Current Fishing Report

I had the pleasure of guiding Patrick and Mike on a Trout Spey trip today. Patrick is an experienced two-handed caster, but Mike is new to spey casting. I spent most of my time with Mike, who was able to make some very nice casts by the end of the day. After offering a few minor suggestions to Patrick, he had an “aha” moment and started bombing his casts! Both got grabbed, but Patrick had a really good day hooking and landing several really nice trout! Wading the river felt really good on a hot day.

Mark and I had a lot of fun fishing the lower Sac these last two days.   On Father's Day, Mark and I fished the lower river to avoid the crowds.  We caught several nice trout between 12 and 16" with the river to ourselves.  In the evening, we threw the spey rod in the Barge Hole.   On Monday, Mark and I fished the top section in Redding and hammered on some big Rainbows.  Mark landed two fish over 20", with one being around 24".  We also fought and lost several other beautiful Rainbows in this size range.   The weather right now is perfect in Northern California.  It's making for some great days on the river!   Thank you, Mark, for two fun days of fishing the Sac!  

I had the pleasure of introducing Ray and Silvia to fly fishing today. The fishing was pretty slow for us today. There were a few other boats on the same float and it seemed everyone was struggling – which can happen every once in a while. The flows were bumped up to 10,250 cfs yesterday, and scheduled to rise to 10,500 cfs tonight. The weather has been fairly reasonable as far as heat, but it is always much cooler on the water!      

I had the pleasure of introducing Ray and Tasha to fly fishing. Ray had very little fishing experience and this was Tasha’s very first time! They picked-up the casting right away, but struggled with strike recognition and setting the hook. Tasha seemed to get more action in the front of the boat, but Ray was able to land his first fish within the first hour! Ray managed to land two nice wild fish and Tasha had one on for a few minutes, but lost it right next to the boat. The grab was a bit slow, but fairly consistent until the wind really set in, and then the bite really turned off. They had a great time and are already talking about buying their own equipment!

I just opened up my Calendar to do some Nor Cal trips in July.  I will be crashng on Fall River for a few weeks, fishing the famed Hex Hatch for my 17th season.  It just doesnt ever lose its intrigue or excitement for me.  I like to do split days during that time of year, where we fish the Fall, McCloud, Pit, or Hat from the morning into the afternoon, then take a break during the heat of the day and head back out for the Hex in the evening.  My boat is parked on the lower river right where the prime water for the hatch happens.  Just show up, jump into the boat and get ready for the epic sunset view of Mt. Shasta and the biggest mayflies in the world getting chomped by big wild fish.  With the hex already popping on the lower river, this is looking like it will be another epic season for it.  Check my calendar for the few open days that I have left.

The Williamson River is in perfect condition. Water is low and clear for this time of year. There are prolific hatches of Golden Stones, Yellow Sallies and several species of Mayflies. The majority of the large redband have not showed up from the lake, however I would expect this to happen earlier this year as the lake warms. We have had a lot of success with fish between 12-20" nymphing and swinging leeches in the riffles. This fishery is just beginning. As the weather gets hotter, more fish move into the Williamson and fishing will only get better. Try nymphing golden stones and wired golden stones to imitate the Yellow Sallies in the Nymph stage. Your standard mayfly nymphs in size16 (princes, copper johns and pheasant tails) will work trailed behind a size 10 Golden Stone. When Swinging, we typcially use intermediate lines with brown and black leeches size 8-10's. 

Golden Stones are out on the Williamson

Guided Marissa and Jon on the Upper + Lower Sac last couple days. It got pretty warm this weekend, but that didn't stop us from finding a few rainbows. On the LS we fished the side channels and found several fish in little slots + pockets. Golden stones + copper Johns (red/copper) + solitude stones worked for us. The flows dropped some 500 cfs in the last week and the fish seem to dig it.  

It's a nice fish when the guide has to get a pic in

Marissa posing w her first rainbow trout!

I took buddies Ron and John out on the Upper Sac today.  We did a noon-to-dark trip so we could fish the evening hatch.  It was a good call!  Nymphing was pretty good during the day and we had quite a bit of surface action during the evening hatch.  The hatch was a mix of caddis, little yellow sallies, and mayflies.  We didn't see golden stones, but got quite a few grabs on big dries nonetheless.  The big fish of the day was a brown trout about 18" that ate a big dry fly at dusk.  Wet-wading was very comfortable during the heat of the day but we switched to waders for the evening hatch.  We lucked out today and had two great sections of the river all to ourselves.

John fishing the pocket water

Ron landing a fish

Spent several days this week on the Upper Sac fishing various techniques. Stone flies are hatching everywhere. It's not too hard to figure out what's on the menu for these fish- keep it simple! Nymphing/high-sticking is by far the most productive method to getting hookups. Swinging/stripping a sinktip line through the deep pools has been working too. The evening "magic hour" can come+go pretty quick so have a dry fly rod ready to fish- rigged and ginked!  

Upper Sac rainbows fight hard!

