Cast Hope Video by RA Beattie and Beattie Productions

There are few things that I am as proud of as what Ryan Johnston and I have done with a crazy idea he shared with me at the Taco Bar in Tres Hombres nearly 10 years ago. He wanted to call it Cast Hope and he wanted to take what he had been given and share it with kids that hadn't been given such things. I jumped on and I don't think either of us have looked back. When you have an idea that you know is good, a problem you know needs solving, and you think you have the solution it is a powerful exciting thing.



Then when people start believing in your idea, supporting it, and as the years go by you see the affects it has it is humbling. I could go on and on, but this video does a much better job of explaining what Cast Hope is, what it does for kids in Northern California and Western Nevada, and more importantly why as anglers and outdoors people we must continue to share what we love. Share the outdoors my friends.

Sept 9th post...good stuff. Fresh off the keyboard.

So here we are in the early parts of September…Fall is definitely here. The sun is setting earlier and coming up later as well the hottest part of the day while still warm only lasts about 2-3 hours. Some people really like fall…I am not a big fall person to be honest. Personally I am more of a spring summer person but fall and winter have their positives…

I have had a pretty light guide schedule as Cast Hope and life in general have been taking up a lot of time. I have made it a point the last month to get my two boys out on the river as much as possible and in many cases taking them out in lieu of guiding or fishing myself. They are both really at a point where they are starting to functionally fish, both with the spinning rod and the fly rod. They can throw a popper/dropper rig for small bass, pike minnows, and blue gill and chuck a swim bait on a spinning rod so fishing with them is really starting to be fun. I have really committed myself to sacrificing personal fishing time in the hopes of creating future fishing buddies and more fishing time down the road…I shouldn’t even say “sacrificing” as I don’t feel I am sacrificing much as taking them fishing is pretty darn fun and I get throw the fly around a bit as well. In the end they don’t have to like fishing they just have to like the outdoors more then they do TV, Video Games, IPads, and things with screens…If they get into kayaking, mountain biking, camping, hiking, gardening, golf…I don’t really care just that they appreciate the outdoors and are in touch with it.

Reports

Lower Sacramento River Striper – I have been guiding and fishing the sac outside of chico for stripers and bass exclusively. I will focus on stripers and bass through October for the most part. Fishing has been good. There are plenty of small stripers and fish in the 4-8lb range to be caught. Traditionally this time of year is when we start to see a decline in numbers of smaller fish and increase in numbers of bigger fish but that hasn’t happened this year. My theory is usually that the large pods of chinook salmon and the anglers chasing them push many of the larger fish to the banks pushing out the smaller fish and increasing the chances that we have to catch thes fish. The bigger fish traditionally come to the banks and shallows to feed but with the deeper water occupied by salmon and trafficked by large boats usually in the fall these bigger stripers move to the banks to live AND feed. More and more salmon are showing up each day and I imagine the bigger fish will move out of the deeper holding water as they do so it is only a matter of time.

 Lower Yuba River – Flows have dropped to 756 which is pretty standard this time of year as that is the “low flow” of the fall that the river gets dropped to. I have heard over the last few days that fishing has been pretty darn good. I imagine as the salmon move up river and into the riffles to cut reds the fishing will continue to improve. The fishing over the summer has been pretty up and down and I think with the lower flows and huge food source of the egg hatch here coming up we will really get a good idea of how many fish are in the lower Yuba. I am thinking the next few weeks into October could be some pretty epic fishing on the Lower Yuba.

***Upcoming Guiding…I have a few late fall and winter dates open for the Lower Yuba, Lower Sacramento, and Feather for Trout and Steelhead. If anyone is interested shoot me and email or phone call to get on the calendar.

Open Dates: 

Nov 23, 25, 26, 27

Dec 3, 17, 19, 21-23, 27-31

Music Report: 

Been listening to some really great new music. The new BJ Barham solo record I got on vinyl and is really good. Just a simple album about his home and growing up, nothing fancy but this guy cranks out some pretty relatable good tunes……Also got some more commercial music in the Newest Lumineers album and the Chris Stapleton Album. The Lumineers album has some good tunes on it but hasn’t really grabbed me like the last album. That said I haven’t given it a huge chance so I am going to keep listening…Chris Stapleton while a pretty commercial success is a great song writer and a really interesting story. Basicly a guy who wrote songs in Nashville for all sorts of acts and stars fairly namelessly decided to record is own album of his own personal songs and ended up winning album of the year at the CMT Awards I think. The songs are solid and really heartfelt good country/Americana….

