Current Fishing Report

Took Rob from Sacramento down the Lower Sac and we had a great day! The weather was warm, but the water and the breeze made for a great day. We saw only one other boat all day and Rob hooked up on 6 quality fish in the 14-16 inch range. Fish were along the edges and really liked our prince nymphs.

It's been hotter on Fall River the last few days than it was for my epic hosted trip to Central America last month. The good news is that it makes for good hexing, my favorite hatch of all time. Bad news is that fishing during the day just has been tough on Fall, both the fishing and getting pummeled by the heat in the boat. Some big fish are still getting hooked, but not the dry fly fishing we usually expect this time of year. The Freestone rivers in the area have been fishing pretty good, and are much cooler, especially if you wet wade!Expect mega crowds for next holiday weekend. The hex will be happening, but daytime on Fall will be tough if it doesn't cool off.

High sticking on the Pit

Nothing like a Fall River sunset

A break from the heat on the Pit

It cooled off a little on Fall River today, and fishing was pretty decent in the morning. The hex hatch has been happening every night, lots of bugs below the confluence, almost too many at times. Be ready right when it starts, which is your best shot at hooking up. It has been starting after 9. Cripples have been working at first, then have a rod ready with an adult as the hatch goes on, or when you get in a tangled mess. The sunsets have been epic with the cloud cover and lightning storms...

The hex hatch has been very thick the last two nights.  That can be a good thing or a bad thing.  If it's too thick your fly is simply outnumbered and your odds are pretty long.  We've also been dealing with changing winds during the hatch.  We had it just right the last two nights and had a ton of action.  Dan from Folsom landed several fish over 18 tonight and hooked half a dozen more.  The wind made things tough at first, but the trick is to find a place where the wind concentrates the bugs.  That made for good fishing for about 20 minutes, then the wind died and we were able to cast into the glare of the setting sun for the rest of the hatch.  The hatch started really late but it was really good.

Typical size fish during the hex hatch the last two nights

Tim with a nice fish tonight on the hex

The Pit River fished well for us today, although the obvious nymph buckets did not produce very well.  I waded my client Tim to the far side of the river and we had excellent action on a hopper-dropper rig.  We did very well in the shade and in the water types that are too shallow to fish a nymph rig.  Fishing slowed down around noon so we moved over to Burney Creek.  It was nice to cool off in the spring-fed water and catch some nice fish near the waterfall.  We saw some golden stones and green drakes flying around, too. 

High-sticking the Pit River

Hopper-dropper rig

cooling off in Burney Creek

It was a superb evening on Fall river. The sunset was gorgeous and the Hex hatch was happening. I love watching the large, shapely profiles of the flies floating delicately down the river. Had some epic takes by large fish. This hatch is truly worth experiencing. 

Fishing on Fall River has been all over the map the last two days.  The hex hatch has been complicated by overcast skies the last two nights.  It's much more difficult to see the flies without the glare of the sunset in a clear sky.  The hatch was pretty weak last night, but was really good tonight.  My clients Ken and Bob had lots of grabs this evening on a variety of hex dries.  The best one to make the net was about 19 and heavy.Daytime fishing has been great at times and very difficult at other times.  We had a two-hour stretch where we hooked fish on almost every drift yesterday and then the bite shut off really abruptly.  Today we worked hard for our fish during the day but landed a big one about 20 and hooked some other very nice fish.

The hex hatch is red hot right now on Fall River.  The bugs are hatching around 8:50pm and the hatch lasts right through the legal limit an hour after sunset.  A variety of patterns are working well - it's early in the hatch so the fish haven't seen all of them yet!

Doug with the one that wasn't as big as the one that got away.

I hiked up to the Soldier Mountain fire lookout today on my day off. Great view from up there!

Frank with a Fall River bow

One of our fish coughed up this huge leech! That is three inches of dinner for a trout.

hex fish

20 hex fish from 30 minutes ago

The view from Soldier Mountain fire lookout. You can see the entire Fall River Valley.

I recently took a trip to majestic Utah with my raft in tow and floated and camped my way down the Green River near Flaming Gorge. I love the scenery on this river. It is absolutely breathtaking with red cliff canyon views, gin clear water, and lots of fish. Not sure if it was the cicada hatch that brought all the sports to the river, but the river was extremely crowded. At any given moment on the A section, you could look up and count 14 boats in one half mile stretch of water. And I thought the Trinity could get crowded! Despite an enormous amount of pressure and crowds on the A section of the river, the fishing was still great with proper rigging, line control and a good reach cast. The cicada hatch was popping in the morning with fish hitting big bugs on top, but by mid afternoon, the fish were eating sub surface. Sight casting streamers to fish hanging near the bank was very effective and it was nice to pull over and let the crowds drift by.We camped at Big Pine II campground (float in access only) on the beginning of the B section, and this part of the river was much less crowded. Fish in this section were much grabbier, and you could tell they had seen quite a few less flies recently. Less dry fly action (this could have been the stormy weather and less of a hatch), but they were eating nymphs very consistently. In the slower water, a spring creek nymph rig caught fish almost every cast. Bellow red creek the river was murkier, and the streamer bite in this section of the river was insane. Some of the best streamer fishing I have encountered. The camp/float section of the trip was a huge success.Up in Wyoming, the fishing on the Green was also great. Despite a recent increase in flows, the fishing bellow Fontanelle Reservoir was excellent. I brought my spey rod and swung streamers with quite a few grabs. There was even an epic thunderstorm late in the afternoon that kept things interesting. Nothing like brandishing about a 13' metal composite rod in the midst of a electric storm....

