Quick Friday Report

Lower Sacramento River

The fishing is good to very good right now. Many of my buddies have reported ridiculous numbers and size of fish up through Redding and few steelhead lower in the river. The word is the egg bite is early 2000’s status and fish are chowing!!! Usually does not last long so book a bath tub to float down the river and get after it.

 Lower Yuba River

Flows are still up around 1000cfs and fishing is good. More and more salmon are moving up on redds, but fish still are spread out in the various types of water. Day and evening temps have cooled off drastically the last few days so the caddis hatch should slow a bit or be pushed to midday. Heard some good reports from a few buddies who likes to swing flies out on the river so with the higher water and the fish being spread out swinging flies is a fun way to fish this time of year. I like to swing smaller flies in olive or tan…Aram’s Little Kim in Silver, Hickman’s Skiddish Smolt , and the Partridge soft hackle flies have all pulled fish for me the last few weeks.

 Lower Feather River

There are great numbers of salmon in the Low Flow Section of the river with reports of steelhead mixed in. With all the salmon spawning in the riffles it can be tough to fish for steelhead but if you don’t mind loosing a few rigs they are mixed in there. The High Flow section came up to 6000cfs for about 8 days and now is dropping, down to 4789cfs as of today. Once the flows in the high flow get down around 2500-3000 it is time to get out and fish the high flow. The flow drop should suck steelhead and salmon up river. Mid October through thanksgiving is going to be good on the feather this year.

 Available Dates:

Oct: 21

Nov: 10, 11, 18-21, 25

Dec: 2, 8, 9 14-16, 19-23, 27-31

Broad Ranging Report with other random news...

Fall Fishing is off to a slow but steady start. Weather is suppose to cool off over the next few days and I even saw some rain in the extended forecast. This should help kick things into gear. With all the salmon in the rivers we should see spawning salmon through November and fishing on the L. Yuba, Feather, and L. Sac should be good to great through the end of the year.

 Lower  Yuba – Flows are higher then usual this time of year. The egg bite is slow to start but there are salmon up on redds and trout behind them in a few areas. There are also plenty of trout still holding in bug water eating nymphs and feeding on evening caddis hatches. Look for fishing to be good through the end of the year.

Lower Feather – The low flow and high flow has TONS of salmon in them. Talked to a few people whom have gone over and fished the feather and they had trouble fishing the riffles with all the salmon. The flows in the high flow should drop soon and fishing through out the river for fall and winter steelhead should get going.

Lower Sacramento – There are a ton of salmon moving up the L. Sac this fall and many have made it all the way up to Redding and the egg bite should get going any time now. Fishing on the L. Sac for trout on steelhead should be great this year through the first of the year.

Fall and winter are great times of year to get out fishing. Below are some available fall and winter dates. Also check out hgb fly fishing on facebook.

Nov: 10, 11, 18-21, 24, 25

Dec: 1, 2, 14-16, 19-23, 27-31

Jan: 4-6, 12, 13, 19-21, 26, 27

New Toons for dark drives to the river and lonely drives home in the twilight

Fall always signals  a lot of new music. Not sure if it is the approaching holiday season or just the approaching dark and rain that make artists realease new albums. Here is my list of must listens:

Out Now: Patterson Hood “Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance” , Band of Horses “Mirage Rock” , Mumford and Sons “Babel” , Ryan Bingham “Tomorrowland” , Dinosaur Jr. “I bet on sky”

Oct. 16 Ben Gibbard “Former Lives”

Oct. 22 Gary Clark Jr. “Blak and Blu”

Drinks that were at one time illegal due to the Volstead Act

Time to go dark on the beer and the water…

I cracked a bottle of 18year Glenlivet the other night and bought a 12 pack of Sierra Nevada Tumbler. Tumbler is a great fall beer and there is nothing bad about 18year glen. I have yet to buy a handle of Jameson but a few more weeks and I am sure it will be sitting top shelf in the pantry.

Fall/Winter Drinks

 God’s Team

Yes the Irish are 4-0 and ranked in the top ten. It is a great feeling!!! We got a bye week and then we got the convicts of Miami at Soldier Field. Great to renew the Catholics vs. the Convicts bowl. 

Lower Yuba Weekend

I spent this weekend out on the Lower Yuba guiding. I have not been out in a few weeks as I got the flu that turned into bronchitus and a double ear infection...I was a mess. Fever like an acid trip and snot production that would rival a day care. Finally got my feet back under me this last week and after rescheduling a bunch of trips I got back out. 

