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. 

Update for those that need updating.

So weather has gone from Rain and Cold to HOT…Fish still need to eat and people still need to fish so here is what I know about a few spots, why sports give me ulcers, and what things I have been drinking to toast the spots I fish and deal with the teams I love.

Lower Yuba – I have been on the Yuba a bunch recently and fishing has been pretty good. I would say that it has been best through out the day on cooler days but even when the weather has warmed up (like Saturday) it has been good. On the warmer days there seems to be a bit of lul during the hottest part of the day. I have been starting late morning and taking off around dark. Nymphing has been catching the most fish as hatches have been sporadic and inconsistent. I have been catching most of my fish in the deeper runs and flats. Focusing on the deep water below the riffles and slower flats, changing up to lighter weight when fishing the slower water. At 1400cfs the flats have decent flows and the fish are taking advantage of it. Most of the water I am catching fish in is not accessible to the wade fishermen and I have only gotten my clients out to wade fish once or twice over say half a dozen days on the river in the last 2 weeks. Evening hatches have been a mix of light olive to tan caddis and small light color mayflies. Caddis are a size 16-18 and Mays are a 18-20. I have had clients hook fish on both caddis dries and mayfly dries while the hatch is sputtering off. My best nymphs have been the S&M PMD, olive and tan birds nests, rubber leg stones, Jimmy legs, and a few new patterns I have been working on. Mainly small mayfly nymphs, caddis pupa, and rubber leg stone patterns have been catching the fish.

Lower Sacramento Trout – This is the time that I spend time fishing the Lower stretches of the Sac. This last week I spent 5 days between Balls Ferry and Bend Bridge guiding. Fishing was good to very good while the weather was totally crazy, pouring rain to roasting heat. Redding got over an inch of rain between Monday and Tuesday and the lower river did come up about 1000cfs and picked up a bit of color but the fish didn’t seem to mind to much. The flows are high through here to begin with and fish were holding in many of their normal summer spots eating big stones and bird’s nest. July is a great time to fish the lower river; if you can stand the heat there are good numbers of trout to be caught.

Lower Sacramento Stripers – it is go time for stripers on the L. Sac. Every time I have been out scouting we have caught some decent size schoolie fish and many shakers. I even took my two boys out on Fathers Day and they both stripped in their first stripers. I hooked them and handed off the rod…Proud dad. July and August are prime time to chase these fish from Butte City up through chico.

Oliver's First Striper

Becket's First Striper

North Fork Feather - The river is low man, and low like... now I realize how bad a winter we had, low as it is when I fish it in September for the Isonychia hatch. Bad news. I struggled over 3 days to catch fish on the main stem of the river. We hooked a few fish but they were small guys and not the fish I expect when fishing the North Fork Feather. We did find some nice fish up the Caribou stretch where flows seem a bit more normal but still low.

Low Water on the Main Stem

Tight Pocket water up through Caribou 

Sports Report – Lets be honest it has been a tough few weeks for my teams. Notre Dame took a big hit with the De-Commit of Eddie Vanderdose and their starting QB getting busted for Academic impropriety and having to sit the season out…Another year of Tommy Reese may just kill me. Couple that with the complete implosion of the giants and more specifically their pitching staff and things are going bad…With the Giants I am past yelling at the TV, drown myself in drink, and hoping for wins. I watch small victories now, like “good job we made it through the first inning with out giving up a run”, “way to make a throw to first Pablo”, “good job to get through a lead off double or single”…tough, but small victories and great plays by Brandon Crawford keep me watching.

Beer Report – So I have been branching out a lot lately. Tip money in my pockets means some good beer to drink. I have been on a Lagunitas and Stone Brewery kick lately. I had a bottle of Stone Cali-Belgue IPA that was awesome. One of the best IPA’s I have had lately. I also tried a big bottle of the Lagunitas Lucky 13. A good red ale but nothing I would buy again, if bought for me though I would not turn it down. The best I have had lately is the Lagunitas Undercover Investigation Shut-Down Ale. This is a limited release in honor of something that happened in 2005 with them…It is a great bitter ale that goes down really easy.

