Reports and open dates...quick post.

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.

the Holiday Hangover is over...go forth.

So the holiday hang over is over and if you haven’t noticed the days are getting longer every so slightly. While we still need MORE and MORE snow and rain things are looking good…We have been storms moving through on a pretty regular basis and while the snow pack is not as big as some years it is MUCH bigger then the last few. I drove over to Reno this last weekend and there was more snow then I had seen in many years. Fishing continues to be fair to good on most rivers around me, some days are better then others but that is really how Winter fishing is. On to the business end…

Lower Sacramento River: The Lower Sac hasn’t changed much sense my last post outside of the weather has been a bit warmer on average. For a few weeks it was really cold, in the low 40’s in Redding and the fish really seemed to only be active during the warmest part of the day. The last time I was on the river it was a bit more consistent throughout the day as the weather was a bit warmer. The Lower Sac in the winter is traditionally not a huge numbers game but personally in Dec/Jan I catch some of the biggest rainbows of the year so I see it as a fair trade. I have been getting most of my fish on rubber legs and pheasant tail variations almost exclusively. Fishing should remain consistent throughout January and into February but will be very influenced on the weather.

Nice Lower Sac Bow on a COLD DAY!

Lower Yuba Trout

Lower Yuba River: with the last storm moving through I spent a few days on the Lower Yuba River guiding and fishing on my own with my good buddy, guide, and amazing musician Chuck Ragan. I tend to believe that any time the Yuba comes up in flows from its 500-700cfs low and gets a little to even a lot of color it is going to fish really well this winter. With the last storm and color coming out of deer creek via squirrel creek the river has been fishing pretty darn good. Most of the fish I have been catching have come on attractor egg patterns, rubber legs, and Pheasant tail variations. Didn’t do much swung fly fishing but the conditions are pretty good for that as well. With more rain coming in this week and weekend I think the river will continue to have some color and fishing will remain pretty darn good. I have seen limited bug activity. There were some baetis hatching midday but with the clarity I didn’t see any fish coming up to feed. I have not seen any skwalas and don’t imagine they will be out until we get some consistently warmer weather.

Winter Rainbow on the Lower Yuba River

Music News…

Been spending some money on records but being pretty selective as I could easily spend a couple hundred dollars every time I enter a record store. I did find some good used records at Phono Select in Sacramento – Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band Against the Wind and Night Moves as well as Jackson Browne Running on Empty – all classics. Also did buy one of my favorite bands newest albums off Ebay – Appleseed Cast Illumination Rituals and the Built to Spill Live Album. I am restraining myself from spending a small fortune but I am sure over time I will…

In other news my band Royal Oaks (https://www.facebook.com/RoyalOaksBand/ )did a Friday Show up in Reno at PBJ’s  and Sacramento show at Harlows with Chuck Ragan (http://chuckraganmusic.com ). We will be doing a few more shows around Northern California over the next few months and then hitting the studio to record a record. Lots of fun getting out with Chuck. Check out our facebook page for photos, videos, and merch and DEFINITELY check out Chuck Ragan's page and music if you get a change. Great fishing music and his new album the Flame and Flood coming out in February was literally written while camping and fishing on the Lower Yuba River!

Royal Oaks at Harlows

Royal Oaks at Harlows

Sports Report –

Well I think injuries finally caught up with the Irish against Ohio…our defense was basically the JV squad and with 6 defensive backs hurt and our stud linebacker blowing up his knee 6 minutes in we kept the game closer then many expected but in the end we couldn’t stop the Ohio state offense and we made some serious mistakes on offense. Over all I am very happy with team 127 and I think with all they had to overcome they did an AMAZING job this year. Now it is on to signing day and awaiting spring training…sorry but basketball or Hockey don’t really excite me…

Fishing Reports, Sports, and Music reports - The if It ain't broke don't fix it blog post

So, with fall going into winter and the holiday season life gets pretty busy around my house… add a bunch of fly fishing and non fly fishing related projects I have been working on and you have a FULL plate with little room for blog posts…I am adding mandatory blog up date dates to my calendar as part of my 2016 calendar so I just don’t up date my blog by “feel” or when I “think” I need to update it….With all that said I hope everyone had a great Christmas, or what ever winter religious or non religious holiday you celebrate, and are looking forward to wrapping up 2015 with some fishing, fun, and family this week. Here some fishing reports and other random information…

FYI - Beware I did not proof read this blog post...not that ever do really closely but I usually give it one or two read throughs. Sitting on the couch working on a blog post can only pass as "work" for so long as  your wife takes down the christmas tree and all the christmas tree decorations. 

FISHING REPORTS – We have had a ton of much needed rain and snow over the last few weeks. All the local rivers and creeks blew out and I had to cancel most of my pre Christmas guiding and fishing plans. I was a little bummed but tough to be upset when we need a big winter to help alleviate the drought.