Lower Yuba is hanging just over a 1000cfs. This is a good and bad thing, but I think the good out way the bad. Usually by now the flows have been dropped to around 700-800cfs. This seems like a trivial difference, but it makes a huge deal. Good things are there is plenty of water for the fish to spread out in the runs, flats, riffles, and banks. This is a huge deal as it provides plenty of options for wade fishermen and boat guys and even with boats and waders on the water one can always find fresh spots if you know where to look. Once the water drops to 700-800cfs it turns into a riffles/runs game and the fish get pounded by wade and boat guys. Making it tough if you are not getting first licks on a run. Tough part about the flows being what they are is the salmon are slow to get going and seem to be few in number. I think the higher flows have pushed more fish up above the bridge then in previous years and fish are holding in the deeper water both above and below Daguerre, moving up river at a much more leisurely pace. Most years when the water drops from summer flows to 700-800cfs it forces the salmon up river in a big push and out of the holes into the riffles to spawn all at once. This results in the trout packing into the riffles and gorging on eggs for about 2weeks. Resulting in an epic egg bite of about 14 days and then fishing gets pretty tough.

Based on what I have seen over the last two days I love this flow and program the river seems to be on. There a few, and I mean a  few – like 2-3 spots, salmon up on redds and where they are on redds there is fish behind them chowing eggs but in other spots fish are holding in bug water eating bugs. Really what it boils down to is there is a lot of options for how someone can fish the river and I think good fall fishing is going to last longer and be more consistent then previous years. Add some of the best caddis hatches of the year during the evening and you have some great fishing.

Also word on the street is the low flow and high flow on the feather are packed with salmon which has the makings of a great steelhead season over on the Feather. 

Up date and the Yuba house

Spent the weekend on the L. Yuba. Saw the first few dead salmon and some decent size pods in the pools and caught a few fish on egg patterns. The egg bite should be about a week or two away on the Lower Yuba. Prime fall fishing is still a few weeks away but there is some good fishing to be had right now. I have heard of a few steelhead caught on the L. Feather, and the Lower stretches of the Sac are kicking out some half pounders and a few adult fish.

I have also began working with a couple who rents a cabin/house about 8miles from the highway 20 bridge on the Lower Yuba River for those that would like to stay close to the river. It sleeps up to 5 people comfortably and even has a private 2.5 acre bass pond on site. For prices and availability check out the “Yuba House” at www.hgbflyfishing.com.

Sept. 22, 23

Oct. 7, 21, 27, 28.

Nov. 10-12, 17-21

Dec. 1, 2, 14-22, 27-31

Fly Tackle Dealer show...new stuff

I was fortunate of enough to spend the last weekend at the Fly Tackle Dealer Show in Reno Nevada. I have been going to "the show" for the better part of 12 years...the first time I went it was in Salt Lake City and I had my first run with JaegerMeister and the security of "The Temple"...bad mix. I was  21 years young and have never touched Jaeger again...thats how bad it was. The show moved to Denver and I made that jaunt for a number of years, missed a year or two, then the show went to New Orleans, and now landed in Denver.

The size of the show, number or dealers (brands), and retailers that show up has gone down like a 747 with out engines at 32000 feet. The reasons are complex and not something that I concern myself with but it was an eye opener as to how small the show has actually gotten in the last 5 years.

My main reason for going this year was that Cast Hope (www.casthope.org) was hosting a happy hour at the Scotts Fly Rod booth and as a Scott, Echo Rods, and Air Flo pro-staffer I needed to make an appearance to support the brands. The Happy Hour went great!!!! We handed out 200 Klean Kanteen Pints and killed a keg in 30minutes...impressive. Cast Hope got a lot of much needed promotion, was able to thank those that have supported us over the last 4 years, and we were able to introduce ourselves and our organization to much of the industry. Great event and one I am sure will help Cast Hope grow.

I was also fortunate enough to see all the new product coming out. Here is a quick summary...

Scott has released a 8' 8wt, 9wt, and 10wt in their S4S series...They are sick! great striper or largemouth rods for Northern California. I will ordering the 8 and 9wt to hopefully throw fall top water flies for the bass and stripers. Also the new L3H spey line of rods was a big hit. I am not a big spey guy so I can't talk to inteligently about them but I did cast them and liked them a lot.

Echo Rods has some really cool new new one piece salt rods in echo 3 line and value switch rods for 200-400$. Also the echo ion reel is a deal for the price! I ordered a few my nymph rods and basic trout rods.

Air Flo Lines has some cool new stuff as well. The Sniper Striper line is by far the best shooting head line I have ever fished and their Range Floating lines are pretty sweet as well.

