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Good Today we had another group of anglers from the Kern River
Fly Fishers and I was one of five boats. The water was off-color as the result of crazy thunderstorm that inundated
northern Redding Wednesday afternoon. Despite
the color everyone in the group were hooking fish. My guests Bill and Cort landed a few nice
fish throughout the day, but found our lower Sac rainbows are fighters. |
Good Took a little drift down a high and slightly off-color Lower Sac today. Didn’t know how things were gonna fish but Sean did a great job of fininding some nice fish. It was a little harder than usual, but all in all a very good day. Some good fish to be found in the high flows. Along the edges! |
Okay I had a really fun day with my guest Nellyda. This was her first time indicator nymphing and she was excited to learn the technique. After a week of consistent flows, the Bureau of Reclamation bumped them up to 15,000 cfs due to the rising lake level. The increase slowed the bite, but we still managed to get several grabs and hooked into a few very nice fish until the strong south winds picked up. I know Nellyda had a great time and I’m pretty sure she is hooked on fishing the Lower Sac. Nellyda was rewarded with this very nice fish! |
Great I made it out of the office today and into my drift boat for the first time in a while. I had the pleasure of guiding a group from Project Healing Waters San Francisco. The weather was great and the fish were very cooperative today. Leland landed his first trout ever, a nice 18" rainbow. Henry, one of the volunteers with the group, landed a very large trout in the 22 inch range. It was a fun day and there were plenty of hook-ups with strong wild rainbow trout. Leland with his first ever rainbow trout Henry with a really big rainbow |
Great I once again felt privileged to be a part of another Project Healing Waters trip. We were one of seven boats today, and although it was busy – everyone hooked into fish! I had such a great time with my veterans (guests) Ray and Joe! The grab was pretty consistent for us all day, but the afternoon was better than the morning. We hooked lots of fish – we landed a bunch and lost a bunch. We lucked out with the weather and I’m pretty sure all the veterans and mentors had a great time! They are off the fish Eagle Canyon Trophy Trout Lakes tomorrow.
With this latest batch of rain, the flows are going to bump up to 15,000 cfs Thursday morning. I don’t expect this to have a significant effect on the fishing – which has been really amazing! Ray's first rainbow on a fly! Joe with a nice one Another beautie for Joe Andrew with his guests |
Great Guest Greg had a great day at Eagle Canyon today. He forwarded this photo of his biggest fish of the day. He had good luck with pink and white bunny leeches among other things. Nice fish! Greg's biggest fish of the day |
Great Today was great day with my guests Lisa and Gene, who are
part of the GGACC group. Our morning
started slow, but by late-morning the bite really turned on and stayed on for
the rest of the day. Lisa is an
accomplished spey angler, but new to indicator fishing and she picked it up
right away. Lisa and Gene both hooked
into a lot of really big fish throughout the day. It looked like the other boats in our group were
also getting lots of action as well. This was a great two days of fishing with a really fun group of anglers! |
Good Today was the first day of a two-day trip for the Golden
Gate Angling and Casting Club. Our guide
crew included Peter Santley, Tyler Lee, Mike Wright, and myself. The bite was spotty right off the bat, but
really picked up by mid-morning. My
guest Brad hooked into several really nice fish throughout the day, with all
but a few being over 17 inches. Everyone
had a great time and the weather was really nice until a thunderstorm came
through at the end of the day. |
Great I was part of a 4-boat trip along with Peter Santley, Tyler
Lee, and Kevin Kay. Our guests were the
first of two groups of anglers from the Kern River Fly Fishers. It rained off and on all day, but that had no
effect on the fishing. My guests Brian
and Teresa had a very good day and I know everyone else did very well. The flows and color are very good, and the
boat hatch is definitely on. The fishing
will remain very good at least through May. Teresa with her first to the boat Another very nice fish Brian with a beautiful fish |
Great This is a guest report from Jim who fished Eagle Canyon today:"Thanks Andrew our group had a great time on both lakes. Bill was fantastic assisting several of our novice flyfishers and setting us up with all the amenities. We did well on leech patterns in black, hooking 26+ fish and landing 19 from 3 to 10 lbs. We did have one bend the hook and get away. The consensus at the time was it went 15 lbs., but that will grow over time! We'll be back." |
Great I had a great time today with my guests Matt and Alan. The flows have dropped, the color is perfect,
the weather was ideal, and the bite is on! The guys hooked into a lot of fish, including four double hook-ups! All but one fish landed were over 17-inches,
and Matt hooked into a huge fish that broke him off after an epic battle that
included some impressive acrobatics. All