The first chunky 'bow of my trip.

This fish crushed a streamer and then put up a serious fight!

You can see where the river gets its name

One of my favorite Scotch's cooling to perfect temperature

A nice brown landed at the camp home water

Rainy days in Wyoming!

 Fishing was so-so this morning but we had a 5-star hex hatch this evening.  My clients Frank & Doug landed fat rainbows up to 20 on hex dries and had tons of grabs.  The hatch was pretty huge, almost too many bugs.  There are a lot of big fish in the lower river right now and I expect the hex hatch to be productive through the 3rd week of July at least.

The Lower Sac fished a little slow for us today...it was Hap and Mike from Santa Rosa's first trip to the Lower Sac and the fish failed to show them any love ! I don't know what had the fish off of their game today ? lack of insect activity most likely but that's fishing !The Guys still enjoyed a beautiful day on the Sac, even with the temps hovering around the century mark in Redding it felt more like the 80s on the river. There is no denying that California is in the midst of a historic drought and many rivers and streams throughout the state and especially in the Sierra are running at a trickle but there is some bright spots in the North State. The Lower Sac for one is currently running around 7000 cfs, great flows and chalk full of wild rainbows, the Fall river in Eastern Shasta County is full to the banks with clear cold spring water and is loaded with wild rainbows as well and finally the Trinity... the Trinity's flow regime is set in place and being controlled by the dam at  Trinity Lake, there is water in the lake to maintain the flows through the Summer, Fall and Winter. Steelhead will start arriving in the Trinity in numbers by late September, the water will be there the fish will be there... Will You !!!

Took the time to escape the heat of the valley and hit some of my favorite streams in Northeastern California.  The weather and the fishing was great.  Had good fishing in multiple places using multiple techniques.  The highlight of the night was hooking up a nice rainbow on a #4 rubber legs in about 6 inches of water.  Perfect evening.

Where else would you rather be?

In water barely over my boot.

Dax and I spent a few hours on the Sac today below Red Bluff.  Dax is on his way to Alaska to fish for Kings, so he wanted to pre-fish some of his 8wt spey rods.  After he got them all matched up with the right lines we went striper fishing.  Action was pretty good on the schoolies and Dax farmed a big one about 10 pounds.  We landed about 6 small stripers and I even landed a shad on a striper fly!  Fun stuff!

schoolie striper

carpon bay

We had a great day today on one of our local small streams.  Dry flies and hopper-dropper rigs were the ticket.  Clients Tom and Jim caught A LOT of fish today.  We saw no other fishermen and the weather and scenery was delightful.

Dave fishing over a snowbank

That's a hex shuck - and not from Fall River

 I took clients Dave and Vanessa out on the Pit River for a PM half-day today.  Fishing was a little tough at first, but the bite turned on around 2:30pm.  Dave did really well with a hopper-dropper rig, getting action on both bugs.  Vanessa fished a nymph under an indicator.  There were a lot of little yellow stones in the air this afternoon.  Fishing was pretty good overall.  No big fish today, but pretty good action.

I spent the evening shad fishing with Wayne Syn from Chico.  Wayne is a guide with Orland Outfitters, an all-tackle guide service.  Wayne is an outstanding fly angler and he guides shad, stripers, and salmon on the Sacramento River. We fished in the Chico area and the shad bite was really good.  I landed a pretty big hen, the biggest he's seen so far this season.  I've been in trout world for so long it was really fun to do something different.  Shooting heads on 8wt rods are really smooth and easy to cast.  Shad put up a great fight on an 8wt rod.  It was a ton of fun.

big hen

lots of shad like this tonight

We have a few spots left for our Klamath River Spey Camps coming starting in July.  Elite spey casting instruction, excellent food, and a comfortable private camp is already set up for you on the banks of the Lower Klamath, the superhighway in California for steelhead.  This unique camping and angling experience is great for spey casters and anglers of all ability and experience levels.  Being a Sage sponsored camp, we will have all the gear you need.  Just bring a sleeping bag and your waders!   Check out our website at www.speycamp.com for more details or shoot Gino, Leslie, or I an email for more info.  This is one of my favorite gigs. Open spots:July 21-24 Full July 26-29 one spotJuly 31-Aug 3 FullAugust 6-9 Full August 11-14 2 spotsAugust 16-19 3 spots 

The Lower Sac fished pretty tough today.  We had great overcast weather but the fish weren't on the job.  My clients Russ and Brad were doing a practice trip before heading to Alaska in a couple of months.  We worked on a lot of technique and thank goodness the fish didn't interrupt our lessons very often!  We got off to a great start with a few nice fish right away and then it was SLOW.  The best fishing was from 5 to 6pm when the PMDs started hatching again.

Fall River fished excellent today. I took Confluence Guide School graduate Steve Morikowa out for about 4 hours from 10:30 to 2:30, and it was an absolute crush fest instantly. We caught fish using dries, sinking lines, and the dirty nymph rig. The dries worked for about an hour then they shut down around noon. Still not much PMD action, despite the overcast. BWO comparadun was the ticket. The sinking line worked excellent until about 1, then the nymph crushed. Pressure was the lowest I've seen it in a week, which probably helped out and gave the fish an opportunity to relax and feed.

Fall River has been fishing good between 11 and 2pm the past 5 days. There is a little dry fly action but it's not going off yet. The streamer grab has really picked up, birthday boy Gavin hooked several dozen today. The nymph grab is pretty insane during prime time too if you can feed line and have the right rig on. The fish are in excellent shape, as always. The upper river has been mega crowded, if you aren't hooking fish it might help to move around a little bit and pound on some new fish.