Current Fishing Report

Ben Thompson, Tom Mahan, and I hosted a great group of guys from the Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club.  They were good and both angling and casting so lots of fish were put in the net.  Group trips are lots of fun for clubs, families, coworkers, or just about anybody.  Plan a trip today!

That’s a big sucker, Brad!

Group trip, group lunch

Wild rainbows

Ivan caught lots of nice fish

Today was really fun for my guests Mike and Will, who happen to be retired firefighters – so the fire vs. police banter was pretty epic. The grab was consistent the first half of the day, then seemed a little spotty in the afternoon. By the end of the day, they both hooked into a bunch of great fish – and came away with some great fish stories!

I just completed three trout spey trips and they were very successful. Jeff, my guest for Tuesday and Wednesday hooked multiple fish in every run we fished, both days.   The fish were a mixture of 12” rainbows, some hatchery half-pounders, and a handful of very nice fish. Jeff hooked and landed a beautiful 20” rainbow today but dropped the fish as I fumbled with my iPhone to take a picture – yes, it was an epic guide fail! Jeff had two exceptional days of fishing while working on his casting and presentation skills. I also had a half-day trout spey trip on Sunday with my guests Arthur and Alex. Arthur was new to two-handed casting, but Alex was experienced and landed a few fish including a beautiful half-pounder. The flows are ideal and there’s a lot of insect activity now, so this is a great time to book a trout spey trip!  

Jeff with a nice rainbow

Alex with a hatchery half-pounder

Over the past three weeks, I’ve had several trips on Hat Creek, the McCloud, and the Upper Sac. The flows are very wadable, the water temps are in the low-mid 50’s, and all three rivers have fished very well for my guests. Euro nymphing has been the most productive technique for my guests, but we’ve also done very well fishing dry-dropper rigs, and you will always catch fish on an indicator rig. The dogwood trees are blooming along the McCloud, which always makes this a special time of year. If you’re interested in learning a new technique, or perfecting what you have already learned – let’s book a walk-wade trip on any of our amazing rivers!

Hat Creek - PH#2

Hat Creek - lower

McCloud

Nature Conservancy Map

Today’s forecast was calling for wind – and boy was it windy! Jesse and Julian are always up for a challenge, and they really excelled given the conditions. Our morning was spotty to begin, but things started heating up mid-late morning and remained solid into the afternoon. By the end, they both landed some nice fish and lost some nice fish – oh the ones that get away!

Jesse & Julian

Delta report from Captain Bryce Tedford: "Super tough conditions with rough winds and a tough bite today. That said, Darius and his dad Jim persevered, learned the process and made  it happen. Made a solid day out of tough conditions!"

Juan is one of the best tattoo artists I've met (and had work done)... plus he's a serious angler. If he isn't working as an ink master at First Love Tattoo in Red Bluff, he's casting for trout, salmon, steelhead, or stripers. Awhile back he told me he'd made a few casts with a fly rod but wanted to get out and figure it out. Juan made it sound like he hadn't really dialed it in, so we went out on the Lower Sac to see if we could get him more comfortable with his casting, mending, and hooking of the trouts. Guess what? Juan was sandbagging quite a bit because not only could he cast and mend like a pro, he stuck fish all over the river! The majority of Juan's fish were caught on caddis and small mayflies, but he also caught some fish on some copper johns... because... well... they are classics! The fish were everywhere they should be and in one riffle, he probably hooked ten plus fish in a matter of thirty minutes. I'd say, "Cast... mend... okay... get ready... SET," and we'd be hooked up. Some of them were landed... and some of them shook off... but it was all pure fun. Not a bad day. We also spotted a gazillion carp in shallow, shallow water... not sure if they are spawning and just foraging for food... but if someone can figure out how to throw flies at those things, the fifteen to twenty pounders have to provide some entertainment. I'm gonna figure that out... eventually. Anyway... get out. It's good. The fish are eating like hungry hippos.

Juan got this on a yellow stone fly.

Cookie cutters galore…

My guests Michael and Phil had an amazing day on the Sac. The weather was ideal, and the grab was very consistent most of the day. It slowed a bit around 3:00, but they continued hooking fish mostly on rubberlegs and small mayfly nymphs right up to the end.

Phil after an epic battle

One of a few doubles

Michael with a nice one

Steve, Rick, and I spent a couple days on the Lower Sac looking for trout and boy did we find 'em! On day number one, the fishing was "good" and we put a decent amount of fish in the net, though the fish were a little picky and didn't seem to be eating as steady throughout the day. We caught fish on the spectrum of flies but really didn't see a lot of bugs throughout the day, so we spent time working through a variety of flies and seeing the fish eat a bunch of different options. On day two, totally different story. The fish were eating all day and we had numerous doubles! Caddis? Sure. Mayflies? Absolutely. Rubber legs? Okay, they took those too. Secret flies that remain anonymous? Yep! What a great day! The highlight was definitely when we spent time targeting rising fish with tiny size 18 dry flies and smackin' 'em! Yeah!! We don't get to do a LOT of dry fly fishing on the Lower Sac, but it can certainly be done and I really enjoy crafting a day around that as a possibility... more often than not, we make it happen! I'm looking forward to spending a few more days with Steve and his grandson in a couple of weeks and more days with Rick in the Fall. These guys are such great anglers! Get out now... the Sac is on fire!

Beautiful clouds

A line ripper.

Doubles in the first five minutes? Check!

Dry flies work too!

These fish pull hard! Steve knows well!

Another dry fly eater!

Great days on the Lower Sac!

Mercer’s Missing Link is all we needed

A handful of trout…

Rick has caught a million fish in his life.