Simms as always had some really cool new gear out as well. All there new gear is up on their website but the new Ocean Trek boot is pretty slick for wading for carp and over rocky bottoms like possibly the Yuba. The cold weather shirts are pretty sweet as well. May get in touch with my inner lumber jack this winter and role one of them on Butte Creek. The Fall Run Jacket (synthetic down jacket) is pretty sweet and warm looking as well.


NRS had a sweet inflatable drift boat on display and Adipose skiffs were there and they look really cool...not sure they could hang in the swirls on the Sac but they look great for the Lower Yuba and Feather.

Here we come Fall

It is going to be hot this week in Nor Cal but the days are getting shorter, salmon are in the rivers, and fall fishing is right around the corner. Here is what is going on right now and what is coming up…

The Lower Yuba is still around 2300 cfs and mid summer fishing is going strong with good nymphing during the morning and then on most days we are throwing hoppers against the bank from lunch on. All the big fish are coming on hoppers fished tight to the banks with a few 18-20” fish taken on dries over the last few weeks. This has been by far one of the best hopper years I have seen in my life and we still have a few weeks left of it I imagine.

We are seeing a few salmon in the river in the deeper holes and I expect the river will began to drop in the next month or so pushing more salmon into the river. The upper river will close August 31 and the egg bite on the Lower Yuba usually begins the last two weeks of Sept.

The Lower Sacramento for trout has been fishing very well in the lower river from barge hole down to Bend. The lower sac down low is a great mid summer fishery and even with the opening of salmon season down through here fishing has remained strong. Two of the best days I have had down here were the salmon opener and the day after the salmon opener. I have already hooked my first fin clipped steelhead on the L. Sac and August and early September are the time to chase steelhead down low on the sac through Los Molinos before the fish move into the tributaries.

Striper Fishing is going strong with good numbers of 4-8lb fish being caught. I have seen big fish but the biggest I have seen hooked are in the 11-15lb class. Striper fishing on the L. Sac should remain good through mid September but Right NOW is prime time and top water should be getting good any day as the weeds just showed up in the last week.

Lower Feather has plenty of salmon in the river and is shaping up for a great year of steelhead fishing. Prime time on the Lower Feather is Oct – Mid November. If anyone has the urge to tangle with a king salmon now is the time to go wade the Low Flow for catch and release king salmon fishing.

Butte Creek: While butte creek is more of a winter steelhead fishery its salmon run enters the river during the summer and from what I have heard and seen on a recent drive salmon returns are looking really good. Now we need some strong early winter storms to get the steelhead up.

With big salmon returns and good water levels this fall and winter should be great for both steelhead and trout fishing. If anyone has any questions or wants to book a trip give me a call or drop me an email.

Open Dates:

Aug: 26^th full Day. Evening striper trips ($225 for two anglers) 23, 24, 27, 31

Sept: 2, 3, 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, 30

Oct: 6, 7, 20, 21, 27, 28

Nov: 3, 4, 10, 11, 12, 17-21, 24, 25

Dec: 1, 2, 8, 9, 14-23, 27-31

Up date

Ya it has been a while I know…Don’t judge.  I have been busy guiding, fishing, sampling fermented brews of sorts, playing music, and working on Cast Hope related stuff (www.casthope.org). Chico is in the midst of summer and fishing is good for those willing to get out and do it. Here some reports, ramblings, and declarative statements.

Lower Yuba River has been having a great summer. One of the best hopper years I have seen with great dry fly fishing throwing hopper patterns midday through the evening. Nymphing has been catching a few fish but most of the fish seem to be on the banks and not hanging in the riffles where most people nymph. Flows are hovering around 2200cfs so wading is a challenge and most of the fish have been catching are not in areas that are easily fished by wading. Ryan Johston had a client streamer fishing the other day and caught a few nice fish on streamers as well.

Lower Sacramento Trout fishing has been good on the lower floats from Barge Hole to Bend and I am thinking about going down lower this week as there should be some steelhead showing up soon, if not right now. The Sac should only start to fish m’’’’’l’river.

Lower Sacramento Striper fishing is good. With the opening of salmon season down through chico many of the stripers have moved out of the deeper water and are up on the banks chasing bait. As the shad have disappeared the stripers have gotten more grabby and both fishing subsurface and top water is catching fish. Now through August should be good to great fishing for stripers.

In other news…

Go buy the new Gas Light Anthem CD “Handwritten” …. Great American rock band. If you want a sampling check out this concert they did a the Ed Sullivan Theater.

http://www.cbs.com/late_night/liveonletterman/the_gaslight_anthem/video/?pid=0Ao51MeXfTWnwbR8AFs6fWg8pXt5KLTd&vs=Default&play=true