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I drifted from Anderson to Jelly's today with Dan and Pete, a couple of regular clients. The nymph grab was incredible up until lunchtime. Our hot flies were Sloan's mighty mite brown size 14 and the brown Micro Mayfly size 16. We had a nice breeze which kept things cool until about 1:30pm. When the breeze stopped, the fishing slowed down and it was downright hot out there. The forecast called for 104 degrees. We found a few fish here and there in the afternoon and then the grab was pretty good again in the late afternoon. We finished the day with a nice double hookup and landed both fish.
Fishing is pretty darn good on the Lower Sac right now. We only saw one other drift boat all day. The weather is supposed to cool off starting Thursday. Book a trip and enjoy some great fishing for wild rainbow trout!  Lower Sac Bow |
The Upper Rogue has produced steelhead for me 5 mornings in a row, all on the swing! That is good steelheading. We have great numbers of fish in the river and traffic is pretty light. The key is getting out early. We are catching fish a variety of flies. Smaller traditional flies on floating lines have worked, and of course, the number one fly has been the Dirk Wiggler, in Olive. I hooked two fish Sunday morning on the Olive Wiggler. The fish are aggressive and they are chrome. There's no other river in the lower 48 right now that is producing steelhead like the Rogue.  Any of these will do |
Just got back from the Rogue...it's fishing excellent. The weather has really cooled off the last couple of days, and we had some good rain today....prime summer steelhead weather.
John, Johnny on the Spot, and John at Confluence Outfitters have all hooked fresh summer steelhead on the Rogue for the last 4 days in a row. I joined the fun and hooked a huge bright wild steelhead today. I rose a few nice half pounders to the dry yesterday morning, and watched John farm a big adult in the O Face run. The Rogue has quite a few steelhead in it right now, and all of the John's have it dialed...so book one of them to take you out for a day of swinging in classic steelhead water on a classic steelhead river.  Johny on the right spot, hooked up  swinging a perfect piece of water |
What a great summer it's been in Nor Cal & Southern Oregon. The fishing continues to be pretty good if you can stand the heat. We hooked two fish hexing last night...its August! We boated five fish over 18 inches on Fall River yesterday as well. They didn't come easy, but good angling skills and persistence paid off. Fish with Clearwater and Confluence on a regular basis and you will become a keen angler.
I am heading back up to Oregon this week to check out the Rogue with Jon Hazlett. I fished the North Umpqua last week with Tom April, and we hooked quite a few steelhead. We rose most of them to drys...epic stuff. The Umpqua is currently on fire, literally, so book your trip with Mike Peters when the fire goes out. Mike is the man if you want a shot at a steelhead on the most celebrated steelhead river in the country.
I am taking a much needed vacation back home to Pennsylvania in a few weeks. I won't be back until October, which is almost totally booked for me. November is also stacking up, so if you want to fish with me, book it soon. See you in the Fall!
 Bill with a superb Fall River rainbow  Good times after fishing at Clearwater Lodge |
Fall River fished tough today, but Mike and Kay caught some fish nonetheless. Mike started off making drifts to some rising fish. He had a lot of grabs on a blue ribbon cripple and a couple other PMD dries. Meanwhile, Kay caught a couple fish on a leech pattern fished on a clear intermediate sinking line. We ate lunch in the shade of the trees at our launch site, then headed out again for an afternoon session. The fish weren't exactly grabby in the afternoon, and the weeds were pretty out of control. To get a clean drift right now you really have to land your fly in a clear spot and avoid dragging your fly at all. The drifting weeds are worse in the afternoon, and when the wind is up the weeds get blown to the banks, making it easier. Despite all the difficulties, the Fall River is still very much worth fishing right now. There are incredible numbers of large fish around CalTrout right now. I had the evening off and caught one of them on a hex pattern tonight.
