Current Fishing Report

Today was a pretty classic day of steelheading.  By 4pm we were fishless and my clients Chris and Scott were pretty desensitized by 7 hours of unproductive bobber fishing.  Then we hooked 7 fish in the next hour.  Chris and Scott, novice fly fishers, learned about the various ways to lose a steelhead.  They both finished the day with success - a steelhead in the net. At the suggestion of the staff at La Grange in Weaverville, we bonked one of the hatchery fish and took it to the restaurant.  Check out the photo of Chris with his steelhead prepared four different ways!  The guys said it was delicious.

Chris with his catch prepared by La Grange in Weaverville

We fought with the wind today on the Lower Sac.  It blew out of the north 20mph all day long.  It made casting very difficult, but the flip side was that there were hardly any other boats on the river.  Our morning was a little rough, but fishing picked up quite a bit in the afternoon.  The egg grab was pretty hot from 2-4pm, with fish keying on orange and pink colored egg patterns.  Our biggest fish today were in the 18-19 range and there were quite a few that size.

I fished with the Cooks brothers the last few days on the lower Sacramento River with great success. Trout averaging in size around 17. We even landed a small Seeelhead outside one of the creek inlets. This egg grab should continue throughout October so try to make it up to the Redding area for some great trout fishing!

Just returned from an 8 day stint on the Lower Klamath, the conditions ranged from unseasonably high and off color to the typical 3800 cfs flows for this time of year. The high flows of the last storm, as they do,  sucked up the fish that were hanging in the lower river. With that said everyone had a shot or multiple shots at adult Steelhead each day. As the river dropped into shape we started seeing pulses of fresh fish entering every day, and the fishing improved. Currently the conditions and fishing on the Lower Klamath are excellent, this is a perfect Spey / Swing destination this time of year, not a lot boat traffic, fresh steelhead, perfect swing runs and beautiful scenery !  

The rubberlegs was the key this afternoon on the Pit.  We spend time on various parts of  Fall River today but our afternoon on the Pit River was the best.  In under two hours, my client Chuck from Davis landed 5 really nice rainbows.  The biggest was 18 and well over 2 pounds.

I had a great time on Fall River today guiding long-time clients Dick and Chuck.  We had some outstanding dry fly fishing until about 2:30pm when the wind came up.  Dick and Chuck landed matching 19 rainbows on dry flies.  Most of the fish were really fat and healthy, too.  In the afternoon we had a nymphing pillage-fest with many fish from 16-19 in the net. There is a good callibaetis hatch right now.  There are some smaller mayflies too.  The river is fishing really well!

On a dry fly

On a dry fly

We had great fishing today on egg patterns.  Salmon are spawning in all of their usual spots as far down as the Sac RV Park.  Below there I didn't see many redds.  Throughout the next few weeks we will see more fish spawning further down river.  The trout are eating eggs to the exclusion of almost anything else.  We hooked several 20+ inch fish today.  Our best one in the net was a 19 rainbow.  We also had good dry fly fishing in the afternoon, landing fish up to 16 on dries.

We had a really nice day on the Trinity River today.  My clients Hossein and Gordon both landed wild steelhead on their spey rods.  The weather was great and the fish were chasing the fly on the swing.  Pretty fun!

Hossein chased this one through a rapid

Gordon's fish ate an egg-sucking leech

I had the pleasure to guide Janice and Sally from the Happy Hookers ladies fly fishing club last week. Lady luck played out with the weather, perfect conditions with sunny skies and light winds. The fishing was again great with rainbow trout in the 16-20 inch range.  

My mega BC steelhead journey has finally come to an end.  Fall and clouds finally arrived, which provided epic dry fly fishing my last 3 days there with steelhead buddies Darcy Bacha and Eric Jackson.  We hooked over a dozen fish each day primarily on drys, which is ridiculous.  We went skunk 4 days prior to that, so we were certainly due.  That is steelhead fishing...rewards only come to those that are dedicated.  Rain is still badly needed for the smaller rivers to become fishable.   Special thanks to all my friends up there who helped to make my trip truly epic.  You know who you are, and cant wait to see you next year for an even longer period of time.   My hosted trip to Z Boat will most likely be the 2nd week of September, and looking at the following week at another location.  Check our website soon for details. I head to the Ronde now until mid November.  I'll be on the Trinity for almost a month after that so book it while you can.  Should be a great year there...       

