Current Fishing Report

Andrew Harris will be at Bob Marriott's Fly Fishing Store in Fullerton on Saturday, Nov 17! He will be giving a presentation about Confluence Outfitters guide destinations in northern California. Andrew's presentation is part of a Sage/Rio/Reddington product day from 9am to 3pm. Don't miss it! Andrew's presentation will cover the Trinity, Klamath, Lower Sac, Fall River, Upper Sac, McCloud, Pit River, Hat Creek, Battle Creek, and Eagle Canyon Trophy Trout Lakes. 

If you would like to fish the Trinity this week, here is your chance!  All of our guides have been booked for this week for quite some time, but we just had a last-minute cancellation for two guides on Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov 13/14.  These are prime dates and you could spend them with one of our guides if you call very soon.  Steelheading has been good lately!

After about week of mega high water, the Ronde is in perfect condition and flowing steelhead green.  My clients swung up 6 fish yesterday!   We guided the R&D team for Sage last week here at Speywater Lodge and had some mega casting jam sessions with all of the toys they brought, and they even left some for us and clients to play with.  I am very impressed with the One spey rod series.  It is faster than the Z Axis, but more forgiving than the TCX...perfect!  The 6126 is a superb all around Nor Cal/Pacific Northwest stick.  If you want to try these before you buy them book a trip with me and you can check them out for yourself.   I also like the new Rio i-mow tips...very versitile and they cast excellent with a properly balanced Skagit head.  Check out website or contact me if you have any questions regarding line pairings for Sage and Rio products.

buck wild

The Ronde is know for skating drys

Alex Ferber getting bent

The Trinity River is pretty loaded with steelhead this year.  There is quite a bit of boat traffic right now in certain areas, but the fish are distributed and a couple of good spots can make for a really productive day.  I guided Dean and Mike from Washington state the last two days.  They both caught fish each day, mostly on nymphs size 10-14.  Dean had an epic hook-up on his spey rod to end the first day.  He got spanked, but was really stoked to hook a fish on his new spey rod.

Mike with a nice one

Dean with our biggest fish

John admiring a nice fish

The Lower Sac continues to fish very well.  We're not getting as many of the 20+ rainbows as last week, but still plenty of 18-20 fish with the occasional 20+ in the mix.  The fish are eating eggs and nymphs.  Plenty of fish are in the salmon redds, but they're a bit smarter now.

Bernard always gets big fish

Bernard & Catherine

I guided Scott from Montery on Fri and we had a great day of fishing despite the heavy pressure.We swung up 3 Steelhead on the Spey rod fishing small traditional patterns and another 6 or more on the indicator.  The water remains low and clear so a stealthy approach and good presentations go a long way in hooking fish right now. 

The Upper Rogue is having the best run of summer steelhead in 10 years.  After a long hot indian summer, conditions are finally ideal to target these fish.  3000 steelhead have already showed up at the hatchery as of Oct 24.   I am finishing up another great season on the Grand Ronde in a few weeks and will be heading to the upper Rogue to chase those fish.  I am super excited to get on the excellent swing water and teach some of the new unique speycasts I've been working on this year with Scott O'donnell and the other guys at Speywater Lodge.  The crowds will be low on the Rogue, which is fly only during this time of year.  That means no bait and no beads, so less angler pressure. Reports are also good on the Trinity and Klamath.  This is a great year to chase steelhead so make sure you get your trip booked soon.

yep, Rogue steelhead are awesome

The Lower Sac is fishing great right now.  I just finished 3 days in a row.  The 1st day was slow, but the last two days were fantastic.  We caught lots of big fish 18-21 inches and today we lost one that was 5-6 pounds!  Some of the 20-21 fish are three pounds.  The egg grab is really good.  There are a lot of salmon spawning and the big fish really want to eat those eggs.  We also caught a lot of nice fish on dry flies in the afternoon yesterday.  Fish are looking up for big caddis dries right now.

Frank with a toad

Doug caught lots like this today

I guided Tom from San Jose Sat and Sun, fishing was good landing was not! Tom hooked several fish each day but all were a little larger than normal and a heck of a lot hotter. Tom got an education on playing hot steelhead.There are plenty of steelhead in the system and looking like it might remain this way for the season...book your trip now! 

We have our date set for the mega steelhead trip to British Columbia next year.  It will be the prime week at Z Boat Lodge of Sept 1 to 7.  We had an amazing trip there last month and am stoked to get such a prime spot for next season.  Contact me for details. 

