The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

The South Fork has hit its prime. The dry fly fishing this last week has been epic. If you are into sight fishing in riffles and foam now is the time. Every afternoon from 1-4PM the riffles are loaded with cuttys and rainbows eating pink PMDs and Yellow Sallies. The trick to the game is to pick off the easy fish with the emergers. Currently my hot fly has been a pink hackle stacker. Once you have got the easy ones add a beadless pheasant tail to get the more picky fish. Then finally throw a larger dry with a lightning bug and pheasant tail behind it. This is a fun time of year because you can get the majority of the fish that you see. Find a riffle and park yourself there and wait for the noses.

As for the big bug fishing it has been hit and miss. Somedays the fishing has been really good with Chubby Chernobyls and the Eldens Ant. However there are other days where you dont get a lot of action on the big dries. The big bug fishing should continue to get better as those stoneflies make their way into the upper and upper canyon. The next week the upper is most likely going to go off. Get excited because this is when the really big monsters of the South Fork start feeding on the surface. When throwing those big dries make sure to use your favorite pmd dropper underneath. Currently half of our fish are eating the dry and the other half the nymph below. Setting the hook on the dropper eat is not the easiest thing in the world but just remember to cast every time that dry fly sinks below the surface of the water.

Hope you guys are having a great summer.

Tight Lines!