Current Fishing Report

The hex hatch has been going off!  My clients Dean and Clayton from Washington landed 4 very large fish last night on their first ever hex hatch.  Pressure is very low.  I've been out the last 10 nights, and the hatch happened on 8 of them, so it's pretty consistent.  During the day the Fall has been kinda moody.  There has been some great hatches on some days, nothing on others.  Sinking lines and nymphing are catching some fish when there are no bugs on top.  Pressure is extremely high on the upper river, mellow on the lower river.  If you are patient, you can headhunt for very large rising fish from 10 until about 2 and search for the moments.  My client Tom Donnely hooked and finally lost a truly gigantic fish, who ran him through his full spool of backing.  The battle did not end with the fish in the net, but it was an amazing fish and battle.Hat Creek was good last week, but slowed down the last few days.  Powerhouse Riffle is crowded, shallow, and fishing good in the mornings for tricos and in the evenings for caddis.The McCloud has been going off on some days, kinda tough on others.  The best fishing is In the evenings and whenever the fish are looking up for stones and mayflies.  Ask us about our camping options for the Mac.

I had a great weekend hosting Doug and Jeff from Sacramento in the pursuit of wild trout on some of my favorite rivers in Northern California.  With the warm weather, the really big fish eluded us, but the bug activity provided us with tons of action.  We fished the Upper and Lower sections of the McCloud RIver, Stretches #3 and #4 on the PIt RIver, and Hat Creek.  Fishing on the McCloud and Hat Creek proved to be a ton of fun.  We caught the majority of our fish on dries as the salmonfly hatch was in full force and there were small golden stone fly hatches everywhere.  Our day on the Pit was even more challenging than usual.  Higher than normal flows forced us into some tight spots.  We managed to pick up a few nice fish though.  If you love all the challenges that fly fishing can offer an angler, weekends like these are a blast.

This one crushed a Salmon Fly pattern! Fun!

Jeff on a beautiful stretch of the Lower McCloud. Fish rising just along the Elephant Ears!

Hard work pays off on the Pit!

How I end every trip to the Burney area!

Hat Creek Dandy!

Doug Working hard on the Pit

Katie and I spent the day on the Henry's Fork with Alex Kohn from Henry's Fork Anglers.  We floated Ora to Chester, a lower stretch that I had never done before.  There are a ton of floats you can do on the Henry's Fork and they are all different.  I really liked the float we did today.  The river was mostly shallow with great riffles and structure.  The scenery, while not very vertical, was great.  At the bottom of the float we could view the Grand Teton mountains from the river.  That was cool because we are headed there for a family vacation tomorrow.Katie and I were really impressed with the fishing, even though our guide Alex said the river was fishing merely "OK".  The Henry's Fork rainbows and browns are hard fighters.  We hooked quite a few fish and landed fish up to 20".  We fished a dry-dropper rig almost all day, using a chubby chernobyl as the dry and various beadhead nymphs underneath.  Most of our biggest fish ate the dry.  I guess we're right between the giant stonefly and golden stone hatches right now.  Katie's big fish of the day, a 20" brown, chowed her big dry fly on a little seam near the bank.

Katie's big brown

View of the Tetons from the Henry's Fork

Katie Harris making some casts underneath the Ora Bridge

My biggest fish of the day

Katie's big rainbow

The epic Fall River hex hatch started early this year!  Book a trip if you want to get on it, it's been excellent this past week...

I fished our private section of North Battle Creek today with some clients from my home town of Gridley.  I guess I'm used to drought conditions, because I was really surprised that the creek was flowing pretty high today!  Flows spiked up a little with the hot weather so there must still be some snowmelt up in the high country above McCumber Reservoir.  We were able to fish the wider parts of the creek, but the cascades were impassable so we weren't able to fish as much water as usual.  We caught some fish on dries and nymphs under dry flies.  Fishing should really pick up in a couple weeks when the flows drop down to normal summer levels.

