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I think it might finally be safe to say that the weather is turning the corner. The local forcast calls for warmer weather for the next week. The more stabilized weather pattern should greatly improve fishing, and the ovwerall enjoyment of the experience. Maybe I can finally put away my arctic winter layering rain gear. We will be looking for the hex to start popping in the next few weeks, and looking forward to the best July angling on all local waters in years. Did some cool exploration missions this past weekend. Enjoyed dry fly target fishing on a superb spring creek in Oregon on our upcoming new private water venue. Also fished Eagle Lake with Gino and Dennis, yet another upcoming venue offered by Confluence. We offer superb guiding, excellent laid back accommodation on cool venues, and a free lunch, flies and tackle...you can even use our sweet Sage rods instead of some Orvis rod that you pay $300 extra to get for free. I will be spending October on the Grande Ronde river, speycasting dry lines for steelhead. Inquire if you have any interest in this epic multi day lodge/float trip steelhead adventure.
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Randy Hamann rowed me down the river today for a fun day off. The Lower Sac is at 20,000cfs and fishing is pretty darn good. There is a lot of water that isn't fishable, but the higher flows open up a lot of great water that usually is high and dry. Our morning was a little slow, but mid-day was excellent with plenty of fish coming on cheese brains and assorted mayfly nymphs. |
I fished with Bill from Fresno on the Fall River today. The rain stopped around 10:30am and the PMDs started coming off at the same time. We had calm overcast weather and the PMD hatch was really thick. By lunch time it was so thick it was really hard to keep your eyes glued to your fly. Plenty of trout up to 18 were on the job. We had great dry fly fishing until about 3pm when the wind came up. |
Gino, Dax & I just returned from a great scouting trip on the Upper Williamson River in Oregon. The section we fished is a private ranch on the upper part of the river. The ranch has several miles of ideal spring creek water. We experienced some incredible hatches of large (size 12) PMDs, PMD spinners, and baetis. I guess we just missed the black drake hatch, which is a size 10. In July there is a hex hatch, too! This part of the Williamson is the perfect dry fly river. In many places you don't need to wade at all, and where you do it is easy. You can walk the bank and head-hunt for rising fish. When fish aren't rising you can swing nymphs or strip streamers along the undercut banks. We caught a lot of rainbows and brookies, with our largest fish about 15. During some of the better hatches you can expect to cast dries to fish in the 16-20 range. The ranch has a 3-bed, 3-bath home right on the river. This is the ideal place to get away from it all and enjoy several miles of water all to yourself. If you're interested in fishing this property let us know - we can book it for you.  Dax fishing a nice bend  Dax hooked up  Williamson rainbow |
Check out these great photos of a brown trout eating a dry. There are some big mayflies hatching on Hat Creek in the evening. I'm not sure what they are, but the fish like them a lot. They're about a size 12 and dark, kind of like a small green drake.  Rising like a rocket  chowing  heading back down to the depths |
Fall River has been having great hatches every day..but you have to actually be on the river to see them. It's pretty much been a ghost town out on the river on most days...with the odd day of a blanket boat hatch here and there, but pressure is low overall. At some point every day, there are hatches of bwo's and pmds, and fish eat these bugs off of the surface...and one can present dry flies to them and actually catch them....cool stuff! This can last anywhere from 15 minutes to 5 hours depending on the day. It's all about capitalizing on those windows of opportunity. When the wind comes up, you can bump into a fish here and there using sinking line or nymphing techniques. Or, you can head to one of the many other rivers in the area and maybe run into a green drake or stonefly hatch....good stuff. Check out our blog for a great new speycasting article by Jonny, and pick up a copy of Sierra Fisherman and check out my article on single hand casting practice techniques...so you can make the most of those windows of opportunity.  have you booked your hex trip yet? |
Fishing has been pretty challenging this week due to unsettled and frequently severe weather. Our forecast is clear starting on Monday. We're ready for some hot weather. As soon as the weather stabilizes we should have some incredible hatches and great fishing. |
Dry fly fishing on Fall River is the ticket right now. The fish seem to really be focusing on eating drys more than the nymph rigs...which is a good dilemma! I hope it stays like this all season. Prime time has been from around 11-2, sometimes it starts sooner, sometimes it runs a little later. David, Allison, Dean, and Jeff all had some great dry fly fishing this last week. Hat Creek is fishing great at times, with some excellent hatches as of late providing some superb dry fly fishing. The Mac is fishable now...bring a wading staff and hire a guide who actually knows the river if you are unfamiliar with the river. I have some open dates for the first and last week of June, so if you want to learn how to productively dry fly fish the Fall River, fish the Mac in high water, or learn some more water in the Intermountain area with a highly experienced guide, book a trip with Confluence.  David Goslin's big fish  Dean's big fish...on a dry, of course |
Jon and I took guide school students Dan & Dave to the McCloud today to work on freestone skills. The river is really high and only marginally fishable, but it is clear and there are lots of bugs around in the afternoon. We saw lots of green drakes, a few golden stones, and some large PMD-ish mayflies. The fish weren't too interested in rising, but in the afternoon the nymphing was really good. A size 10 natural hare's ear was our best fly. Dan and Dave both hooked some really nice rainbows. Dave guided me into an 18 rainbow, but it didn't stay on very long due to some guide error (I won't say if it was me or Dave!). Flows should be about perfect in a week or so on the Mac.  Dan with the biggest landed fish of the day  Dave with a colorful rainbow |
