Current Fishing Report

Come say hi to Gino, Leslie, and myself today at the big Spey O Rama event at the San Francisco Golden Gate Casting Club in Golden Gate Park. Watch the best distance Spey casters in the world compete for the world championship. It's a very cool event and free to the public.

World champion Travis Johnson helping out Leslie with her cast

Spent the day drifting the Lower Sac with Ray from Napa.  Big laughs and great fishing all day.  Drifted from Redding to Anderson.  Gusty winds kept the topwater action down all day, but the nymph grab was really good.  Consistent grabs all day with most of the fish in the 16+ inch range.  Great Day!

Lots of these willing to play!

Big Fish.....Big Smiles!

Ray on the job!

I had a great day with Joel and his son Will.  Fishing was consistent throughout the day and they only landed one fish under 16 inches all day!  Spring fishing on the Sac is at its best!

The past three days on the Lower Sac has been amazing!  The fish are chowing now.  I guided John and Bill today and they hooked over 30 fish during a half-day float - and only one was under 16 inches!  No need to wait any longer - book your trip today!

The Lower Sac fished very well for us today.  Sam and I guided a group from Santa Cruz that is headed to Eagle Canyon tomorrow.  We put a lot of fat 17-19 rainbows in the net today.  The bite was good throughout the day despite a strong north wind.  The PMD hatch was pretty thick in the afternoon.  Small mayfly nymphs worked well.

Katie & I had our annual family and friends day at Eagle Canyon today.  We had a big crew up here and the lakes looked great!  Early in the morning the fish were cruising within 10ft of the bank, but as we started fishing they pushed off a bit.  The most effective techniques were dry/dropper and indicator fishing.  Some of the kids in our group as young as 11 managed to hook and land fish up to 6 pounds all on their own.  Pretty cool! It was a very calm and sunny day so the fishing was challenging in general.  We did get some grabs on nymphs on 4X tippet, but way more grabs when we switched to 5X tippet.  There are tons of fish in the lakes right now and the sight-fishing is pretty amazing.  When the sun is high you can sight-fish 100% of the time.  The fish were rising quite a bit to March Brown mayflies mid-day.  I had fun fishing a parachute adams size 14 as an indicator fly with a nymph dropper on 5X tippet.  The dropper leader was only 12 inches or so.  Flies that worked today include: Sucker Spawn, Oregon Cheese, size 12Hogan's S&M Nymph, Olive, size 16Tailwater Tiny, Olive, size 18Flashback PT size 18 The fish are really finicky right now and I watched dozens of fish refuse fly after fly.  The key is to fish light tippet (6X might not be a bad idea if you're good at playing big fish on light tippet) and to change flies rapidly.  5 refusals and change flies.  If we could make the fish dumber, trust me - we would! 

We landed the biggest Lower Sac trout I've ever seen today.  I fished with clients George and Steve again today.  They were interested in catching fish without using indicators, so we did about 30 minutes of indicator fishing in the morning and then took off the bobbers.  George and Steve picked up the indicator-less side-drifting technique really quickly and both of them landed fish within the first twenty minutes.  When you side drift nymphs without the indicator you get some really incredible grabs.  Steve landed several nice fish, and then right before lunch he landed the biggest Lower Sac trout I've ever seen.  I thought he was foul-hooked on a sizable trout, but it was a giant rainbow with Steve's brown rubberlegs stuck squarely in its jaw.  This was the thickest, most robust wild trout I've seen on any fishery ever.  Steve said it was bigger than anything he caught in Alaska.  This fish was closer to ten pounds than five pounds.  Congratulations Steve on a great fish, and on catching it in such a cool way!

I didn't know they came that big!

Congratulations Steve!

Today was a jet boat day on the Lower Sac.  My clients George and Steve wanted to swing up some trout on lightweight spey rods today.  Unfortunately, the fish were not very grabby on the swing today.  We just had a few grabs throughout the day on the swing.  Thankfully, we found two riffles that were prime for hopper-dropper fishing.  Steve and George both landed fish on the hopper dry.  Most of the fish went for the dropper, including two fish right at the end of the day that were in the 15-16 range.  Both of those fish ate the nymph in about six inches of water - fun stuff!

The Lower Sac is fishing well, there are plenty of feisty trout spread throughout the river but to be successful you need to bring your best hook set's, they're not cutting any slack right now on sloppy or late hook sets !

Nice fish Bob !

Rick getting it done !

