Current Fishing Report

Randy and I showed four anglers from the Peninsula Fly Fishers Club how to fish the Lower Sac without a bobber today.  It was a lot of fun.  We caught fish on 3 different techniques, including swinging flies with light spey rods, side-drifting nymphs without indicators, and dry fly fishing.  Mike landed the best fish of the day, a fat 16 rainbow on a rubberlegs.  It's a lot of fun to feel that grab instead of using the indicator.

I have 3 spots open for my annual trip to the ultimate steelhead destination of British Columbia.  Check out the details of this trip on our Hosted Travel link.  If you are a steelheader, you absolutely need to do this trip.  We will be fishing the sacred waters of the lower Skeena system during prime time.  All projections point to a stellar year in BC this year. I just gave a presentation in Squamish BC at Brian Niska's Cast and Blast.  It was one of the most enjoyable fly fishing industry events I have ever attended.  Canadians are incredible fly tiers and anglers, as well as some of the nicest people you will ever run across on Earth.  Shoot me an e mail if you are interested in the BC Steelhead Experience, one of the finest angling opportunities the world has to offer. 

Here are some photos from our group at Eagle Canyon today.

Another outstanding day on the Lower Sac.  Today we fished down low and had the whole river to ourselves.  The nymph grab was outstanding in the morning.  In the afternoon we had some really fun dry fly fishing.  There was a good hatch of PMDs, a few march browns, and a bunch of golden stones.  We caught fish on size 12 yellow humpies and size 10 golden stone dries.  Pretty fun stuff!

Bob knows how to hold a fish.

We spent our morning down below Anderson and did not see a soul.  Fishing wasn't red hot in general, but we got into some areas where we hit fish after fish.  Our best fish in the net today was about 18 and we hooked some larger fish.  Beadhead PMDs, rubberlegs, and micro mayflies worked well.  The PMD hatch was really good today but the sun came out in the afternoon so there weren't many rising fish.

Here are some photos from today's group at Eagle Canyon. Rich from Santa Cruz had this to say:Eagle Canyon was pretty special. Caught some really good fish and I can't tell you how many micro mayfly hooks I straightened out. I'm going to have to tie some on forged, 2x heavy hooks for next time! 

Fishing was good today on the Lower Sac.  The water was a bit off-color due to the rains yesterday, but the fish didn't seem to have any trouble seeing the flies.  There was a good PMD hatch and we saw a few callibaetis in the afternoon, too.  We landed rainbows up to 21 today, all on nymphs.

Here is a photo from today at Eagle Canyon.  It was very windy and rainy most of the day, but our guests still did well.  Everyone hooked fish and most landed multiple fish.  Our best fish was about 13 pounds today!  A size 16 poxyback hare's ear was the best fly today.  Some fish were eating march brown mayflies on the surface today, too.

The Lower Sac continues to fish very well.  It was a little slow for us in the morning, but the fishing turned on around 11am and was good the rest of the day.  Nymphing was good with various PMD nymph patterns.  The PMD/Pink Albert/Peach Afternoon Dun hatch was very thick today - too thick for a while.  The dry fly fishing was really good once it thinned out a bit.  We landed lots of big fish on nymphs today plus fish up to 20 on dries.  What a day!

on a dry fly

Here are some photos from Eagle Canyon today

The Lower Sac is fishing very well right now.  We only had 2 fish under 16 today.  My clients Dan & Pete landed a lot of 16-21 rainbows today.  The highlight of the day was finishing up with some dry fly fishing.  Dan landed three on dries, starting at 17 and ending with a 21.5 rainbow on a dry!

This one ate a dry fly

Photos from today at Eagle Canyon

Eagle Canyon fished well today.  Hot flies: size 14 Mercer's poxyback, black micro mayfly size 16, black & red leech size 8, yellow microspawn.  Guests Mike & Rich landed fish up to 12 pounds!

Photos from Eagle Canyon today

Here are three photos from today at Eagle Canyon

We hosted a big group at Eagle Canyon today.  Fishing was pretty tough in the morning, but improved around lunch time.  The fish were pretty picky about flies.  We had to go down to 5X tippet on some of the smaller nymphs.  Best flies included black midges and tan WD-40s size 18, oregon cheese microspawns, and other basic trout nymphs size 14-16.

Here are some pictures from today at Eagle Canyon

We had a big group from Sacramento at Eagle Canyon today.  Here are some photos forwarded by our host Sam Robinett.

I hosted Eagle Canyon today and the fishing was really good.  Guest Tom from Aptos caught the biggest trout of his life, a 12# rainbow.  It took him into the backing but Tom managed to land it on 4X tippet.  Good flies today included black wire-ribbed midges size 12-18 with a white bead, yellow sucker spawn, and various streamer patterns.

I spent a really fun hour fishing the Trinity River on my own this afternoon.  The dry fly fishing is pretty good right now.  I landed two fat 16 browns on dries and had a shot at 3 others.  It isn't an easy game, but if you wait and watch you can be rewarded with a shot at a really nice wild trout on a dry fly.  There was a mixed hatch of march browns and caddis today.  The browns were eating both.  Hint of the day: look for the shade!  Prime-time is 1pm to 5pm for action on dries.