Now is the time to plan your fall trout or steelhead trip. October dates are disappearing fast.  A great hex fish  This one didn't work |
I've had a great couple of days so far with Mike and Kay from San Mateo. They're at Clearwater Lodge doing a private Mastering the Art of Fly Fishing class. We're starting from the ground up, with casting, entomology, knots, gear, and plenty of fishing. We spent some time at Cassel Forebay today sight-fishing with nymphs. The brook trout are surprisingly wary, but we got quite a few grabs and landed a few fish. On to Fall River tomorrow...  The weeds are blooming  The brookies were biting today.  Fish on |
We spent the day on Fall River today. There was a pretty good PMD hatch from 10am to noon. We got a few grabs and had quite a few refusals on various dries. We found the fish to be more willing to eat the nymphs. A regular pheasant tail was the best bet for a couple hours. The fish were also keen on the water boatmen today. Bjorn from Placerville landed a great 18 fish on a floating boatman and had many other grabs. In the afternoon, Chris from Dunsmuir landed another 18 incher on a clear intermediate line and a small olive leech. Not much traffic on the river these days. We didn't see any other boats all afternoon.  A nice fish that chowed the water boatman dry.  Our biggest fish of the day  Chris with another nice one |
Today was our third full day with our Mastering the Art of Fly Fishing class at Clearwater Lodge. It's been amazing - we've had all the rivers to ourselves this week. And we've had good fishing. Dax and I have a great group of students. We hooked several nice fish over 15 and numerous smaller fish on Hat Creek this morning. Then we did some dry fly fishing at one of our small streams. Fun was had by all. We topped off the day with a delicious duck dinner at the lodge.  Fish on!  Class is in session  Hat Creek fished well for us. |
Dax Messett and I are teaching a Mastering the Art of Fly Fishing class at Clearwater Lodge this week. This is a course for new fly fishers. We started yesterday with gear, knots, and a first casting lesson. We spent all day on the water today, fishing two different small streams. Our first destination was very productive. All five of our students landed wild rainbows on dries before lunch. We spent the afternoon at Burney Creek, which was a little tougher. We used a dry and dropper technique. There were some incredible size 10 bright yellow mayflies hatching, but not a lot of action. We capped off the day with an incredible dinner at the lodge. |
Katie and I just did an overnight trip on the Trinity River near Willow Creek. The weather was beautiful. There is a fire in the Trinity Alps right now and CalFIRE has taken over the Big Rock put-in as their fire base for the time being. Fortunately, the area isn't smoky at all. The Lower Trinity is paradise for swinging flies, especially with spey rods. I fished my Sage Z-Axis 5wt 12'6 spey rod exclusively. On the first day Katie and I saw a couple fish squirt upstream through a tail-out. We got out and fished the next run. I had a great grab and hooked a nice steelhead briefly. It gave me a nice jump and threw the hook. It was a great first steelhead hookup for the season!
We'll be doing more trips down on the Lower Trinity this year than ever before. If you like to swing flies, this is the place for you. September, October, and November are prime months for this area.  The Lower Trinity is spey rod paradise  Andrew casting his Sage Z-Axis 5126 spey rod  CalFIRE was fighting a fire in the Trinity Alps |
I had a nice day on Fall River with Dave and Hal from the South Bay. Dave started off by landing a 15 rainbow on his first cast with his brand new Sage Z-Axis fly rod. What a great start! We had a little luck with PMD dries from 10-11am, then switched to nymphs. We had a red-hot nymph grab from about 11:30 to 1:30pm, then things slowed down a little. The afternoon was slow, but we got grabs in a few different spots. The weather is still nice and cool, but it's supposed to be really hot again by Thursday. |
Tom and Addie finished off their stay at Clearwater Lodge with a productive morning on the Pit River. We fished two different spots. The first wasn't happening, but the second spot fished really well. We buddy-waded out to the middle of the river to fish a great bucket on the far side. Tom and Addie took turns fishing it and they hooked at least five good fish. They officially graduated from their Discover Fly Fishing program when they rigged their own rods and landed their own fish.
