The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

After some honey do's on Saturday and lunch with the kids I headed up the HWY70 canyon for an afternooon of fishing some of my favorite sections of the North Feather. Based on the weather conditions and the temps I decided to wade wet. I figured I was gonna get soaked anyway so why bother with the waders. I wasn't wrong about the rain. At least it was a warm rain. It really dumped for about an hour and drizzled off and on most of the evening. The bugs and the trout didn't seem to mind. One side creek muddied up for a bit but by the time I was leaving it was running clear again.

I ended up picking up about ten or twelve fish in three and a half hours. The smallest one was right at twelve inches. Most were closer to 14 or 15 inches with two right at 18. The trout were glad to get a #18 BHPT, or a #18 parachute dun. At the other extreme some of the fish came on #6 & #8olive stimulator which works for the adult velma mays.

I saw no velma mays in the Rock Creek reach. With the artificial white water thing I don't think we'll ever see them again where that happens. There were a few VM's in the Cresta section but they are not coming back like I think they should. We need to hope they find some more frogs before the river is ruined altogether.

It was really great to get some time on the water. I've only fished about ten days so far this year. My knees are hurting a bit but I just take it a bit slower then I used to. I seem to get by good enough to still catch a few trout now and then.

I didn't realize how bad the fires were. Pulga came very close to being wiped out. The river seems to have been the only thing that stopped the fire from spreading further south. It did jump the river in one spot. I didn't get all the way up to Beldon so I don't know how that looks. I can tell you this, there are going to be some mud slides up there this winter. I'm sure the river is going to get lot of mud too.

TD

Thanks for the report, Dale. My wife and I tried to find a spot to fish on the Middle Fork on Sunday, but without a good map we decided on another river. (I had a topo, but it just didn't give enough info for the roads.) I ordered the Plumas Trout fishing guide that you recommended. I e-mailed you through the board. Take care, Buddy.