The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

Interesting to say the least. I was going to be asking questions about the flows but have read a couple of the posts in Gitts thread. My wife and I were camped in the primitive sites down river from Ah Di Nah. We rolled in Thursday afternoon. Found our favorite spot vacant and proceeded to set up camp. Once that was completed I rigged up and headed for hte water. Immediately things looked odd. I have been to this spot a couple times a year for the last 8 years or so. Missed last year but didn't expect anything different. What was different was that the river was higher. And it had been much higher recently. I know this because of the plants and grasses near the edge and on some of the islands were flattened from the higher flow. By the looks of it by at least a couple feet. Now, could this have come from a release from the lake in anticipation of the recent storm I have no idea. Based on Gitts new post I wonder. There were a couple people with kayaks but I wont jump to conclusions. To further my evidence of high flows I walked down to the Conservancy early Saturday morning and found the lower section of the trail near the river just before the rise to the cabin was under water. First time I have ever seen that.

The fishing for me was very poor. Normally I at least get some dinks but only hooked about four fish in five hours. I struggled to shift gears with the river flows not what I was used to. My favorite spots were not accessible because it was too deep and too swift. I did manage to land one nice fat rainbow around 14-15 inches. Hooked on a dry. Very beautiful fish.

I was bummed to see that some knuckle heads had cut down a live tree for no reason unless they thought they could burn it somehow. Idiots.

Tuesday's (and well into Wednesday) storm put a lot of water into the system. We were staying in a house on the Upper Sac in Castella, and the river came up a good 2-3 feet on Tuesday. Castle Creek, which was practically dry on Monday, was raging. Levels on Wednesday came down considerably, and clarity improved quickly.

Fished the USac on Sun and it looked like it had experienced similar conditions. Water level had recently been a good 2-3 feet higher as evidenced by the shoreline foliage. Level's were fine on Sun, although it wasn't as vodka clear as normal.

Lot's of OC popping the surface and also in the air from about 5:30 to 7:00. Some #14 caddis, little BWO's and even a good size yellow stone out playing. Despite close to ideal conditions, my skills limited me to only 4-5 fish, no size worth bragging about. Maybe the fish hadn't settled after the high flows? Nah, it was my skills.

I have trouble catching fish during the OC hatch. Drives me crazy. How do you fish it? I nymph, I swing, I lift, I float,...I bead head, I non-bead head, I emerge, I dry,...upstream, downstream, acrosstream, understream, ontopstream...

Helacious storm on the way home south, lightning, thunder, bucket's of rain...

Colors have turned on and so have the bugs, lot's of both. Go now!

I had very similar results and saw the same flies you saw. During the OC hatch I saw a cripple float a good 50 feet before, what looked like, a 12" brown slammed it. I figured if a real OC cripple floated that far fluttering drastically all over the place didn't get a hit what chance did I have with my #14 stimulator and a crappy drift.

This might help explain the trail around Ah-Di-Nah being under water.

http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryDaily?s=MSS&d=19-Oct-2009+12:12

And from Bill Carnazzo's site: http://www...nazzo.com/guide/mccloud/

"At Ash Camp, Hawkins Creek adds significant flow to the McCloud from the Grizzly Peak drainage. In some respects, the river segment from the dam to Ash Camp can be considered a "low flow" section."

Hope this helps.

Forgot to add this as well for that kayaker in all of us. Interesting to see how the river gets promoted:

http://www...Lower-McCloud-River.html

Too much information? Maybe.

Last outing to the McCloud I packed out a fresh wrapper for a 12' stringer stream side. Odd, take out the fish but leave the trash.

Well, what luck. I sure picked a hellova time to go fishing.
And this is all from the storm that lasted a day and a half?

The Trout Underground recently had an entry about OC's not making such a splash when it comes to the hatch.

http://tro...-trout-underground-damn/

I've had similar thoughts... watching an OC hatch just go OFF and not seeing a single nose... seeing almost no flies on the water, watching them oviposit on the water so quickly that there is literally no chance for a fish to grab them.

Sorry you had such poor conditions Don, that sucks. I don't think many of us had a clue that storm would be so big. When it puts the McCloud up, that's a lot of water!

B-

I think luck is the prevailing factor for fishing the October Caddis. You just have to be in the right place at the right time. Prior to the storm, fish were taking the OC nymphs, but it seemed one really had to work for them. Though there was quite a bit of surface activity with OC, "regular" caddis and baetis, I saw no feeding activity on top - at least where we were on the water.........

Still, all that water and yet crystal clear. Weird. Oh well. Still a beautiful place to spend a week end.

It's typically early in the season, but I've certainly been down there when the trail was under water. Unusual for this time of year, but not unprecedented.