Lower Yuba River – Flows coming out of Englebright are down to 652cfs and have been stable sense early Christmas Morning. Water temp is 47.8. The flows came up to nearly 3000cfs Dec 22 which was a HUGE surprise. Hard to believe that between Spalding Reservoir on the South Fork, Bullards Bar, and Englebright there was water to be released but there must have been. This should of moved some of the fish that I think were kegged up in the canyon between the bridge and the narrows down river as Deer Creek peaked around the same time at nearly 3000cfs as well for a total river release in Marysville of nearly 4000cfs after water was pumped out at Daguerre. Deer Creek is now down to about 26cfs and still dropping. I have not been on the river sense the big flows but will in the next few days to get out and fish on my own. The river needed a big flush and push of water to move fish around…hard to imagine that we now consider a flow of nearly 4000cfs a “flush” when I remember many winters fishing the river at 2500-3000cfs. Dec into February on the Lower Yuba can be great fishing and I am looking forward to more storms that will push flows up and add some color to the river giving us some great winter swung fly conditions and the ability to fish off color water. I have had some of my best days during Dec/Jan with high and off color water on the Yuba.

Lower Sacramento River – I have not been on the Lower Sacramento River in a while as the lower stretches have been blown out for a few weeks as all the rain blew out many of the tributaries. Now though the river is fishable down to Cow Creek and even maybe below…not sure as I have not heard. Fishing up top through Redding though had been good with the cloud cover and warmer days there had been some great mayfly hatches. With the clear cold weather not sure those will continue but winter fishing on the Lower Sacramento is usually pretty good no matter what the hatches are. I love Dec-Feb on the upper stretches as many of the guides are over on the Trinity and the fish see little pressure. I can’t say we hook huge numbers in the winter but we traditionally hook some really big trout and the occasional winter steelhead if we fish down lower in the river.

Butte Creek – I have been spending most of my recreational fishing time on Butte Creek as it has been years sense we have seen good flows on the creek and high water events that are needed to move steelhead up from its mouth to the Lower Sac. The creek has been coming up really fast and dropping really fast as well so getting stable flows to allow for floating the river has been tough but wade fishing has been decent and the ability to fish dropping flows always gives a winter steelheader hope. Jan is the month to be on the creek and with continued rains fishing should be good.

Sports News…

So it has been a while sense my last blog post so there is a lot to talk about…I am going to hit the high and low lights to make it interesting.

The Irish – Solid regular season I have to admit. Basically two plays and 4 points away from being undefeated. Can’t complain. To be at the Stanford Game over thanksgiving and to watch our playoffs hopes go down the drain was painful to say the least. More along the lines of soul crushing. That one took a few days to get over…actually a week or two now that I think about it. I will say getting a New Years Day 6 bowl big against Ohio State is a great accomplishment. The chance to beat last years National Champion and a team many picked to repeat at the beginning of the season is a great opportunity. I ALMOST pulled the trigger on going to the game, tickets and flights to Phoenix are pretty cheap but I didn’t do it in my post Stanford depression I didn’t think I could watch another close game or lose in person. I need to be home for this one I think.

The Giants – Good pitching signings. PUMPED on Samardzija as I loved watching him play football at ND and I think he is a good bargain for 4 years…Cueto not sure man, this is going to be a tough one. Big money and a Long contract have not worked out for the Giants in the past. That said we had to do something right and I read an article recently regarding the amount and length of research that Righetti did during and after the season on possible pitching signings. Bum, Samardzija, Heston, Cueto, Cain maybe is a pretty solid pitching rotation if everyone stays healthy.

Music News – So there is two big events in music news…

1.     My band Royal Oaks is playing two shows with Chuck Ragan coming up…We are pumped! Not only is Chuck one of my favorite musicians he is one of my very close friends, a great guide, and a HUGE supporter of Cast Hope.

Jan 8 - RENO PB&J's Psychedelic Ballroom555 East 4th StreetReno, Nevada 89509

Jan 9 - Sacramento Harlows Restaurant & Night Club Harlow's2708 "J" St.Sacramento, California 95816

2.     I have entered the world of “vinyl”…yes I think I am one of the last people on earth that is a music lover to get a record player. After many years of my friends making fun of me for buying CDs my wife got me for Christmas a really nice record player and a few albums to start my collection….Like I need something else to collect. Between bobbleheads and guitar pedals my discretionary income that I can spend on things that I tell myself will appreciate in value but in reality are really just nerdy collections is thin. That said I can keep this under control…I hope.

CHRISTMAS - So, christmas with a 5 and 7 year old boy is about as cool as it gets. This christmas was totally deja vu as both boys gifts were either Legos or Star Wars. It has been like reliving my own christmases from say 6-10 or so...I have been building lego kits, playing with X-Wings and Speeders for the last 48 hours...while listening to records. Not bad.