in all, an amazing day of spring fishing on the Sac! Matt's first fish to net - not a bad start That's how to complete a double! Alan with a beautiful big male Matt with another chunky fish |
Great The news we have all be waiting for - the flows on the Lower Sac are coming back down! Begining this evening, the flows will start dropping and will be fishable by this weekend! For all of you that had to cancel trips due to the high flows, reach out to your guides and discuss dates soon before our calendars fill up. If you're interested, here is a link to the scheduled releases: http://cdec.water.ca.gov/dynamicapp/QueryRES?s=kes. Go fish! |
Great Guest report from Bob who fished Eagle Canyon today:"The weather Gods were kind and we had a beautiful day Sunday! Our group
had a great time with about 25 hookups mostly on dark leech/bugger
patterns in both ponds. Biggest trout we’ve ever landed and thank Bill
for his help getting the group on the water and guidance. Thanks for
accommodating our schedule and definitely have my buddies hooked now
they can’t wait to return! We will work on float trip dates with Brian
soon." |
The Lower Sac is scheduled to go up to 50,000cfs at some point on Thursday. This release will likely stay in place for a few days or even up to a week in order to create some room in Lake Shasta for later storms and runoff. Stay tuned because fishing should be very good once flows drop back to fishable levels. I heard reports from a handful of guides that fished the river at 30,000cfs and fishing was good. I also heard from Peter Santley and he says the Trinity is totally blown out today. He is hopeful it will clear in time for guide trips starting Friday. |
Good Peter Santley has been guiding the Trinity River the past few days and he says fishing has been good. He's been limited to the upper one or two floats due to high water, but he's been finding fish every day. He says the fish are a mix of adult steelhead, halfpounders, and brown trout. It's nice to hear that there is some quality river fishing available right now! One of Peter's guests with a Trinity steelhead |
Great Here are some photos from our group that fished Eagle Canyon today. Nice fish guys! |
Great According to our group that fished Eagle Canyon today, fishing was good! They mentioned a couple of hot flies: WD40s in a size 18 and olive and black wiggle tail nymphs size 14. Wiggle tails are like mini-crystal buggers. They have a bead, flashy chenille, and a really long marabou tail. Phil with a beast Ken with a huge rainbow |
Okay Ran up to the Trinity this past weekend to squeeze in a little fishing between storms. In tow were long time fishing partners Jeff and Doug from Sacramento. We spent the better part of three days fishing various stretches of the Trinity. Friday afternoon the weather was warm and sunny. The March Brown hatch was in full effect and it was fun to watch the half pounders slurp bugs off the top. We weren't able to hook up that day but it was a stunning day full of fish activity. Saturday got us some fish in the boat. A full day float mostly nymphing in the rain/snow drizzle. We were able to hook up a few times and brought three fish to the net. Two nice adults and a smaller one with a lot of fight. Sunday brought a more heavy rain and with only one rod fishng most of the day, we were able to hook up once in a losing battle. Still fun as we saw the fish during the good fight. Im sure the weather this week, will certainly change the landscape of fishing on the Trinity, but Steelhead fishing is far from over. Pound for Pound a real fighter. Doug's Best of the weekend! Jeff and a familiar smile. |
Okay For the third time during the 2019 Steelhead season an epic rain event will see every river on the North Coast swell to near flood stage conditions. If the projections hold this rise will rival the big spike in flows we saw in mid January for both the Eel and Smith rivers. The S Fork Eel was just coming into shape late this week above Benbow, but reports of fish being caught were few and far between. It was a small window, and now it looks like the rivers to the south could be out of the game for quite some time. The Smith had near perfect conditions over the Presidents day weekend but fishing remained tough. I fished with Kris from Reno on Wednesday on the Smith. We spent a typical winter steelheaders day on the river in cold and wet conditions searching high and low for the elusive winter run coastal steelhead and came up empty handed. I spotted a single fish that day in shallow water along a willow line, but were denied when we offered him a chance to come to a small black and blue morsal. Looking ahead we will see the Smith come online around the first few days of March. It should be in excellent shape by next weekend and through the beginning of next week. I have some prime dates open for anyone looking to catch the next drop in hopes of intercepting some fresh chromers charging up river! Main stem Eel River Cfs Kris loaded up on a picture perfect day in steelhead country Smith River Cfs at Jed Smith The upper S Fork Eel getting close before blowing out |
Okay Tim from Sacramento says that his group had an overall slow day on Wednesday but he did manage to land this huge rainbow in the afternoon. Nice fish! Tim with one of the big ones |
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