The instructional programs at Clearwater are excellent and are very popular this season. We have two offerings for beginners and rusty anglers: the 5-day Mastering the Art of Fly Fishing class and the private 3-day Discover Fly Fishing class. I will be instructing a Mastering class with Dax Messett starting this Wednesday, July 15. I'll also be doing one in August with Gino Bernero. Come up and enjoy the top-notch fishing, instruction, food, and scenery! |
I had a great day today with Tom and Addie from Monterey. They enrolled in the Discover Fly Fishing program at Clearwater Lodge. It's a 3-day program designed for beginner fly fishers. It's actually a half day the first evening, then a full day, and a half day the next morning. We went over knots, gear, casting, and entomology yesterday. Today we spent all day on the water, fishing three different spots. We caught fish everywhere we went. We caught hatchery fish, wild fish, fish on dries, fish on nymphs, fish on dry-dropper, you get the idea. The weather is nice and mild up here right now. It's a nice relief from the hot weather we had last week.We have openings in the last half of July and August. Don't miss out!  Baum Lake  Addie with a big fish on a small stream  Wild Rainbow |
The hot streak continues here at Clearwater Lodge. Fishing is good, though. I took Dave and Darryl from southern California to the Powerhouse Riffle on Hat Creek this morning. It was my first trip there all season. We had a pretty good trico spinner fall, but not many large fish rising. We landed a few fish under ten inches in the morning, then spent some time at Baum Lake in the afternoon. We caught fish in three different spots on Baum Lake.Last night's hex hatch was average at best. There were a lot of bugs, but the fish seemed unusually careful about grabbing imitations. There were a lot of large fish rising, but we only had half a dozen grabs.  Keeping cool on a hot day |
It's hot up here but the fishing is pretty good right now. We had a great PMD hatch starting at 10am. We got tons of grabs on various PMD dries, plus several nice fish on small nymphs fished under dries. The afternoon was a little tougher, but we landed a few 17-19 bows on nymphs. We're heading out for the hex again tonight.
 Dave with a Fall River toad  Big Rainbow on the line in front of Mt. Shasta.  Darryl on his day off |
The Hex hatch is going off most nights on Fall River. Clearwater Lodge has the best access on the entire river and our crew of guides fish it every night. Some nights the fish are grabbier than others, but there are always great opportunities. No matter what your angling skill level, the sunset on Fall River is superb, and the hatch itself is a sight to behold even if you are not a keen angler.  Hex staredown  Sunset Hex |
Gino and Jon & I spent the last two and a half days guiding a great group of guys mostly from the Sacramento area. We did the hex hatch three nights in a row, plus Fall River and the Pit River during the day. The hex hatch has been up and down. Friday night was good, Saturday was slow, and tonight it was really good again. We took advantage of our opportunities and landed four really nice fish on hex dries this evening.  Tom with a nice Pit River bow  Corley with a big Pit fish  Corley hooked up during the hex hatch |
I fished Don from Dallas Texas today on the Lower Sac. It was a nice change of pace from guiding Fall River and the other intermountain streams. Flows are high on the Lower Sac now. There aren't many places where you can stop and anchor up to fish right now. We changed flies throughout the day and put about 10 rainbows in the net. We caught fish on tan poopahs, Mercer's golden stones size 12, black micro mayflies size 18, and a few other odds and ends. We even caught one under the boat when we weren't even fishing! I'm back up to Fall River for a hex trip tomorrow.
 Don with a nice one  Fish on!  Lots of eagles today |
Ross & Kathy had another great day of fishing at Clearwater Lodge today. We started out on Hat Creek. After hooking a couple small fish and briefly connecting with a large mystery fish, we found an area that was holding a lot of nice wild rainbows. Kathy and Ross both landed 16-18 rainbows, which is great for Hat Creek. One ate an olive Tung-Stud size 16 and the other ate a small pheasant tail. We then spent the afternoon on one of the best small streams in the area. Every pool yielded several willing fish. They were small but we had a lot of fun watching them attack our dry flies.
 Kathy with a great Hat Creek bow  Ross with another big one  This worked all afternoon |
The last two days have been great. Ross & Kathy from Los Angeles enjoyed fishing several fisheries, including Fall River, Burney Creek, and the Pit River. Yesterday Ross hooked the biggest rainbow I've seen on the Pit River all year. It was 4-5 lbs and we got a great look at it before it threw the hook. Today we had some great dry fly fishing on the Fall River from 9:30 to noon. Our best fly was a melon quill size 16. We've also been enjoying the great food and hospitality at Clearwater Lodge at the Pit River.
 Name this stream  Huge Secret Creek Fish  Stoneflies! |
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