The wider parts of the creek were much more fishable

Tom working a deep pool

You pretty much have to charge through the river

I just returned from a great trip to the East Cape of Baja California with my buddy Mark Tompkins.  We fished with Jeff deBrown of The Reel Baja.  Jeff has lived on the East Cape full-time for 17 years and is an expert on the fly fishing opportunities in the area.  He set us up with accommodations at Rancho Leonero, a comfortable fishing resort with great food and a great location right on the beach.  We dealt the best we could with some challenging conditions.  The first day we went boat fishing because the sky was overcast, which makes for poor visibility.  We landed several species that day, including skipjack, jack crevalle, and a small roosterfish.  We also hooked and lost a dorado.  The 2nd day we spent on the beach.  The swells were a little big and we only had one shot at a fish that day.  Fortunately Mark nailed it and hooked and landed a 45 pound roosterfish from the beach!  He almost got spooled, but managed to wrestle the fish back in.  That is a fish of a lifetime from the beach.  Our 3rd day we boat fished again in hopes of casting to some larger roosters that were working bait offshore.  We didn't connect with the big fish, but I managed to land my first roosterfish ever, about 10 pounds.The day of beach fishing was the most fun, partially because we used quads to drive around and look for fish.  You can travel countless miles of beach from the resort on a quad or side-by-side.  When the light is good there is always a chance to find roosterfish crashing bait near the beach.  It's a really fun game to play, especially if you enjoy sight fishing.  It's also very different than wading the flats and other saltwater fishing scenarios.  The range of the roosterfish is large, but the East Cape of Baja is the only place in the world where you can catch them on flies from the beach.  I look forward to my next trip down there!

Mark Tompkins with a big roosterfish

Mark with a jack crevalle

Rancho Leonero is a great place to stay

This is a really fun way to fish

Jeff deBrown explains the strategy of beach fishing

Mark about to get spooled!

Who needs a boat trailer?

Skipjack close-up

Andrew with a skipjack

Getting closer...

Getting close...

Jeff deBrown releasing Mark's rooster

Andrew Harris with his first ever roosterfish

Close-up of a roosterfish - they're pretty cool!

The Lower Sac fished well for clients Russ & Brad today.  We floated Bonnyview to Balls Ferry and only saw one other drift boat all day.  The fish were on the grab throughout the day.  We landed a lot of nice 16" rainbows.  Nothing bigger today, but great numbers of fish hooked.  There was quite a bit of bug activity, including pink alberts (orange PMDs) and caddisflies.  No risers today.

Russ & Brad caught a lot of fish like this today

There are some days when the stars align and that allows for a simply amazing experience.  I had the great pleasure of guiding my long time client Pat, and her very good friend Kate the past two days.  The weather was a bit unsettled, but the fishing was solid.  Pat and Kate worked very hard, but were definately rewarded for their efforts!  They landed so many fish in the 18-20 inch range that we lost count.  Rubberlegs and pmd nymphs seemed to be the most productive.  Flows have been very consistent the past few weeks, but are schedued to increase to 7,500 cfs on June 1st.

I guided Jesse and his son Julian today.  We didn't hook into a lot of fish today, but every fish we hooked was reaaly nice!  Today's fare - PMD nymphs.

I took clients Paul and Bill to the Pit River today.  We had a lot of fun and they both agreed that the Pit is a physically punishing river at the end of the day.  The grab wasn't red-hot, but we hooked decent numbers of fish.  We started in Pit 5 and worked our way up into Pit 4.  The lower end of Pit 5 is pretty big right now.  The tributaries are adding a fair bit of water, so finding good water is a little bit tough, even though the water is clear.  Pit 4 is in better shape - down to normal summer levels.  The nice thing about the Pit is that we saw zero other anglers.

Pit 5 is kind of big right now

Paul with a Pit River rainbow

Bill hooked up

Bill's big fish of the day

I took my client John from Davis up to Manzanita Lake today.  Manzanita Lake is a great option for any multi-day trip in northern California.  At 6000ft elevation, it's a great place to get out of the valley heat.  It's loaded with browns and there are always rising fish available.  Today was no exception.  The morning fishing was very slow, but we started getting hook ups on nymphs under indicators around noon.  By 2pm there was a really good callibaetis hatch and spinner fall going on.  I was suprised to see so many this early in the year.  We saw fish rising to midges, callibaetis spinners and duns, and terrestrials today.  Our best luck was with ant patterns.  We hooked fish on nymphs under indicators, nymphs under dry flies, and dries today.  The wind was pretty bad, but we were able to find little corners where the fish were rising regularly.We had the lake pretty much to ourselves today.  In another month it will be crowded with kayakers and a lot more fishermen.  The fish seem to get used to the traffic, though.  Manzanita is one of my favorite mid-summer destinations.

