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There is a fire near the McCloud River. It is burning an area from Iron Canyon Reservoir near Big Bend north towards McCloud Reservoir. The fire hasn't reached the river itself yet. For now, the northwest edge of the fire is about 2 miles from Ah-Di-Na and the Nature Conservancy Preserve. Visit the following website for details:http://inciweb.org/incident/3188/ |
Lewiston Lake- Louie continues to fish well, albeit a little more technical. Site fishing for Rainbows in the 14-20 range is always exciting, the fish are keying in on midge emergers and dries, size 18-22.
Lower Klamath- A few Steelhead are starting to show along with the first push of Fall Salmon. The water temps still need to drop a few more degree's to get the Steelhead active. With the days getting shorter and air temps up river droping a bit the water temps should drop over the next couple of weeks.
Upper Rogue-The Rogue is fishing Good for adult Summer Steelhead and 1/2 pounders. Put your time in and hit the usual haunts and you should be rewarded with multiple oportunities through-out the day. Fish are taking flies swung on the surface in the morning and then switching over to sink tips when the sun is overhead will get the job done.  Upper Rogue Summer Steel |
Dax Messett will be hosting a trip to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico April 14-22, 2013. There is just one spot left on this six-person trip! This is the best place on earth to catch good numbers of baby and juvenile tarpon. Check out our Hosted Travel page for more details. |
Red Hot
Guess where I caught these fish! FYI, this was mostly sight-fishing with small mayfly dries.
 Marcus is the man |
Red Hot I had the chance to fish with my old friend Mike Bias today. Mike is now an outfitter in Montana, based in Twin Bridges. He guides the Big Hole, Beaverhead, and Madison in Montana and the Henry's Fork and South Fork in Idaho. Mike's website is www.setsetset.com. We decided to do something different today and fish Henry's Lake at the source of the Henry's Fork. The lake is big, relatively shallow, and home to really large Yellowstone cutthroat, cuttbows, and brookies. It reminded me a lot of Crowley, with boats clustered in groups around productive areas. We fished sly lines and floating lines. I got one fish on a brassie under an indicator, but all the others came on small nymphs on a slow retrieve. My huge brook trout ate a size 18 beadhead PT nymph. Our best cutthroat were about 18. I was really excited to fish this lake - it's been on my list for a long time. I would go back in a heartbeat.  Biggest brookie of my life  Another look  Mike with a big yellowstone cutthroat |
Great Today was our second full day at the Stillwater River Outpost fishing with outfitter Mike Hillygus. Mike took me on a float on the Stillwater today. The Stillwater is anything but still. It's the most technical, high-gradient river I've ever seen anyone run in a hard drift boat. The rowing might be challenging, but the fishing is fun and straightforward. You can fish dry flies all day here, making quick casts to promising holding areas as you move along. Our best action came on hoppers, especially Morrish's hopper in a size 8. The fish I landed were from 9 to 16. I hooked one much larger fish on a streamer, too. This is a really fun river to fish and there are two other floats you can do when the water is higher. I want to come back in July and see what the upper part of the river is like.  There are countless places to stop and fish  A view of the three tent cabins right by the river  We boated over that in a hard boat! |
Good Last night we arrived at the Stillwater River Outpost (http://www.stillwaterriveroutpost.com/), a lodge on the Stillwater River near Billings. The lodge is operated by outfitter Mike Hillygus. The food and hospitality here is excellent - our first meal was rack of lamb. After a breakfast of biscuits and gravy, Mike took the whole lot of us on a float down the Yellowstone River. Mike took Katie's mom Mary, our daughter Mackenzie, and his two black labs in one boat. Katie and Madison and I followed him down the river in a raft. Fishing wasn't red hot, but we had plenty of strikes on our dry flies. Mackenzie and Madison fished with their snoopy poles. Madison even reeled in one of my fish! The kids were pretty wiped out by the end of the float. Madison fell asleep in her chair, hands still clutching a box of flies.  Our first family float trip!  Madison with her fish  Madison passed out |
Okay I fished with Mike from New York and his daughter Shannon today. The forecast was for 108 degrees, but I don't think it was that hot. We had a nice breeze and a layer of smoke from the Lassen fire that helped cool things off a bit. The small fish were eager in the morning, but we struggled to tempt the quality fish today. Mike had the fish of the day, an 18 rainbow on an olive micro-stone nymph size 18.  Mike's big fish |
Great I fished the Pit River today with Andrew from Colorado. It was super hot out so we spent the day wet wading. We caught numerous fish out of each section of the Pit River, starting in Pit 5 and ending in Pit 3. Pit 5 and Pit 3 were the most productive, but we had some excellent hopper-dropper action in Pit 4. We had plenty of exciting grabs on the grasshopper dry. Most of the day our best fly was a copper john size 16. Overall the river fished very well.  tough wading, but good fishing  It's a jungle in there  Lots of fish like this today |