The boys and I had a great day, hooking, losing, landing, and enjoying a bunch of great fish on the Lower Sac. The wind wasn't too bad but the cloud cover was sporadic and seemed to help with the fish grab. Most of our fish were caught on caddis imitations, a few on a variety of mayfly nymphs, and then some "attractor" patterns too. We enjoyed another great day on the Lower Sac!

Today was Aaron’s birthday.  To celebrate, his son Coleton and son-in-law Chris took him fishing on Hat Creek. All three of them hooked into fish everywhere we fished, but Aaron was gifted with two beautiful birthday fish! 

I spent another four great days with my guest John and his buddies Pete and Mike. We fished several different floats, and all seemed to produce consistently and equally. We had typical spring weather – 90 degrees one day, 70 degrees the next, and then a few sprinkles.  It’s a great time to be fishing! 

The Trinity River is in spring flush now with high flows to clean out river and spawning habitat. Flows will drop to fishable flows by mid month and to summer flows of 450cfs in third week of May. The fly only section above Lewiston bridge will have some wade fishing opportunities for half pounder steelhead and possibly brown trout. You can dry fly fish or nymph, swing. This section can be fun on light rods. Maybe you will get lucky and find a spring/summer run steelhead. I am also thanking all the clients that fished with me in the 21/22 season. It was an epic season! One of the best seasons I have had on the Trinity with 400 plus adult steelhead released by my clients. I offer nymph and swing trips or combos of both methods. Now is a good time to start making plans for fall/Winter 2022/23! Get on the books for next season and don't miss out!Thanks and good fishing,Peter

Delta Report from Captain Bryce Tedford: Conditions were less than ideal with very heavy winds & a tough bite today. I gave my guest Michael the option to hold off but he wanted to go for it! We were the only guide boat out there due to the wind and we were glad we went out. We brought around 20 fish to the boat, many small but several around 3-5lbs which gave him a ride.

Chuck came up to do a day on both the Lower and Upper Sacramento River, so due to the wind and weather, we decided to start on the Lower and end on the Upper.The Lower Sac was ridiculous. From 10am until 3:30pm, the fish were CRUSHING what we were throwing, which was a combination of rubber legs, caddis, and mayflies. It didn't really seem to matter what we had on, though we definitely got rejected when using suck spawn yarn. Chuck is a Lower Sac pro and he caught LOTS of fish... including a handful of 18 inch fish (three in one spot). The Lower Sac is an incredible fishery. We spent day number two on the Upper Sac with ONE goal: dial in the euro dorking nymphing, haha. We spent a lot of the morning working out the proper way to build a Euro nymph leader using a variety of materials and then got to dialing in the casting (flipping? chucking? flinging?). By the end of the day Chuck had the Euro game down.Unfortunately the fishing was the typical "cold water" Upper Sac, meaning that it was fairly slow. The water temp was 52 degrees and we didn't really start having grabs until the afternoon when the temps got a little warmer. It was 66 degrees outside and the water was still only 54 by the time we left. Flow wise, it was around 650cfs. The cold weather spell we had definitely slowed the fishing down from the past couple weeks. Still no salmon flies and beside one lone stone fly, no big bugs to speak of. Soon, tho. Soon.Chuck and I have had some really amazing days on the Sac and Trinity... and now his Euro rod game has begun, so I imagine he'll have more in the future!

A caddis eating lower sac trout

First lower sac fish of the day was 18 inches

Chuck ready to begin his Euro dork journey

Shasta

Fish the Upper Sac juice!

Lower Sac

Upper Sac rubber legs

Casting a euro rod is pretty fun

I had a great day with my guests John and Bob. I guided them on the Sac back in February and we had quite a day – and today was pretty amazing as well. We started our day with some unexpected wind gusts, but things quickly calmed, and we ended up with a great day of fishing.  After a slow start, the bite turned on and they both started getting some very consistent action. Springtime on the Sac is such a great time to be on the water, so contact us and let’s go fishing!  

John with a chunky monkey

Bob with a nice one

Bob with his Big Fatty

John with another nice fish

Josiah wanted to take his dad Frank fishing for his birthday and picked a good day for it.  Temps were mild and the strong winds he have had lately were gone.  We did a lower float and pretty much had the river to ourselves.  These two have done a lot of fishing and did a great job of sticking a bunch of healthy Lower Sac rainbows.  The action was pretty steady but we found a spot or two that were stacked with fish.  Remember, don't leave fish to find fish!  Not until you overstay your welcome, anyway.  

Frank had a bent rod quite often

Getting close

A fish!

Another fish!

Just what we need, more geese……

There she goes!

Spent two great days on the river with John and Sam.  Between the two days we covered about 25 miles of water and caught a good number of beautiful wild rainbows.  We even caught a very nice fish with no bobber and no weights!  It does happen sometimes if you're in the right spot.  The flows are still at their low winter levels and may remain that way but the weather is beautiful and the fish have been cooperative. Time to fish!

I just spent two fun days on the river with my guests Bob and Rich. Monday, we fished a lower float and they both hooked a ton a fish in the 12” – 16” range. Lots of consistent action always makes for a fun time. Today we fished the top and true to form – they hooked fewer fish, but they both hooked into some really nice fish! Spring fishing on the Sac is in full swing, so visit our website and book your trip soon!

I just spent the last four days with my very good guest (and friend) John fishing the lower Sac.  He invited a couple of long time friends to join him and we experienced some pretty wacky weather - rain, wind, thunderstorms, and sunny skies.  With the crazy weather, the grab was inconsistent - but we still hooked some really nice fish.  We desparately need all the rain we can get, so this is a much needed blessing...and a curse.  We've got great weather in the forecast, so if you're thinking about booking a spring fishing trip, now is the time!