My two-day trip on the Lower Sac got off to a rough start when the flows doubled overnight on Tuesday.  Lake Shasta is pretty full for this time of year and it must be time to dump some water since the flows came up from 5,000cfs to 10,000cfs.  Flow increases are generally bad news for fishing in the short term, especially one of this magnitude.  We did a short float in the morning, hooked a couple of fish, and then pulled the plug and headed over to the Trinity for the afternoon.  We got over there in time for a great baetis hatch.  Rich, Kathleen and Ashley all hooked trout on dry flies over a two-hour period during the warmest part of the day.  Then we tried for steelhead.  Kathleen hooked a big one about 7 pounds that we lost right at the net after a long fight.  Then Rich landed an even bigger one that barely fit into my Lower Sac trout net.

Today the fishing was much better on the Lower Sac.  The nice thing about a change in flows is that it's bad for a day, but then the fish are hungry once they settle into their new lies.  We didn't hook a lot of fish today, but we landed some really nice fish and we had consistent action up until the last hour of the day.  The river looks great at 10,000cfs.