Fishing on the Trinity should get off to a great start this fall due to some scheduled high flows coming soon. Starting mid-August, flows from Lewiston Dam will be increased to improve water quality in the Lower Klamath River. Flows will peak around 1500cfs in late August or early September and return to normal levels by September 25th. These high flows should bring plenty of salmon and steelhead into the upper Trinity River. I will be doing my first steelhead trips on the Trinity in late September. The Trinity River Restoration Program (see www.trrp.net) is active this summer, restoring two different sites. Follow the links to view maps of the areas being restored. Map of Junction City site:http://odp.trrp.net/FileDatabase/Documents/UJC%20Map%20for%20Public%20Posting%20-%2011x171.pdf Map of Steiner Flat site:http://odp.trrp.net/FileDatabase/Documents/LSF%20Map%20for%20Public%20Posting%20-%2011x171.pdf |
Good We spent the last day of our 2012 guide school on Fall River. The river was a bit slow, but Steve from Cloverdale caught a really nice rainbow. The fish weren't interested in the sinking line techniques today, but they would eat small mayfly nymphs under an indicator. We saw a few PMDs and water boatmen. We had an excellent guide school this year. We had four students with two instructors each day, so they all got plenty of personal attention. The students had many opportunities to teach skills to the entire group and to guide us in a one-on-one scenario. We fished the Pit, Hat, Upper and Lower McCloud, Lower Sac, and Burney Creek. It was a great time and our four students made great strides in learning what being a fly fishing guide is all about.  Steve with a big rainbow |
Great Hard to believe, but the hex hatch is still going strong on some parts of the river. Nobody is out fishing it, either. Guide school students Alex and Steve had a lot of grabs on their hex patterns last night. Alex was in the zone and managed to land five big fish up to 20 before it was over. There were good numbers of bugs and the fish were really hitting them hard.  Alex caught five like this last night |
Great Dax and I took our guide school students to the Pit River today. The nymph grab was on from the get-go. We took wild rainbows from 8-17 on a variety of nymphs, including black stones size 12, copper johns size 16, and black birds nests size 14. Pretty much anything worked! Flows are at about 330cfs in Pit 3. Wading is challenging but not impossible. The Pit is our most consistent summertime freestone fishery. Give it a shot!  Alex put me on this nice rainbow |
Good Gino and I took our 2012 guide school students on the Lower Sac today. I'm proud to say that they did well for their first day of rowing a drift boat. No complete circles, and some fish were even hooked and landed while they were rowing! The grab wasn't red-hot today, but the fishing were eating small mayfly patterns like micro mays and S&M nymphs.  Mike with a nice one  Brandon guided Steve into this fish |
Good I just spent two days with Ron & Judy and their grandson Troy. Troy is 12 and is a natural at fly fishing. That didn't help much yesterday on the Lower Sac, but it really showed on the McCloud today. Troy landed dozens of fish on nymphs and dries. The river is fishing great. The Lower Sac was extremely slow yesterday, but I think it was related to the changing weather. We picked up a few fish on small mayfly nymphs, but it was TOUGH. The weather was very cool today - a welcome change from the hot weather last week. Overall, fishing is good in northern California. Get out there and try it for yourself.  Troy with his first Lower Sac fish.  Troy learned how to land fish without a net today |
Great Gino, Dax & I just guided a great group of guys for the last two days. We did split days, fishing from 8:30 to 3ish on various destinations and then again at dusk on Fall River for the hex hatch. These guys had some excellent fishing on the McCloud and Fall River. We have at least another week or two of good hex hatch fishing.  Mike's big fish  Jeremy caught a lot of fish  Mike charging up the McCloud |
Great Here are some photos from hex trips the last few nights  I love my E-Tec!  Gino holds up a hex pattern next to Mt Shasta  Dax spots the first riser |
Great I spent the last two days with father/son David and Travis from Los Gatos. Travis is relatively new to fly fishing and was a quick study. He caught fish during the hex hatch on Fall River and while wading two of our local streams. David landed fish on dries, dry and dropper, and indicator techniques. The hex hatch is still pretty good. Two nights ago was excellent, last night was a bit slow. The hex are spread out throughout the lower river.  David during the hex hatch  Travis with one of many fish |
Good
The hex hatch is going off every night. Pressure is moderate depending where you go. Best shot to land a fish is early in the hatch.
Fishing was insane during the day last week with hex, bwo,and pmd dry fly opportunities..but it has really slowed down the last few days...full moon didn't help. If overcast rolls in it will be all time..
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Lewiston lake fished well this past week, most fish were caught on small leach patterns, swung or stripped using an intermediate sinking line. Not much in the way of dry fly or nymph fishing, most of the naturals are super small...24-28'! Hopefully we will see more callibaetis during the day and or caddis in the evening.Lewiston Should continue to be productive well into the fall. |
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