I just had a cancellation for Oct 10/11.  These are prime dates for the Lower Sac or any of our other fisheries in northern California.  Get in touch soon if you'd like to book these dates!

We have set our 2014 schedule for Eagle Canyon.  Opening Day is January 4th, 2014.  Closing Day is April 15th, 2014.  As usual, we will auction off Opening Day and the auction will begin Nov 24th. We have made some changes to make this season our best yet:1.) All groups of 4 or more anglers will enjoy exclusive access to the lakes.2.) Pricing now depends on the size of your group.  We charge $200/person for 1 or 2 anglers, $175/person for groups of 3, and $150/person for groups of 4-5.  Prices drop even further for larger groups.  This new pricing makes a day at Eagle Canyon more affordable than ever!3.) We will continue to mix groups of 1 to 3 anglers, but the maximum number of anglers in this scenario will now be  4 anglers instead of 5. Things that won't change:1.) Every group gets a rest day prior to arrival to make sure the fish are rested.2.) The lakes are never fished more than two days in a row.  The only time this happens is when a group wants to fish two consecutive days.3.) Our fish are as big and strong as ever!  We anticipate an average weight of around 6 pounds this season with fish ranging in size from 3 to 15 pounds. We are already taking bookings for the 2014 season.  Make sure you reserve your preferred dates while they are still available!

 The Fall Season is a special time for fishing guides. We start getting out of the hot, long days of summer and into warm days and cold nights. The fishing is just GREAT now with the weather change, and the only thing that could make it better is dropping the wind so the dry fly fishing picks up. If you can break away, get up and go fishing!

I guided Father and Son duo Don and Ben from Pleasonton the last two day's. The weather ranged from sunny and warm to cloudy, windy and heavy rain ! We welcomed in the first real fall/winter storm on the last day of Summer, over an inch of rain in the last 24 hrs in Redding !. Hopefully it's a prelude to a much needed wet winter. The fishing was up and down but we managed to land some nice fish including three rainbows over 20

Don with a Dandy !

We had an outstanding day on Fall River yesterday.  We got schooled pretty badly in the morning by big fish eating dries.  There was a huge callibaetis spinner fall and the fish were gobbling them.  It was hard to find a pattern that the fish liked, and even tougher to get their attention with so many other bugs on the water.  Our luck changed in the afternoon, though.  We switched over to nymphs and had a 3-hour pillage fest the likes of which you rarely see on Fall River.  We had several doubles and the average fish was about 16 inches.  Our best was a 19 rainbow that was nearly 3 pounds.

Steve with the big fish of the day.

It has been in the mid 80s with cloudless skies for the past week, which is not exactly steelhead weather...but I'll take it.  I have spent the last 3 Septembers in BC, and it seemed to always be cold and rainy prior to this season.  I had a great week of angling despite the perfect summer weather, fishing with other hopelessly addicted steelhead bums on the famed tributaries of the Skeena.  The low and clear water on a particular river has provided the opportunity to sight fish to steelhead over 20 lbs...truly amazing.  They are pretty difficult to catch in this situation, but we managed to land some absolutely amazing specimens this week, and lost quite a few others.  

Jim from steelhead camp with a lovely hen

traveling in style, with cold beer in hand

Truly mega steelhead over 20lbs

mist on the river...classic steelhead moment

Sunshine and chrome...good combo

I guided Steve and Jim from the East Bay on the Lower Sac. They wanted to mix there day up with nymphing from the boat and also get out and wade, swing some flies and hopefully fish some dries. We hooked some fish on the drift while nymphing and Steve was able to swing up a couple of nice Rainbows on his 4wt Gary Anderson Spey Rod. Unfortunately the dry fly action never got going, other than the occasional Dragon fly fluttering about the hatch was non existent which left the fish uninspired ! Having said that they each hooked fish and had a wonderful day on the river!