Andreas w fish on

I had the pleasure of guiding my good clients Tom and Judy on a walk-wade trip. The fishing was very tough on Hat Creek, but Tom landed one nice rainbow about 12 inches. After lunch, we went to Burney Creek and it was extremely crowded due to the holiday weekend. Both had lots of action while fishing a dry-dropper rig! Judy had many grabs, but could not react quick enough to close the deal.  Tom landed a handful of nice sized fish and ended up having a decent afternoon.

Powerhouse Riffle

Lower Burney Creek

Guided Brandon & Donna on the lower + upper Sac. This was their first introduction to fly fishing and they did great! We've all been rookies at one point or another but Brandon + Donna did really well learning everything from how to cast to how to read water. Good times with good people! 

Brandon with his first fish on the fly

Donna with her first ever trout!

Upper Sac

Recently spent a day with some amazing people from my childhood.  I took Keith and Eric down the Lower Sac and the day was all I hoped it would be.  The fishing was also really good.  Lots of amazing stories about family and friends from multiple generations kept the day speeding by and the fish were the cherry on the sundae.  There was a great dry fly hatch from around 9-11 am and then the nymph grab stayed consistant all day.  We never saw another boat all day on the lower section we floated.  Such a great day.

Eric with a smile and a fish that match!

Catching up with great friends while enjoying a great view.

Keith having a ball.

A dear friend and a great day!

Infamous Scott Coulter... This guy is one of best Spey casters on the planet. The man is surgical with a two hander in his hands- but today’s trip was mostly indicator fishing which brought out a little of the beast in Scotty;) We had a beautiful day on the river and dodged most the drift boat traffic.

Guided father/son Brad + Ben, both new to fly fishing. Ben (age 9) did a great job learning the ropes. After lunch he was ripping casts as far out as dad!

Brad w his first LSac rainbow

Ben with a little help from dad!

This past weekend I got to hangout with Roff and Bob, two old time fishing friends who came north for some instruction based guiding.  We spent three days on the main stem Eel River going over spey casting fundementals with a wide array of rods and reels. Roff wanted to hone his skills in preperation for an Atlantic Salmon trip so we had our work cut out for us. We covered everything from sustained anchor casting with skagit heads to touch and go with scandi lines. Finally, on the second day we lined Roffs big gun, an 8140, with a traditional spey line. After about an hour of Roff throwing a 44ft head I handed him back a rod lined with a skagit head and watched in amusement as he could now effortlessly cast it across the river. It was exciting watching both Roff and Bob progress from making a simple switch cast to holding two big coils of running line and bombing casts out over picture perfect swing runs! It wasn't all practice either. Bob had the hot rod on the second day when he picked off two Pikeminnow (Squawfish) on the swing. Between sessions I was privy to some epic fish stories that both Roff and Bob have in spades. All in all it was a great time spent with some great folks. 

Bob hooked up on a squawfish

Break time.

Roff and Bob on the Main stem Eel.

mini spey clave on the North Coast.

One of the best events in steelhead fishing is happening this weekend at the annual Sandy River Spey Clave in Oxbow Park. It is the legendary annual gathering of two handed casting enthusiasts that provides a format for the exchange of Spey casting and fishing information. The event features:-25 free educational on the water flycasting/flyfishing demonstrations by the best two handed guides and instructors on the planet.-Spey classes on Friday for $10!-Free food each day!-hundreds of rod/reel/line combos from top manufacturers to try for free!Stop by the Sage/Rio/Redington tent and say hi to Leslie and Dax

Mike Wright and Peter Santley helped me with two really fun father-son groups. Mike and I worked together on Saturday, and Peter and I today. Ian and Davis are 14 years old and pretty new to fly fishing. I have guided these guys in the past and the boys had a tough time the first couple years, but this was definitely their year! The fish were super grabby on Saturday and Chris and Ian hooked into a lot of fish throughout the day. The bite was slower today, but Todd and Davis were both getting lots of grabs. Davis had a breakthrough moment and mastered the art of playing and landing fish! It was a great two days and the weather was perfect!

Davis with his first fish of the day

Davis gettin' it done

I had the honor of assisting with this Project Healing Waters group trip. My guests, John and Bill, had only been involved with PHW for six months and had never fly fished before. John and Bill were very lucky when it came to hooking fish, but the real challenge came in playing and landing the fish. Both managed to land their very first rainbow on a fly! This is such a great group and I believe all the participants had a great day on the Sac.

Bill with his first rainbow on a fly!

John with his first rainbow on a fly!

Guided Henry and Tommy from Project Healing Waters. We had the entire lower Sac to ourselves which is rare. I worked most the day with Tommy who had never fished before. By the end the float he could cast and mend with the best of ‘em. (See pic above with his first fish ever.) Yea buddy!

Good job Tommy!

I had the honor of guiding two long time Confluence Outfitter’s guests, Frank and Doug, in the 2nd annual Gabe Duran Memorial Fly Fishing Tournament. Cast Hope and the Duran family hosted this 2-day event, which consisted of 25 teams of anglers. The event was a friendly competition…but it was all about big fish! Fishing was tough given the number of contestants, but the real challenge was keeping the fly in the fish’s mouth! It was a fun two days and Cast Hope is an amazing organization that helps introduce kids to fly fishing and the outdoors.