|
Like most steelhead seasons, we experience ebbs and flows in our fishing success and production. As fisherman, of course, our goal is to put one in the net. As steelheaders, we know that there is more to it than that. Our clients, regardless of the outcome, leave better casters and anglers.While October is almost over, we really have a lot of steelheading left! November has always been my favorite month on the Upper Rogue. There are traditionally more steelhead and fewer steelheaders on the river. We typically get a good pulse of wild fish in November and December. Lost camera in Alaska this August. So, haven't been snapping any hero shots since then. Here's a recent pic from George and Pat Kammerer ....See you out there.  Pat's mega steelie |
Today was day 2 with Ed and Bob. We fished the Lower Sac today, where the egg grab is officially in full swing. We nymphed all morning with egg patterns and hooked a lot of fish. The fish are concentrated in the salmon redds and they are chowing down the eggs. That was a lot of fun, but we decided to focus on other techniques for the rest of the day. Bob caught his two biggest fish of the day on dry flies and Ed got his biggest swinging a nymph on a tight line. It was a great afternoon. We had great dry fly action. The big size 14 caddis are still buzzing around and attracting the attention of the big rainbows.  On a dry fly  On a dry fly |
I guided Bob & Ed from Fremont on the Trinity River today. The weather was beautiful, the river was nice and low, and there were hardly any other boats out today. Ed was the hot rod, landing two really nice steelhead. His first was a beast - see the photo. Bob hooked two adult steelhead plus a gigantic salmon, but it wasn't his day for landing fish. All of our steelhead were really acrobatic today, cartwheeling and jumping through the air. The river felt really fishy and most everybody we talked to had hooked a steelhead today. There are a ton of salmon in the river, too.  Big fish Ed with his big fish |
I guided Mike and Bill from Chico today on the Lower Sac. It was a gorgeous afternoon. We were on the no-bobber program today, which was a lot of fun. We fished a variety of techniques and hooked fish on dries, swung nymphs, and nymphs underneath dries. Our smallest fish today was 16. We landed some 18 fish and had a few bigger ones that didn't make it to the net. We had fewer caddis today and more mayflies. The mayfly du jour is a baetis about a size 18. We had good luck with a size 18 purple haze.  Mike with a nice one  Bill caught this on a dry/dropper rig |
I guided father and son Mark & Tate from Ashland today on the Lower Sac. The dry fly fishing continues to be off the charts. We spent the last five hours of the day casting dries to rising fish over 16. Tate is an outstanding fisherman and caster for a 12 year old. He rose quite a few rainbows up to 20 today and played them like a champ. The hatch is a mixture of caddis and mayflies and the fish are just chowing down. Get up here before the weather turns bad and you won't be disappointed.  No indicator required for this fish  Caught on the swing  Tate caught this fish on a dry fly |
The dry fly fishing on the Lower Sac is as good as it gets right now. Today was my 3rd day with Dick and Chuck. Our time-honored tradition is to fish the Lower Sac on the last day of their trip. Our day started out SLOW. The normal egg patterns and nymphs were not working very well. After lunch we regrouped and took a different approach. There are a lot of big caddis and small mayflies around right now, so we started blind-fishing some of the riffles with dries. Chuck hooked up right away, rising a nice 16 rainbow. We went back and forth between nymphs and dries for a while, but by 2pm it was pretty much dry fly only. We had lots of targets to cast to, and when there weren't targets we could rise fish fairly regularly. I bet we had at least 3 dozen grabs on dries today. Dick landed the two biggest dry fly fish of the year, both about 21. It was truly amazing. As long as the weather stays nice this hatch should hold, so come up soon if you like dry fly fishing!  On a dry fly.  On a dry fly.  This is a different huge fish on a dry |
I just talked to Gino Bernero who is guiding the Rogue River today. He says the river is fishing very well right now. We actually ended our conversation with Fish on - gotta go! Gino's client hooked at least five fish today. If you like swinging flies for hot steelhead, this is the time! |
I guided Fall River with long-time clients Dick and Chuck today. There was a thick hatch of small baetis in the morning. These are size 20-22 white-winged mayflies. The fish love them and they are tough to imitate. Our best fly for this hatch was a size 20 cream parachute. The big fish were rising in the shallow weedbeds where a dead drift is tough to get. We hooked a few, but had better luck from 11-2pm when the bigger bugs started hatching. The big bug is a size 16 olive PMD. We had fun casting to rising fish until about 2pm. The nymphing was good in the mid-afternoon. We caught fish on small pheasant tails, olive micro mayflies, baetis nymphs, and anato-mays. Several fish came off in the weeds, but both Dick and Chuck landed nice fish today. Chuck and I finished the day with some great short-line nymphing on the Pit.  Dick caught this one on a nymph  Chuck with a great rainbow |
I guided John & Patty again today for a half-day on the Upper Sac. We started in Dunsmuir and it didn't seem very fishy, so we moved downstream to the middle part of the river. Patty hooked a huge fish on a brown rubberlegs in one of my favorite spots. It was a long battle, but the fish got the best of us in the end. We got one more fish on a rubberlegs and another on a tailwater tiny. John landed a fish on a copper john fished under a Stimulator. We saw a few October Caddis flying around and even got one fish to strike our stimmie. There are tons of October Caddis shucks on the rocks at the edge of the river. If you like fishing big dries in the afternoon and evening, this is the time! |
