Current Fishing Report

I had a fun half-day on the Lower Sac with Allen & A.J. from St. Helena.  It was their first day of fly fishing ever and they both caught on really fast.  They both landed some nice fish and got a good introduction to fly fishing.  There was a good mix of PMDs, caddis, and golden stones today.

Allen with a nice one

We fished dry flies pretty much all day long today on the Lower Sac.  We had action the entire time, too.  Richard from L.A. landed fish up to 16 on dries throughout the day.  The hatch was a mix of caddis size 14-16 and PMDs size 16.  The fish weren't easy, but a good drift with the right fly did the job every time.  We also took a break from the dry fly fishing so Richard could get familiar with his 7wt ACR spey rod.  Beautiful weather today.

On a dry fly

I guided Drew and Don from the Bay on the Lower Sac on Saturday. The Sac fished really well, all our fish came on nymphs, seems like most of the fish have moved back into there traditional lye's as the spawn is coming to a close. The fishing remained steady throughout the day with fish landed on our first drift till are last. Most of the fish we landed were in the 12 - 16 range and as with many good days the big ones got away, that's what keeps us coming back !

another nice wild Sac river rainbow

I took out Joe from Red Bluff and his buddy Mark from Australia this afternoon.  They both caught on to the nymphing game right away and the fish were really biting.  We hooked a lot of fish on nymphs, mostly small PMD nymphs.  We also found a great spot where the fish were rising to dries.  Both Joe & Mark landed fish on dries.  There are plenty of golden stones around still on the lower river.

Joe caught this one on a dry fly

The weather was outstanding today and the fish seemed to be in their happy place.  At least until we came along...   Fishing was very good throughout the day.  We had good nymph fishing and some excellent dry fly fishing.  Jerry and Craig from Sebastopol both landed some quality fish on dries today.  The highlight was skating caddis imitations on the surface and watching the fish chase them!

We fought with the wind today, but still managed to catch some very nice rainbows.  The PMD hatch was outstanding from 11am to 3pm - millions of PMDs coming off.  The wind kept the fish from rising, but they were chowing the nymphs, especially in the shallow riffles.  We did well with various PMD nymph patterns size 16-18.

We had a great day on the Lower Sac today.  The fish were chowing nymphs and dries in some of my favorite spots.  Kent from Tehachapi rose well over a dozen fish on dries after lunch, and the nymphing throughout the day was pretty outstanding.  There are PMDs, golden stones, and some caddis around right now.  Some nice fish are coming off the spawn and moving back into real trout water now.

wet wading & fishing dries

We started out with a lot of wind on the Lower Sac today, but it died down by mid-day.  Flows also came up to 3750cfs today.  It was nice to get some more water under the boat.  Some of the riffles I like to fish look a lot better now and fished fairly well today.  We caught a great fish over 20 in about a foot of water.  There was an excellent PMD hatch from 11am to 3pm.

I fled the valley floor today to escape the wind but it didn't work.  I took my client Kent from Tehachapi to Lewiston Lake.  We had about an hour of good fishing before lunch when we could spot cruising fish.  Kent caught a couple of nice rainbows before the wind came up.  After that it was whitecap city.  We eventually moved over to the Trinity River where we saw numerous salmonflies, but we couldn't tempt any fish.

The Lower Sac up in Redding is fishing fantastic if you are fishing through spawning trout, and so-so if you're not.  Most of the big fish are sitting on redds right now, and it's pretty obvious where the fish are spawning with the low flows.  The nymph grab was pretty tough today, but we still managed to land some quality wild rainbows from 16-19.  We even got a good grab on a dry fly.  The PMD hatch is still very good.

We fished the lower river today.  My clients Russ & Bob are headed for B.C. in the fall and wanted to get some more spey casting under the belt before their trip.  We fished 7 and 8 weight spey rods to get familiar with the rods they would use in B.C., then scaled down to 4 and 5wt spey rods for trout fishing.  The grab wasn't great, but we did swing up some fish on various nymph patterns.  We spent a lot of time in the afternoon dry fly fishing.  Our best fish was a 17 rainbow on a pheasant tail nymph fished 2ft under a grasshopper dry.  We had a ton of dry fly grabs on parachute adams and landed fish up to about 12 on dries.  Pretty fun stuff!

I've guided the past three days on the Lower Sac and the fishing has been Good. We've caught fish through out the day and with a multitude of techniques. We've caught them on dries, on nymphs with and with out indicators and on the swing with light weight spey rods.The Spring time is a great time to be on the Lower Sac, plenty of fish and the weather can be outstanding ! 

Tom with a nice Bow

Fishing was back to normal today, which considering the excellent fishing the past few weeks, felt pretty slow!  We landed some great trout nonetheless, including some fish up to 18.  Small PMD nymphs are still the best bet.  We saw a couple of salmonflies today, too.  

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.