Sports Report: The Giants are brutal to watch…Casilla kills me and our playoff hopes. Amazing downward spiral post all star break but I rest on the fact that we have won the world series as a wild card so never loose hope. Just has the feeling this year that we are barely hanging on to relevance in September. The Irish…tough loss this last week to Texas. That said Texas is a much better team then anyone gave them credit. I had not designs on a blow out win and knew the game would be close. Charlie Strong is a great coach and quality human being so I knew he was going to turn the Long horns around. That said I think we played well enough to win just didn’t come up with it. I think we are a lot younger then I thought…especially on defense. Hard to overlook that that was 17 players first major college start. From Defensive line back we are all new and all of our receivers except Tory Hunter Jr. are starting for the first time. The QB debate seems to have been ended with Coach Kelly announcing Kaiser as the starter this week and giving him most of the snaps last week…feel bad for Malik but that is the breaks I guess. I didn’t feel he got a chance to do much last week but he had all spring and early fall to shine and end the debate as the upper classmen and he didn’t so may the best man win I guess. Hopefully he can graduate this year and transfer to play another year somewhere.

The mid August Post...always a favorite

Mid August is the height of summer in most places but what is interesting is that most years we already start to see the first signs of fall. The days are noticeably getting shorter and the angle of the sun is changing…if you are on the water the sun is much lower in the sky at 3-4pm then it was a few weeks ago. I don’t think it is any secret that fish pick up on these subtle changes much more then we do. I even saw on the river the other day the first large flocks of migratory Canadian geese or “honkers” on the river. I have seen very few salmon in the Lower Sac and the salmon boat traffic is minimal meaning not many people are catching fish. I have not been trout fishing on the Sac, Yuba, or Feather at all so I am not sure if the salmon have just shot up into the upper reaches but I have not seen then in the lower.

Striper fishing remains fair to good. For a few weeks now we have been getting good numbers of small fish but it has been tougher to find the bigger fish. Over the last week though changing some things up has put us back on some good fish. I could take the credit for changing fly patterns, presentations, and lines or it could be as simple as that the bigger fish just started eating again. That is beauty of it though is I will never know. Fishing for the resident stripers will last through October until we get our first big storms and cold weather. I am hoping to get some decent sight fishing as salmon move into the river and push the bigger fish to the banks and these bigger fish hang out in some of the back waters even.

Keep them Wet...

well behaved striper holding for pictures

Nice fish caught on the type 5 right on the surface

I have not been up on the Lower Sac or down on the Lower Yuba for trout but fall and winter are approaching quickly and those will be my winter haunts. I usually fish the Lower Sac from Red Bluff to Los Molinos in Late October and November for steelhead before the tributaries have enough water in them for the fish to move up them. Depending on water management and flows I may do some days on the feather out of the jet boat in late October and early November as well to chase some fall steelhead but I will see. The feather can get pretty damn crowded and the older I get the less I have the patience to deal with the crowds. My real hope is that the Lower Yuba starts fishing and that I can spend Nov-February over there nymphing, swinging streamers, and running into the occasional Baetis/BWO hatch…One can hope right.

Music Report…been listening to a ton of new music. The new BJ Barham (lead singer of American Aquarium) is really good. You can check it out here http://noisey.vice.com/blog/bj-barham-american-aquarium-solo-rockingham Great Americana music about life in the south and just life in general. I have also been listening to Joey Kneiser (lead singer of Glossary) my favorite album is the “The Wildness”... “The All Night Bedroom Revival” is a close second. I also took a trip down the Berkley to speak to the Grizzly Peak Fly Fishers and spent the obligatory $100 at Amoeba Records...Finished up my Bruce Springsteen Vinyl collection of major releases prior to Tunnel of Love, picked up Spoon "Gimmie Fiction" on vinyl, as well as a few used CD's...best used CD's I got so far have been The Hold Steady "Teeth Dreams" which is their newest album...I am not always a fan of Craigs vocals but the music on this album is really really good and of all the albums I own I think I like the vocals the best on this one. They seem to work with the music instead of fight the music like I have always felt they do on other albums...Also picked up the classic Granddaddy album "the software slump" ...so good. 

