. Also I may get the first 12er of bud light lime this weekend as that is a great warm weather session beer.

UPCOMING

There are a few reports of stripers lower in the Feather and Sac. I will be getting out over the next few days to see what I can find. Also there are reports of spring steelhead in the Feather, but I think some warmer weather is needed to get these fish going. Lots of great spring and summer fishing on its way here are a list of open dates over the next few months.

May 11, 25, 26, 27

June 10, 12-14, 17, 23-29

July 1-3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 16-27, 30, 31

*Evening Shad dates available all of the above plus these mid week dates: May 21-24, 28, 30 June 3-6

Report and Random information

Spring I think is officially here as day time temps are reaching anywhere from 70-80 degrees and I have officially pulled out my flip flops.  Among my fellow guide buddies I am always the last guy to go flip flops and shorts in the boat so this is a telling sign. night time temperatures still get down from the high 30's to low 50's so there are some big swings in the morning and evening temps once the sun goes down.

The Lower Sac has been fishing great with some large numbers of fish being caught. This is where I have been spending the most time. March is traditionally the start of the caddis hatches but there has been a smorgesboard of hatches lately with PMD's, Baetis, and March Brown's out in the morning followed by the caddis hatch. This is a great time of year on the Lower Sac as the weather is beautiful and the fishing is great!

I have not been on the Lower Yuba much sense the Lower Sac has been fishing so good. I usually move over to the Yuba starting in April for the PMD hatches. I have talked to a few buddies that have said the Yuba is fishing good but the fishing is pretty technical. Clear water and finicky fish eating March Browns and some early PMD's when the hatches come off. Nymphing has been decent and the fish are holding the riffles there is plenty of water to nymph with fish in the flats and riffles. April is a great month on the L. Yuba and one of my favorite of the year so fishing is only going to get better over on the Yuba.

There has been a few reports of spring steelhead on the Feather, Ryan J. has gone over there and had a decent day or two hooking a few fresh adult fish and a few half pounders. April and May are the best months here so it is still a bit early. Come april there should be decent numbers of fresh spring fish in the river and the cadddis should get going so swinging caddis patterns on switch rods or light spey rods is a great option.

Bass are starting to get active. I have talked to a few guys that have been going out to some lakes around chico and getting into some fish but I think night time temps need to get a bit warmer to help warm up and turn over some water to get the bass really going. April and May should be great this year with the early spring.

Shad and stripers should get going soon to as April and May arrive.

Athletic news...
March madness is here!!! and the brackets are out with the "first four" games starting tonight with St. Mary's locally getting it going. I love the NCAA tourney and everything tourney related!!! I got my bracket filled out yesterday and it was tough based on the up and down nature of the season with so many teams looking great then falling apart. I am not a multiple bracket guy though. I fill out one and run with run in all my pools and wagering. Pick and commit!!!!

I am also loving the World Baseball Classic...even though I kind of feel like I am in the minority here. It is great baseball in March and beats the MLB network replays of spring training games every night. I have noticed that I am really the only person I know watching it though. I have tried to talk about it with some buddies and I mise well of started talking about MLS Soccer.

Staying on baseball news I have caught a few giant spring games on the radio or TV and there is some great young talent coming up. Johnny Monel is going to give Hector Sanchez a run for the 2nd catchers spot and the young pitchers Blackburn, Krick, and Stratton are looking GREAT!!!

Booze News...
I am not proud of it but I have been drinking the new Budweiser Black Crown...really good and kind of a guilty pleasure.

Random things Clients Say (a new addition to the Blog)...
Client: "Can the trout even tell the difference between a caddis and a PMD?"
Me: "I don't know can you tell the difference between a steak and an Ice cream cone?"
Client: "Well isn't it all just silhouette?"
Me: "Ya that is pretty important...Ice Cream Cone/Steak...silhouette a bit different last time I checked"

Belated Report and other random news

Lots going on in Northern California…Spring seemed to be here and then Tornados, Hail, Rain, Wind, and Snow rolled in for a day or two. Pretty typical late winter early spring February fishing though really, when the weather is nice 60-70 with now wind fishing is good. When the wind, cold, rain, and what ever else gets cooked up moves in fishing can get tough. I spent a few days over the last 2 weeks on the Lower Sac and Lower Yuba Rivers. Fishing was good, great, and tough on various days or all of the three in one given day as the weather changed. Here are some reports and observations.

Lower Yuba

The Lower Yuba fished fair I would say, but like I said above very dependent on what the weather conditions were and more importantly what water was open. Bottom line the river is really crowded. Which is funny as I have worked my tail off to put fair to good numbers of fish in the boat over my last few trips and most of my fish are coming in water that people can’t wade fish. Fish to me seemed to be podded up as a result I think of getting pushed out of a bunch of water by wade fishermen. This Saturday there was wade fishermen in almost every run they could get into.  I don’t have a problem with a crowded river but it does push the fish around.

Most of my fish came on small may fly and midge patterns. I got fish on the new S&M PMD, Better Baetis, brown and coffee black jimmy legs, and quasimoto PT’s. In the back swirls and back waters there has been TONS of midge schucks from midge hatches so I had a duh experience and tied on a zebra midge…next pass both clients hooked fish.