Not a bad line up

This is Summer...

Summer is here and all the great things about it are in full swing…BBQ, striper fishing, Shad fishing, weddings, cold beer, great new music, anger at the giants, caddis and PMD hatches, wet wading, golden stones, sierra trout streams…you name it. I love June.

Lower Yuba – I have been on the Lower Yuba a few days in the last week and fishing has been great to good. The flows are hovering around 1300cfs which is a good flow, but I would like to see it higher. 1300cfs has a good current through the flats, but not enough water to come up into the willows on the bank which is going to make hopper fishing a bit more challenging this summer. The fish are spread out in the flats and deeper parts of runs and will move into shallower water or the riffles to feed in the evening. We caught fish on nymphs (jimmy leggs, birds nest, S&M PMD’s, Red copper johns, and a new medium size stonefly I am working on) and dries in the evening. There was decent caddis and PMD hatches along with a few golden stones flying around. We got fish to eat Cutters E/C caddis, the Yuba Emerger, Quigleys Golden Stone Dry, and Quigley’s hackle stacker. As long as the flows don’t drop any more I think it is going to be a good summer on the Yuba. Not sure how the hopper fishing will shake out but as long as the caddis and mayflies come off each day things will be good.

Yuba Double..one a few that day

Grip and Grin...sorta

Yuba ... survivor. Nice osprey talon scar on this guy...the fish not the angler

Lower Sac Stripers and Shad – The striper fishing for me really picked up over the last week. We hooked fish in almost every run we fished the last few days I have been on the water. The fish are on the smaller side with a mix of nice schoolie size fish and shakers. Though we have hooked a few bigger girls just not gotten them to the boat. I think most of the fish that can eat shad are still eating them. Shad fishing has been hit and miss…not a really strong shad year for me personally. I know people are getting into them at various times but there just doesn’t seem to be as many fish around as last year (that said last year was pretty epic).  Hopefully this will result in a good striper year.

Lower Sac Striper

Lower Sac Trout – Fishing remains good from what I have heard. I am going to start getting out on the lower river down below barge hole shortly. Summer is a great time to fish the lower river and can provide some of the best fishing of the year. I may be biased though as this is some really fun guiding and really a pretty and unique stretch of river.

North Fork Yuba River – I spent a day up out of Downieville fishing some old haunts this week. I started guiding up here over 15 years ago and it is always cool going back and seeing how little things have changed. I will say the water level is scary low for June. To me it looks about to be at August levels. That said fishing was good. We caught fish on dries and small nymph rigs. There was good numbers of golden stones, little yellow sallies, and what looked to be gray or brown drakes flying around. I would say if you like this piece of water get up there sooner then later as it is going to get pretty thin this year.

a Few goldens flying around

Beautiful Water up on the NF Yuba...get there soon though

Fall River – Word is the hex hatch has started…I will be up there soon to confirm.

The Rock and Roll Report – so with all the driving around I have been doing I needed some new music…Summer always brings some good releases.

Jason Isbell “Southeastern” – Jason was part of drive by truckers for a few years and wrote some of my favorite DBT songs. He then left the band and has released four albums, two solo and two with his band the 400 unit. This is a solo release and is seriously amazing song writing. For some reason every song this guy writes I relate to. This is a great sun setting on the way home from work or the river type of album, or just having a cold one on the porch.

The Wonder Years “The Greatest Generation” – Awesome and rocking earnest emotionally charged music…similar to Taking back Sunday but way cooler and way more relatable lyrics.  There are few bands that make me yell and pump my fist while driving like these guys.

The Front Bottoms “Talon of the Hawk” – the listeners also bought feature on I tunes continues to cost me $9.99 at an incalculable and painful rate. I found these guys while buying the new Wonder Years CD…they are just could rock. The singer is great and kinda reminds me of Pavement a bit but a bit more catchy and relatable…like I know what the song is about. I love pavement but lets be honest if anyone can tell me what any given song is about let me know, not just lines from the songs but the song as a whole.