Mt Lassen in the background

John with his first fish of the day

Fat brownie

Our best fish of the day

Close up of a Manzanita Lake Brown trout

I spent a great day putting on a clinic for a great bunch of anglers from Nevada on the Yuba RIver.  We spent the morning learning flies and rigging techniques before moving to the water to demonstrate the wide variety of techniques that can be utilized for catching fish on the river.  We then visited multiple access spots around the river discovering the various water that the Yuba presents.  The group was very willing to learn and anxious to give everything a try. We even spent some time throwing the spey rod around.  They did an amazing job all day.  Truly one of the best days I've had teaching on the river.   

All rigged up and ready to work on our skills!

Do you know where we can find some rocks?

A typical Yuba backdrop.

Presenting nymphs with and without indicators!

A great spot to swing flies.

Dry/Droppers along the edges. Hopper time is coming!

Tired arms from stripping streamers!

The newest Yuba goldminers!! Thanks for the great day.

My clients Dave and Kevin persevered today despite high winds.  Fishing was a big tough in the morning but picked up after lunch.  Dave and Kevin made some great drifts despite the horribly windy conditions and did well in the afternoon.  The fish weren't jumping in the boat today, but we had a pretty good day nonetheless.

Kevin with his best fish of the day

Kevin caught 3 fish on 3 casts at one point in the day

Dave landed a few nice fish like this

The Sac is continuing to fish very consistent.  PMD nymphs and rubberlegs are still the go-to flies.  The weather is perfect, albeit a little breezy - but that's spring on the Sac.  

We have experienced some crazy weather the past few days.  Fishing has remained pretty good, but they were not as grabby as they have been the past few weeks.  They are keying on rubberlegs and PMD nymphs right now.  I have guidied Pat many times on the Sac and Trinity, and she has had so many amazing days and hooked so many big fish we can't even remember.  But today, the something special happened and she landed this 25" horse today.  Sometimes good things happen to good (great) people! 

I spent a beautiful day guiding the lower Feather River today with fellow guide Mike Folden.  We had a very special guest on board - my dad John!  Mike spent the day coaching my dad and hooked him up with several nice trout.  The trout/steelhead action was pretty tough today, but everyone in the group hooked trout and we put a few in the net.  We also landed a handful of suckers and pikeminnows.  We had the whole river to ourselves and covered a lot of water.  The spring steelhead run on the Lower Feather can be good any time between March and June.  It didn't seem like there were a ton of fish in the river, but that can change as the season progresses.

John with a fish on the line.

John and guide Mike Folden celebrate a fish in the net

Andrew's dad John Harris with a Feather River trout

The Lower Sac is fishing red-hot right now.  We had a wide-open nymph grab all day long.  We fished up in Redding today.  My clients Rich and Kathleen caught tons of 14-17" rainbows and landed a couple up to 19".  There were lots of boats around, but the fish didn't seem to mind.  Yesterday we fished closer to Red Bluff and didn't see another boat all day.  Fishing was slower and the fish were smaller down there, but the solitude was really nice, too.

Rich's big fish of the day

Kathleen's first big fish of the day

Kathleen with one of many

Rich caught a lot of fish today

We could not have asked for better weather and more cooperative fish today.  I love it when fishing is this easy!  We hooked into lots of really nice fish that were chowing on rubberlegs and PMD nymphs.  This is such a fun time to be on the Sac!

I guided Greg and Brad from southern California the last two days.  They were new to the Lower Sac and to heavy-duty indicator fishing, but they figured it out pretty quickly.  Fishing was excellent on Wednesday with tons of hookups and fish up to 20" in the net.  We fought high winds in the afternoon both days, but the fish were still grabby.  Today was still quite good, but the action came in fits and starts.  There was a really good PMD hatch today and there were quite a few giant stonefly shucks on the water.  The fish ate a hodge-podge of egg patterns, PMD nymphs and stonefly nymphs.

Greg with his biggest fish of the trip

I spent the last couple of days fishing with good clients John and Francis on the Lower Sac, the Lower Sac has been fishing Good to Great ! The quality of the Trout on the Lower Sac always amazes me, there aren't that many places in the world within a relatively short drive of a couple million people, where one is able to catch beautiful wild rainbows on a regular basis. Conditions should remain stable for the next week or two, then the flows will raise to there Summer time levels, once the flows stabilize the fishing should be good through the Summer. Get out there and get you some !