The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

Grassfire on the way home from the river today, that is. Hiway 108 closed at Knights Ferry to Orange Blossom Bridge rd. westbounders are being detoured through Knights Ferry road on the north bank.

Did anyone fish San Luis today?

The fishing around here isn't to bad. (SJ tribs) I did a float on the Stan from KF to OBB awhile back. My buddy took his raft down and I got the free ride! I told him the russian rapids aren't that hard. Just don't hit the wall on the North Bank. Whats he do? hits the wall. We bounce off, no harm no foul. I tossed a bow bugger down from the put in to the canyon. A very nice size redside showed itself at the put in heading downstream...about a 18"er?

We didn't start fishing (dries) until we got around the corner just upstream from the canyon. Passed up some FFer guys in a blue driftboat on the way there that didn't look like they knew what they were doin. Passed them up and kept goin...they had nada so far. Hooked a few small risers down there near the entrance to the canyon and didn't spend long there until we got out of the canyon area. They had raised the flows the night before from 850 to 950 and this side channel that is usually low water was full and flowing. It was also full of nice rising fish! They were on the Tricos. We stayed there for about an hour and cleaned up. Then we spotted the driftboat...Time to head on down! We caught fish here and there but mostly at the obviuos spots where the riffly water was. We just blasted through the frogwater as usual. Most fish are up in the more upper sections of that drift. One nice one did come at Honolulu bar which is closer to the bottom than the top. If I were to go again I would take ou at the overnite campground area. I don't know how it's going at goodwin or 2mb. So much for the Stan...decent fishing. Best fly was he pink dirty worm.

I also have been fishing the Lower Tuolumne and the Merced and the Grasshopper deal is in gear on both rivers now. I have been waiting for this and have been spending alot of time at the bluffs where the hoppers get blown off. Today it was a bit much windwise. My boat was getting blown upstream against the current while I had my 30 pound anchor out! Fish for an hour, hooked a few nice ones but the wind was just too much.

On another note I had to pull two yearling dear out of the pool in the last month!
Cheers! berms

Thanks for the report Berms.....that Bow River Bugger spanks em' every time, doesn't it!

Hey Tim,
I was working in Oakdale today and I think there may have been two fires in the area. There were fire trucks and cops flyin' by the jobsite from about 11 or so untill we left at 3:30. I'd say easily over 20 trucks went by. From all over too, Oakdale, Keyes, Salida, Turlock, Modesto... They were all going South through town on East St. We ended up running into a big fire along 99 in Turlock. It took us an hour and 10 minutes to get to 99 from Oakdale. Turlock was gridlock. Everytime we got close to 99 we would run into road blocks and backed up traffic. We ended up finally getting on the freeway in Delhi.

I just looked on the map and we were on East F street not East street and the trucks were heading East not South. Looks like East F turns into 108 so they were headed up your way.

Hey berms,

Do you fish the dirty worm often when there is a trico hatch? Some old timer used to tell me that the best trico spinner imatation was a size 26 dirty worm tied with white thread. Another guy told me that a bead head dirty worm tied with a tuft of Icelandic female yearling goat belly hair harvested during estrous (sp?) and died hot pink made an excellent trico emerger pattern.

Anyway, I just wanted to get your opinion and stay away from the fires.

TIA,

MN

Do you fish the dirty worm often when there is a trico hatch?

No.

Some old timer used to tell me that the best trico spinner imatation was a size 26 dirty worm tied with white thread. Another guy told me that a bead head dirty worm tied with a tuft of Icelandic female yearling goat belly hair harvested during estrous (sp?) and died hot pink made an excellent trico emerger pattern.


Interesting. Always been experimenting with variations of that pattern. Tried the beadhead with a tuft. Never heard of anyone else trying variations. There's lots of goats on the rivers here! I don't think any of them have ever been to Iceland. I use stuff like antron, polypro, maribou, flashabou, ect. I used a 22 adams para for that trico fest I mentioned. The dirty worm works great for me in the faster, broken water. I'd say about 75% of the time that's what I use for an attractor fly. The plain pink dirty worm on a 16 hook seems to work the best for me. cheers, berms