I floated from the Posse Grounds to Bonnyview today with John & Patty from Visalia. There are good numbers of salmon spawning, especially in the top part of the float. We hooked trout whenever we were near the salmon. Patty had the big fish of the day, an 18 rainbow on a small black micro mayfly nymph. The number of salmon spawning should continue to increase over the next few weeks. Before long there will be salmon spawning throughout the entire river, not just up in Redding.  Patty with a great rainbow |
Fished Mon. and Tues. with Dan from Ashland, conditions went from good visability and rainy Mon. morning to completely blown from Canyon Creek down by mid morning. Even with the bad conditions we were able to hook several and land two nice wild adults on Mon and with clearing conditions on Tues. we hooked several more and landed a nice wild buck adult and a half pounder. Shaping up to be good on the Trinity this year so far! |
Congratulations to Ken from Petaluma! He was the winning bidder for Opening Day at Eagle Canyon, which is Nov 19. Ken and his group will have the lakes all to themselves on opening day. There will be countless fish from 3 to 20 pounds that have never seen a fly before. Fishing should be incredible! We still have our pre-season special available. If you call before Oct 31st to book your trip you will get our pre-season rate of $175/person, a $25 savings. Your trip can be any time during our 2011/12 season, which runs from Nov 19 to Apr 15. Thanks to everyone who stopped by at the Redding Fly Fishing Fair today! |
Our ebay auction for opening day (Nov 19) at Eagle Canyon wraps up tomorrow (Saturday, Oct 8th) at 10am PDT. We already have a bid on this item, so if you want a chance for your group to fish opening day you better put in a bid soon! The winning bidder will have the lakes reserved exclusively for their own group of up to 5 anglers on opening day. |
I had a nice day on the Lower Sac today with Dick from Roseville. There were a lot of other guides out today, but they weren't on our float. We had the river mostly to ourselves. We spent a lot of time swinging nymphs with a 5wt spey rod. That was pretty slow, but we did well with nymphs under indicators. We spent most of our time from 2:30 on fishing dries. Dick hooked some very nice fish on dries today. Our best fly was a size 20 purple haze, which is a purple parachute adams. We found fish rising in smooth tailouts, choppy riffles and in lanes between weedbeds. It was a lot of fun! Some of the fish we hooked on dries were over 16. The nymphing was a little slow today, but we caught fish on olive micro mayflies, Hogan's golden child, and an egg pattern. The salmon are just starting on the spawn in the Anderson area. |
The Shasta-Trinity Fly Fishers are having their 2nd annual Redding Fly Fishing Fair tomorrow Oct 8 at Caldwell Park in Redding. The event goes from 8:30am to 2:30pm. Katie and Andrew will be there with the Eagle Canyon booth. There will be lots of exhibitors. Stop by and say hi! |
I just finished up two days on the Trinity with father/son team Bob & John. This was my first trip down the river this season and it's amazing how much has changed. Flows were well over 10,000cfs this spring and the high water moved a lot of rock! There has also been some mechanical stream alteration in the Junction City area. All in all, the river looks better than ever. There are a few nice new spots and some great new swing water. We didn't encounter a lot of steelhead, but we saw quite a few on the move. Our first day we hooked as many salmon as we did steelhead. Bob had a great hook-up on an adult fish and landed a half-pounder. John landed a small salmon. Today we did a different float and John landed a nice wild steelhead on a spey rod. Today was his first day of spey casting. There are tons of salmon around. Some are spawning, but a lot still look really fresh. The salmon guides are doing well.  John with his first spey rod steelie |
I spent a lovely day on Battle Creek with Ivan and son Greg from Palo Alto. Conditions are perfect on Battle Creek right now. There is plenty of water, but not too much. The spring chinook are spawning, so the native rainbows are on the egg grab. And there are good hatches, so the rainbows are looking up. Greg got a grab on his first cast, and the dry fly fishing was great all day long. Ivan hooked and landed an 18 rainbow on a glo bug in one of the few deeper buckets. This was by far the largest trout I've seen in the creek to date. Greg landed several 10 rainbows on dries and we had plenty of little guys, too. |
Due to intense demand we will be auctioning off Opening Day, which is November 19th. The ebay auction starts tomorrow, October 1st at 10am. The opening bid is $1000, which is our normal $200 per person rate for a group of 5. The winning bidder can bring a group of up to five anglers and will have the lakes exclusively for their own group on Opening Day. The lakes will be full of rainbow trout from 3 to 20 pounds that have never seen a fisherman! Fishing should be fantastic. Here is the link to the ebay listing: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120786820663 |
Today was day 2 with Lowell, Matthew, Jeff & Josh. The Lower Sac was pretty tough, but everyone had opportunities. Red copper johns and natural birds nests worked well. We got a great airshow courtesy of the Redding Air Show.  Matthew with his big fish |
Okay Randy and I guided two father/son duos from southern California today. We fished two of our favorite small streams. The boys outfished the dads and everyone had a great time and learned a lot about fly fishing.  Josh with his 2nd trout ever |
|