Midge Schucks on the Lower Yuba

Even More Midge Schucks

Lower Yuba Bow

There are also a few small PMD’s when the sun is out and a few baetis when the clouds role in and temperature drops.  I have seen ovipositing skwalas around, but if there is a fish in the river that has not seen or been fooled by a skwala pattern I would be surprised.  I even grabbed one and dropped it down a run that I was pretty sure there were fish in and either there wasn’t fish home or no fish were interested. I found fish podded up in deeper water, swirls , and deep runs. That said I didn’t get a chance to really fish any true riffles as those are where wade fishermen usually congregate.

Fishing should continue to improve over the next few months as weather warms and becomes more stable. Some of the best dry fly fishing of the year is coming up with the PMD, PED, and Caddis hatches.

Lower Sacramento River

The Lower Sac has been good to great on those nice 65-70 degree days. Key is no wind. On the cooler and/or windy days fishing can be a bit tougher. On the warm days the caddis can come off and fish get really grabby that said clarity is still an issue but the lower one goes in the river the better the clarity is. I am still catching good numbers of fish on attractor eggs and stoneflies but over the last few days I have seen more and more fish come on bugs, mostly amber wing caddis, a black Fox poopah with amber wings, S&M PMD Nymph, and bigger flash back PT’s.

I have been spending most of my time between Bonnie View and Anderson and Anderson to Balls Ferry but I know that a few people have done down low from Barge to Bend and had some great days. I think that as the upper stretches get more crowded and the Trinity guides come back on over to the Sac I will move down lower and lower.

Fishing should continue to become more consistent over the next month but can fluctuate with wind and air temps.

Lower Sac Trout

More Lower Sac Trout

BOTTOM LINE

Spring fishing is about to get really good as the weather stabilizes and moves into nice warm spring weather. Fishing on both the lower Sac and Lower Yuba along with the Lower Feather is going to be getting really good. I have a few dates still open in march and april.

March 16, 17

April 3, 6, 7, 13, 14, 21, 28

In other News

The Giants first spring training game is coming up on Feb 23 this coming Saturday…This marks the official beginning of baseball season in my book. Daily games and reports on players. It is hard to catch spring training games as they are all day games for the most part but I DVR the ones I can and listen to ones on KNBR 680 when I can. I was a bit surprised but not to surprised when Bochy named Cain the opening day starter before spring training games ever began but who could argue the decision.

Pleasanton Fly Fishing Show is coming up this coming weekend as well. Cast Hope will be there with a booth and a great raffle. Stop by say HI to Ryan and the crew and buy a raffle ticket. You may win something cool. I am going to try to make it on Sunday but I might have to work all 3 days of the show. Simms fishing products will also be there showing all the new Fall/Winter products. Stop by and see John Sherman and the simms guys to look at the new products…make sure to look at the Kenai Shirt, Windstopper Soft Shell Hoody, and the Cold weather Shirt, these are my must have’s for the fall/winter/early spring.

Booze News: Got a bottle of Makers Mark from the Deeler and have been hooked on Makers, soda water, and a lime. Also been drinking some of the Sierra Nevada Tumbler and the Ovila Abby Quad…so good but not cheap. The New Big Foot ale is out but I have not had a chance to have any yet. I gotta have an evening where I can get a good buzz working to have the Big Foot.

Super bowl Sunday report

Guided the Yuba yesterday. Ryan Johnston has been on it a bit this week and said the dry fly fishing had been decent and the nymph grab was good as well. He also said it was crowded...like someone put up a "free beer" sign crowded. Couple this with Yuba County Water cutting the flows Friday morning from 1700cfs to 1400cfs because it was the 2nd driest January in the last 106 years I was a bit skeptical about how fishing was going to turn out. I had expected to be fishing with an armada of drift boats and blow up toys but when I got to the put in there was one boat in and me...I saw 3 other boats and pontooon throughout the day so not to bad. TONS of wader fishermen though, every run up and down the river it seemed. Flows at 1400cfs though are still high enough where there is room for both boats and wade fishermen, but there was some spots that were a bit cramped.

There was some sporadic bursts of PMD's and a few baetis hatching throughout the day. I have yet to see one skwala flying around but I did see a bank angler hook a fish on a skwala in a swirl behind a rock. I had my clients fish skwala dries and some PMD dries over likely spots with no success and most of the people around in boats and on the bank were throwing dries so I stuck with nymphs most of the day. We hooked fish on small nymphs for the most part, the S&M Pmd nymph was the best with a few fish coming on egg patterns, rubber legs, and PT flash backs. I would say the fishing was, "good winter trout fishing", we hooked some nice fish and got grabs in most spots, but by no means hooked any monsters or had ridiculous numbers.

Fishing should just get better as the weather gets warmer and we move into march. This time of year can be pretty up and down as the weather changes. Look for hatches of PMD's, March Browns, small caddis and maybe some skwalas.

In other news it is super bowl sunday and I took the day off to hopefully enjoy a "Good Game"...I am not a huge NFL guy but Ryan and the Johnston family are coming over as well as my parents to watch the game and have some food. To all the Niners Fans I wish them good luck and enjoy the day.

In music news...if you haven't ever bought a Ryan Adams, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, or Whiskey Town Cd do your self a favor and get one...really anything with Ryan Adams is good. Pretty mellow on the verge of spring but you know there will still be some rainy and gloomy february and march days to come.

Beer News...Cracked a bottle of Sierra Nevada Hop Harmony last night. This is a big American IPA brewed especially for the Hop Growers of America Convention a few weeks ago at the brewery. Pretty sure it was only given out to attendees...I did not attend but I know people.