light weight spey in action

Nice Bow

Katie and I just got back from a great trip to the Bow River in Alberta, Canada.  We took a group of 14 anglers to North Bow Lodge, which is located right on the Bow River about 45 minutes from the airport in Calgary.  It was a great group of people.  I had fished with most of them before and we made some great new friends, too. The lodge is right on the river in a prime location.  You can walk right out and fish a lot of water on foot right in front of the lodge.  The lodge is located in the middle of one of the most popular floats on the river.  Our group was guided for three days by the guides from Country Pleasures Fly Shop in Calgary.  Most of us floated in drift boats, but two of the guides used jet boats on the lower end of the river.  Katie and I fished with three different guides and got to experience three different sections of the river, from downtown Calgary all the way down past the lodge. Our group persevered through some challenging weather.  Fishing was great the first morning, but shut down in the afternoon as a storm rolled in.  The next day we had about an inch of rain, which was enough to blow out certain sections of the river for part of the day.  Conditions were the best on our last day.  There was still a fair bit of color in the water, but the fish were feeding and most of the people in our group did well. The Bow River is a big river like the Lower Sac and you can fish it many different ways.  The great thing about it is that you can do very well on dry flies, hopper-dropper, and streamers.  Our group did very little nymph and indicator fishing.  Katie and I caught fish primarily on big grasshopper dries, but also had action on small dries, nymphs under dries, and on streamers.  Our average fish was about 17.  The biggest fish landed in our group was a 22 rainbow.  Some in our group caught rainbows up to 21 on small dries!  Bow River rainbows fight incredibly hard. Another whole facet to our trip was seeing a river that had just been through a 100-year flood this spring.  Calgary was in the news in June and July because of the extensive flooding on the Bow River.  The Calgary Stampede was nearly cancelled.  Needless to say, the river took a beating.  We floated through town where the damage was the worst.  The river shifted hundreds of yards in places, destroying parks and bike trails and footbridges over the river.  On the lower river there are massive piles of sediment, many new channels, and many collapsing banks.  It will take a few years for the river to get back into balance again.  The fact that our group still hooked many 17-21 rainbows just two months after the flood is testament to the quality of the fishery.  It will only get better over the next few seasons. Many thanks to Stu & Michele at North Bow Lodge and to Mike Gifford at Country Pleasures Fly shop for helping us to put this trip together!  The lodge was great, everyone enjoyed the food, and many in our group are already planning a return trip! 

Guide Jason Eggleton holding a Rainbow caught by Katie

This was a typical fish for us

Katie was top rod the first day

Andy and Tim with guide Mike Guinn

Katie's hopper was well-chewed by lunchtime

Andy and Tim with guide Mike Algar

Andrew & Katie at the boat launch

Katie's big fish on day 3

The Bow is a great river for wading, too

The view from the upper deck at North Bow Lodge

Jason with Bernard's big fish

Catherine always catches big fish

The whole group on the deck at the lodge

With good numbers of Steelhead moving into the Rogue River we set our sights on the upper Rogue right now. The Salmon season closed on the Upper Rogue September 1st, so lots of room to fish. I've been hooking nice fish in the early morning using traditional swing techniques, but I'm sure you could hook some fish on dead drift techniques also. As we move into the prime time for the summer run Steelhead we will also get into more fishing pressure. Last year I guided a number of days in November with great success and no pressure, so if you can't make it to Southern Oregon in October try some Steelhead fishing on the Rogue in November 

I just wrapped up my hosted week at Z Boat lodge on the Lower Skeena River.  Brad and Kim have a terrific operation here, with stellar guides and accommodation.  We had a typical week of steelhead fishing, with some amazing moments fishing the lower Skeena and its tributaries.  Thanks to Paul, Dennis, Pete, Bruce, and George for joining me in one of my favorite places on Earth.  Great times were had on and off the water that made a truly memorable trip.  I will book two weeks next year in September.  Spey Casting legend Brian Niska, one of the best casting instructors I have worked with will be taking the operation over next season. I am fortunate to be spending a total of six weeks here in BC.  Overall returns are low, but I have managed to hook epic fish on the hallowed waters of the Dean, Kispiox, Bulkley, Morice, Skeena, and Copper.  Pressure is very low this year, and the weather has been superb.  Its also nice to be around such amazing anglers who share my love of speycasting for steelhead.   I will be on the Ronde for the whole month of October until mid November at Speywater Lodge, which is totally booked.  Then I will head to the Trinity to join the Confluence crew Andrew, Gino, and Randy in late November until Christmas, and still have available dates.  

Dean River guides April and Steve from Blackwells Lodge

Dennis and Greg, and epic chromer

Dennis and Greg, again

The Gooch, again

The crew on Z Boats deck overlooking the mighty Skeena

Paul in the moment

Fish on in a 200 yard perfect swing run

epic dog pic

Pete Notz in the first spot he fished