I took guide school students Dan and Dave down to the Lower Sac today. Flows came up 1000cfs to 8500cfs this morning and we had a lot of rain yesterday, so the river was a little off-color. The nymph grab was excellent all morning long, with most fish over 16. Dan and Dave took turns rowing, so I actually got to fish a bunch today. There were a few tense moments, but Dan and Dave did really well at rowing for their first day on the sticks. I landed a bunch of fish from the back of the boat. The grab slowed in the afternoon and it was really tough to get a grab after 4pm.The release is scheduled to increase to 9500cfs tomorrow. The Posse Grounds launch is closed today through Saturday due to the rodeo. |
We've had a bit of a cold spell up here in northern California. Our guide school students have taken the weather in stride, though. On Sunday we fished the Pit and Burney Creek. Both rivers produced fish. A brown rubberlegs and a size 12 prince nymph worked great. Burney Creek is high but very fishable. Same for the Pit River. With the high flows it's much harder to get around, but every pocket that isn't raging fast has a fish or two in it.On Wednesday the weather is supposed to change and we're anticipating nice warm spring weather by Thursday. A lot of the big bugs (green drakes, giant stoneflies) are still yet to hatch, so late May and early June should be pretty awesome. Fall River is in great shape and has excellent hatches of PMDs mid-day.  Burney Creek footbridge  Fishing Burney Creek in the snow |
I finally got a chance to check out the changes to the Pit 3 (Lake Britton) dam. There is now a gated switchback road on the river-right side of the dam. The road makes it easy to walk down to the base of the dam. There is also a small powerhouse which doesn't appear to be in use.  Road to base of Lake Britton Dam.  View from the dam looking downstream  New powerhouse at base of dam |
Fall river continues to have some superb dry fly fishing opportunities when the wind isn't blowing. Fish are taking well presented baetis and pmd patterns on long 6 or 7x leaders. Nymphing with small pts and brassies are working if you cover water looking for pods of fish. Fishing is only going to get better as the weather stabilizes in the upcoming weeks! |
I just finished up two half-days on the Lower Sac. Yesterday we tried the lower end of the river near Red Bluff. Fishing was slow down there despite good water conditions. The water was a little off-color from snowmelt contributed by Cottonwood, Cow, and Battle Creeks. We had a little bit of dry fly fishing in the late afternoon. Today we fished from the Posse Grounds to Bonnyview and fishing was much better, although still a bit slower than normal. Susan from Redding landed her first two fish ever on a fly rod and they were both nice fish. Barbara from Paso Robles landed a couple nice fish, too. There is a good PMD hatch in the early afternoon so any small brown or rusty-colored nymphs are working well. Flows are at 7500cfs.  Susan's first fly rod fish |
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WOW! For the first time since the 2000 ROD the Trinity received it's biggest spring release to date. Theses flows are intended to flush out the river and to get the river bed to move and change like it would have naturally before the dam was installed. The typical winter time flows in the Stiener photo are 450-700 cfs!!!!No doubt there will be changes to the river and some Steelhead lyes will be gone, some will stay the same and no doubt there will be new ones. Hire a guide with local knowledge, it's not to early to book a trip for this fall.  11,000 cfs in to Lewiston  Nearly 12,000cfs at Biggers bridge  Almost 13,000cfs at Stiener |
It has been like mid summer here on Fall River the last few days...hot and windy in the afternoons. There has been supeb dry fly fishing opportunities in certain parts of the river from around 11:30 until the wind comes up. The nymphing and sinking line techniques are producing a few fish before and after the hatches to keep you busy fishing. We are supposed to get some rain and cooler temps this weekend which should get some more bugs going, providing some great fishing both on Fall River and the surrounding waters that we fish well into next week. Green Drakes will be a welcome sight to both the fish and myself.  A spring creek beauty |
The weather and fishing continue to be spetacular on Fall River. Bring sunscreen and skills and catch some of the finest wild rainbows in the West on the amazing spring creek. I don't know how anything else is fishing, because there is no need to leave home on Fall River. The Pit river is still pretty brown, but dropping steadily. The good thing up here is that we have spring creeks and lakes that are fishing pretty good, and the freestones will fish terrific well into the high summer months. Nor Cal is a good place to be this summer, and Confluence has it dialed.  Amy with a superb rainbow  The admiration shot  a truly EPIC specimen |
I fished Fall River today with two good guide friends of mine, and we just pillaged. This is still one of my favorite rivers on Earth, and we are stoked to have our Confluence Headquarters right on the river. Life is good. We had some excellent technical dry fly fishing for 2 solid hours, and hooked at least a dozen on various flies. Art Teter put on a clinic with a clear sinking line, seemingly hooking fish at will. The fish are still Fall River PHD educated, so you have to be in the right places and change flies often to get the grabs. The river is in super shape, and the fish are spread out throughout the upper river. The weather was perfect, and will remain so for the rest of the week.  Fall River dry fly fishing..a perfect fish |
The Lower Sac fished well for my clients Dan & Pete today. We floated from Bonnyview to Anderson. We hooked fish right away on a brown rubberlegs and that worked on and off throughout the day. The action was fairly consistent throughout the float. We took a break from the bobber fishing and swung some nymphs in a few spots. We got a lot of grabs swinging nymphs through some prime riffles. That was a nice change of pace. We finished strong with about six hook-ups in our last spot.  Dan did well today |
Opening Day of Trout Season is tomorrow. Where did the winter go? Well, the evidence of our huge winter is all around us in the form of lots of water. Most of our rivers are on the high side if not totally unfishable. The Upper Sac and Pit River are blown out. We haven't been able to check on the McCloud yet. Dax is up on Fall River today and he says it's pretty off-color. As the weather warms this weekend you can expect it to get even more murky as snow in the Bear Creek drainage melts. Hat Creek looks pretty good. No word on Burney Creek yet. North Battle Creek is clear but still too high to fish - in a couple of weeks it should be prime. The Lower Sac is still flowing steady at 6000cfs and is fishing well. It's scheduled to bump up to 7500cfs by May 3rd.  Check out the new raft decals. |
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