The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

I had the opportunity to guide Friday, Saturday, and Sunday this past weekend. The weather was beautiful with these warm 70 degree days that we have been having in northern California. I think that spring is finally upon us. It is time to shake off those winter blues and go check out your favorite trout stream. It wont be to long now until trout opener. Those of you who are waiting to fish all of the upper streams make sure not to miss out on the good opportunities that some of our tailwaters have to offer. Here is a little summary of my last three days on the water.

The Yuba River on Friday was tough. Since the weather was warm I was expecting some great hatches out on the water. The entire day I only saw a handful of pmds, march browns, and skwalas. Nothing was coming off on anything of what I consider a consistent basis. Flats where there are usually lots of rising fish only had a single sporadic riser here and there. So with the lack of bug activity it was hard to get the fish to eat. In total we hooked 10 fiesty rainbows and landed 8 of them. Lucky for us we got a couple really nice ones that were in the 18'' range. I wish every fish fought as hard as those Yuba bows. They are hands down the strongest fighting trout I have ever seen.

The Lower Sac on Saturday and Sunday was good. On both days there were decent hatches of spring caddis and it really got the fish eating. Saturday was a lot of fun and I got the opportunity to guide Maggie (junior in high school) and Erin (5th grade) on their first ever fly fishing trip. Both of them did great and caught a handful of rainbows, but Erin out did everybody with her 18'' fish. When you are 11 and your first rainbow you ever catch is 18'' that means there are good things to come in this girls fishing future. I was thoroughly impressed with both of the girls willingness to learn and enthusiam to pull on some fish.

Sunday I had two of my regulars up from Sacramento and we hooked close to 50 fish. The real treat on Sunday was that we ran into two clipped half pounders. One halfpounder was 19'' and the other was 20''. That is the latest that I have ever caughten a steelhead on the Lower Sac. Prior to the ones yesterday the latest I had ever caught one was in the end of January. The Lower Sac is a great river. You truly get spoiled with nubers like the ones we have been having over the last several weeks.


Tight Lines!