Dennis and Stroh on the Skeena

A giant Skeena system specimen

The egg grab continues to be very good.  Fish are eating orange and apricot colored egg patterns throughout the day.  I guided Andrew from Napa and his buddy Tom from Maine today.  We spent a fair bit of time wading and it was very productive.  We hooked two of our biggest rainbows while wading.  Andrew lost a really big fish on an egg, but made up for it in the afternoon when he landed a huge rainbow on a dry fly.  Tom finished the day with a 20 rainbow on a dry.  We have a great variety of fishing right now.  This is the best egg grab I've seen in a few years - don't miss it!

Tom caught this one on an orange egg

Andrew fooled this one with a dry fly

Tom caught this on on a dry fly

I guided the father and son duo of Walter and Roger from Woodside the last couple of days. We have had some rain up here but not enough to raise the flows or add any color to the river, having said that the fishing remains good for a mix of hatchery and wild steelhead.We hooked six and landed three on Thurs and went 2 for 2 today. The fishing pressure is moderate but gets a little heavy on the weekends.If you havn't already it's the time now to book a trip on the Trinity, looking to be a very good year. 

Andrew Harris just had a last-minute cancellation for this Friday and Saturday, Oct 26/27. Andrew is available to guide the Trinity, Lower Sac, or the North Fork of Battle Creek. Fishing is great right now!

I fished the Trinity River in the rain the last two days.  We saw lots of steelhead and salmon on the move, but not many moved to our flies.  I guided Paul & Tim from Terra Bella, both good spey casters.  We covered a lot of water and made a lot of good presentations.  There were some classic hookups, but the steelhead did not make it into the net.  The highlight of the trip was a salmon that Tim caught on his six weight spey rod.  A close second was anchoring up in a tailout and watching dozens of salmon bust through a shallow riffle with their backs out of the water on their way upriver.

Tim with his big salmon

The Lower Sac is red hot right now.  The egg grab is about as good as it gets.  There are plenty of salmon spawning and the trout are eating egg patterns in a big way.  Today we had the best of both worlds, though.  We pillaged the redds all morning with egg patterns and then rose about a dozen 18-20 fish on dries in the afternoon.

This one ate an egg

Dry fly fish

Dry fly fish

Gino and I guided a group on some of our favorite small streams the last two days.  Many fish were caught.  The fall colors are amazing up around Burney right now.  October is a great month - fishing is great everywhere.  It's hard to pick where to go!

I guided Jerry and son Matt the last couple days on the Lower Sac.  Matt is relatively new to fly fishing, but was a quick study.  We didn't catch a lot of fish, but these guys caught some huge fish.  They finished strong both days.  Yesterday they finished with a double right at dusk and today Matt finished with a 20 rainbow and Jerry landed a 17 rainbow on a dry. Salmon are spawning all over the place in the upper river.  This is one of the best spawning runs I've seen in years.  Pinkish eggs worked well for us, as did princes and small mayfly nymphs.

Night fishing is legal, right?

The Lower Sac really turned on for us today.  The nymph grab was consistently good and in some places it was just silly.  Eric, a beginner to fly fishing, hooked 5 or 6 fish in ten minutes in our last spot today.  The salmon are really thick in the river, too.  Down around Anderson they are starting to stage in the shallow water, but aren't really digging redds just yet.  It won't be long, though.  The trout are starting to hit egg patterns, but mostly want to eat nymphs.

Randy and I had a group of 3 on the Trinity River today.  We fished near Junction City.  The river was a little crowded, but mostly with salmon fishermen.  The salmon are very thick in the river right now.  We even landed one on a fly today.  There are sufficient numbers of steelhead around, too.  Unfortunately the river is also flooded with hatchery salmon smolts.  You have to fight through them to get to the big fish.  They will wash out of the system before long, though.  The steelhead are still pretty bunched up in certain areas.  They should spread out soon and should be more plentiful by the day.

Garey with his first steelhead

Plenty of salmon around

The egg grab is getting under way up around the Posse Grounds.  Not many fish spawning below Highway 44, but there will be more showing up each day.  The nymph grab was slow the last two days, but we had good luck fishing with dries and dry/dropper in the shallow water.  I had a first today: I tied on a size 24 dry fly and a fish tried to eat it!