Baseball…Giants are hard to watch I’ll be honest…I hang on every inning it seems like as there is always enough positive to keep watching and hoping they are going to pull out of this tail spin but evidence is suggesting not. Blown leads, lack of run support, and just aweful hitting at times is hard to watch.

Irish…19 days away from the opener against Texas. No idea who the QB will be but our season tickets are in our hands and we are pumped!

Cool New Products…My good friend Matt Callies who is a product developer and hosts the bi- monthly Loon Live fly tying broadcast developed a new set of hemostats for Loon that he hooked me up with this last week while we were striper fishing. It is one of those products that you see and think wow that is a no brainer why didn’t I think of that…then I go well I am not Matt Callies the man of many ideas. The carabineer handle is about as slick and easy to clamp on to anything as it gets. I have clamped it onto my lanyard for my hatch nippers, the handle of my boat bag, and even put it on the suspenders of my waders the other day. The hemostats de-bard everything up to a 4/0 striper hook so they are heavy duty to say the least!

From the mind of Matt Callies...really good idea 

BIG NIGHT OUT!!!!  it is that time of year again where we throw a big party in chico! Cast Hope has up our gamed this year and our holding our annual Big Night Out at the Big Room at the Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico, CA. This year we will be having live music from Chuck Ragan and members of the Camaraderie

Celebrate the independence of American by going fishing or reading this blog post

July 4th holiday weekend is upon us and the throngs of humanity are rushing out to celebrate, camp, travel, fish...basically get outdoors and enjoy summer. No better way to celebrate. The weather here has been HOT! typical Chico/Nor Cal heat wave 100-108. Hot, but if you get on the water early and get off into the A/C by 2-3pm plenty of good fishing to be had and a great way to sweat out the heavy beer, alcohol, or garlic you have been consuming. I have been spending all my time guiding for stripers and things are shaping up to be a great summer of striper fishing on the Lower Sac!

Striper fishing on the Lower Sacramento - Fishing has been good. Good numbers of keeper size stripers and fish up to 10lbs with the big fish 20+lbs starting to show themselves. July -October is when the big guys move up daily into the shallows to eat and anglers have shots at them. Not everyday but most days we see, have shots at, and some times hook some of these guys. Flows are good and water temps are all where they should be so it is shaping up to be a great summer of striper fishing. 

Still fishing the heavy lines but the weeds are starting to come up and there a few spots we are pulling out the intermediate and type 3 lines. 

I still have a few open dates

July 12, 25

August 1, 27

Sept 3, 24

Oct 1, 8, 15

Tight Quarters Striper fishing in the back waters

Summer Striper 

Vacation fishing...I took my family down to San diego to go to the San Diego Zoo, Lego Land, Beach, and site see. While I was down there I got to fish with my good friend Conway Bowman for Mako Sharks on the fly. By far one of the coolest visual fly fishing experiences I have ever had. seeing a 6' 125lb mako eat a popper at 50 feet is pretty Insane and then having that fish rip off line on a 14wt like a bonefish on steroids is pretty cool. Site fishing to these fish on floating lines, poppers, and big flies right under the surface is really cool experience if you are ever down in San Diego. Conway doesn't guide much anymore but Dave Tremble does and is a great guide down there. 

Shark Popper

Rigged and Ready!

Corked on a 14 Weight...

That is as close to a grip and grin shot as I was getting

Music Reports - Been listening to a bunch of old stuff...really enjoying the re-release of the Rolling Stones Exile on Main St. that came out a while ago. Has some great unreleased songs on it and out takes as well as all the classics. Also been listening to Sturgill Simpson as I just bought tickets to see him in Redding, CA of all places. His newest album is a great listen and his older ones are different enough but the same enough to keep it all interesting. Also bought an album by a band named the Quiet Hollers that I heard on AudioTree Live which is really good. They are from Tennessee and at times sound like Band of Horses, Lucero, and kinda 80's indie band...Good listen.