That will get you through a few drives to the river or lake or mud puddle.

Cold beverages I drink past 12:30 during the summer report -  Any new device to consume beer is worth a review…the new Klean Kanteen 16oz Vacum insulated Tumbler is amazing. Not only does it look cool it keeps your beer colder then a frosted pint glass and doesn’t have the condensation that gets my wife’s various wood furniture things wet. I know a coaster would solve this issue but even then the condensation drips on my chest while slouched on the couch and while that is a cooling feature at times after a few beers I am just wet. I made it a point to drink all my daily beverages out of one of these the other day…iced coffee: ice lasted and drink stayed cold for a good 2 hours while I watched sports center, tied flies, and answered emails…much nicer compared to the 20mins my usual plastic souvenir cup I got at the giants game. I then made myself a smoothie and rode to the river with it in my cup holder and it stayed nice and cold through the drive…then of course when I got home I had a few summer ales out of it. I even fell asleep in bed with a half pint next to me and while I don’t make a habit of drinking beer in the morning I took a sip when I woke up and it was still a bit cold. Good stuff.

Liquid wise I have been rotating between the staples…Pale Ale, Summer Fest, and Torpedo. I did try a bottle of the Sierra Nevada Double Dubel brew. This is a Belgian Style Dubel that is aged for two years in Oak Casks previously used to age Brandy. It was good it was just a bit sweet for me. I would probably drink it again but it was

not my favorite.

Frosty and Cold...even in the morning.

Funny Things Clients' say…

Client: “So does the fishing get better in the evening?”

Me: “Well it would be pretty damn good now if you set the hook on a few of the half dozen grabs you are getting in EVERY hole we have fished.”

Client: “Good Point…does it get easier in the evening”

Me: “if you get better at this fly fishing thing”

Laughter

Still Plenty of dates in July for Lower Yuba trout, Lower sac trout, Lower sac stripers, Top water bass, NF Feather Trout, NF Yuba Trout, Small stream trout….. Either way go fish.

July 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 24, 25, 29, 30, 31

August 1-8

Cast Hope Pledge Drive

As Many of you know I am part of the non-profit Cast Hope. I have been a part of Cast Hope from its inception. We are a group of fly fishing guides that started a non profit about 6 years ago with the goal of introducing low income and under served kids in Northern California and their mentors (parent, grand parent, big brother/big sister, friend, grand parent, anyone that is important in their lives) to the sport of fly fishing and the outdoors by taking them on free guiding fly fishing trips. We have grown exponentially with the support of the fly fishing industry and outdoor industry. We have grown to include conservation and sustainability education through our guided fishing trips, fish fest, clinics, and camping trips. Through our fish fest's and clinics we give away free fly rods, flies, terminal tackle, and outdoor clothing to both kids and mentors to help eliminate the financial hurdles of getting out fly fishing and enjoying the outdoors. In a nut shell we are teaching kids to use their local watersheds, appreciate them, and become advocates to conserve them.

Below you will see a flier for our annual Pledge Drive where we offer great custom Cast Hope gear in exchange for a pledge amount. This is a great way to make a difference and get some new gear for the summer and fall fishing season. Thanks for taking the time to look this over and if nothing else check out 
www.casthope.org 
to see what we are all about.

For more information shoot me an email at hoganbrown@hotmail.com

DISCOUNT DAY: June 13

Evening Trip: $200 for two anglers - $50 discount
Half Day Float Trip: $250 for two anglers - $75 discount 
Full Day Float Trip: $325 for two anglers - $100 discount

Options: 
Float the Lower Yuba - PMD, Caddis, Little Yellow sallies, and golden stones - both nymphing and dry fly fishing options on full and half day or even and evening float. 
Float the Lower Sac - Great nymph fishing through the Lower stretches of the river down through red bluff.

Warm water trips - evening top water fishing, striper fishing, shad fishing, carp fishing - great evening or half day trip. 

Walk and wade trout fishing - NF Feather, NF Yuba, and many other small creeks outside of chico, ca.

*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.