It's been warm this week with the temperatures being in the 80s. Fishing has been technical. Make sure to bring that 5X flouro and your midge box. We are getting daily March brown hatches that brings occasional dry fly action. Successful patterns lately have been: Hogans S&M (size 18)Red-headed stepchild (size 18,20)WD-40 (size 18, 20,22) Blood midges (size 16,18,20) Flashback PT olive (size 18,20,22) Copper Brassie- (size 18,20) Prince Nymph (size 16,18,20) Red copper John (size 16,18)March Brown (size 14,16)

Today was a spey day on the Lower Sac.  My clients Bob & Lynn are headed to Argentina next week to do some spey casting for big rainbows and browns.  I helped them get familiar with their spey rods.  They caught quite a few rainbows as they practiced their double-speys and snap-tees.  No big fish today, but they managed to land a lot of trout up to 12.  We also had some excellent hopper-dropper fishing in the afternoon.  Quite a few fish came up to eat a pink hopper, believe it or not.

Lynn caught a lot of fish today

I guided a PM half-day on the Lower Sac today and fishing was good.  We fished up in Redding and found some quality fish up to about 19.  Some of the bigger fish are spawned out right now, but we also caught some big fish that were in excellent condition.  All the usual suspects worked in terms of fly patterns.  The weather is great right now and the fish are biting!

Troy did well today

Some photos from today's group at Eagle Canyon.

I spent the past weekend camping and fishing the Pit River. The emerald green waters and lush scenery were worth the trip on their own. There are inviting campsites right on the river. Scenery aside, the fishing was excellent. The fish were very active and I had quite a few hook ups.  The bows are strong and feisty and have their own unique rainbow hues. While there were small hatches here and there, fish were eating subsurface. High sticking and nymphing with an indicator were the most successful methods. The pressure was fairly low and I didn't have to skip any spots I wanted to fish due to other anglers. Wading at times gets a bit tricky, but the fishing was worth it!

I just spent two amazing days with Pat - and what a couple days she had!  Lots of hook-ups with most fish in the 18-20 range!  The visibility continues to improve and the trout are definitely chowing.  Spring is happening in the north state and so is the Sac.  No need to wait to book your spring trip - it's on!

I took my clients Jason and Brian over the hill to the Trinity River today.  We had a pretty good day on the Lower Sac yesterday and my clients were up for seeing some different scenery.  I'm really glad we went over there today.  Fishing for half-pounders was pretty good, providing action all day long on 10-16 fish.  Brian landed a 24 inch brown on his 2nd day ever of fly fishing.  Jason landed a nice wild buck about 5 pounds near the end of the day.  We also rose about a dozen rainbows and browns on dries mid-day.  Tons of fun, and absolutely nobody else around.

Brian with the big brown

Jason got what he came for

Using the proper tactics and having the right gear and flies will make or break your trip to Eagle Canyon.  If you just bring woolly buggers and a few nymphs you're probably not going to catch very many fish. These fish are not stupid, know that.  These trout can be more picky than a 9 year old at dinnertime. Morning time until around 11am use loud bright flashy streamers on 1, 2 or 3X *fluorocarbon*- preferably zonkers and leech-like flies. **Chartreuse **/white/black/ have been the key colors for most the season. Around noon every day, you'll have to switch gears and go longer & lighter leader with small flies, or go indicator- 4 & 5X. Don't use the same retrieve all day long! Big flies fast(er) retrieve, small flies- slow retrieve or indicator fish.  Lately the hot flies have been egg patterns in all colors especially glo-ro and oregon cheese, tangerine & pink. Black,white and chartreuse zonkers got the most hits in the morning & evening. There has been some good hatches of callibaetis & march browns.     

Spring has sprung up here on the Lower Sac.  The weather was delightful the last two days and the fish were fairly willing.  We fished up in Redding yesterday and the fishing was slow but the fish were big.  There were a lot of caddisflies around and a few mayflies, too.  Today we floated closer to Red Bluff and had the whole river to ourselves.  The rainbows (and the trash fish) were pretty grabby today.  There were a couple of golden stones flying around, too.

Eagle Canyon is slowly wrapping up for the season. We've had a few overcast days that made fishing phenomenal. I never get tired of hearing that's the biggest trout I've ever caught. Streamers and leeches are still the hot ticket in the morning/late afternoon. (*chartreuse*Chironomids, sucker spawn (yellow) under The last couple weeks has been a mix of fun and challenging. We've had a few overcast days that made fishing phenomenal. I never get tired of hearing that's the biggest trout I've ever caught.Streamers and leaches are still the hot ticket in the morning/late afternoon. Chironomids under a small indicator or with a slow retrieve work best when the sun is high in the sky. small indicator or with a slow retrieve. Come rigged up with 1,2,3X flouro for throwing big flies and 4,5X for the small stuff. Get in touch with me if you have any questions (sm_robinett@yahoo.com). Bring your float tube or use one of ours for a nominal fee. Tight Lines.

Read the March issue of Confluence Outfitters email newsletter.  This is a big issue that includes fishing reports for the Lower Sac, Trinity River, southern Oregon plus information about remaining Eagle Canyon dates, Yuba River guide trips, Lower Sac jet boat trips, our booth at the Spey-O-Rama in April, 2015 Spey Camp availability, and the 2015 guide school!