The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

Hey TD, I drove to Quincy yesterday, drove back thru the NFFR canyon about 7pm. Only hatches I saw were dragon flies and mosquitos. Flows seemed to be ~ 350cfs, (just my guess) NO ONE FISHING! Camp areas un UNFFR were pretty full for a weekday, but no one fishing there either. I saw NO fish rising, and sat along river at RockCrest bridge for about 40 minutes with the dogs. It is too deep to wade safely now, places where I would have fished before, I wouldn't consider it now. Water is still warm.

Where is all the IMPROVED HABITAT and fish populations we were promised?

I'd love to see SLO and Skirt back on the Board. I really miss the board of old. Now that was fun! (Much better than the image of Troutnut getting a full body cavity search! Now that just scares the carp out of me!)

Having said that, its nice to see the Trout brothers, (Nut and Dale) posting. Hope you guys are well and still fishing your brains out.

Take care,
Feather Fisher

I have not posted here in quite sometime. Probably not since 2006. I began reading the board while living in Arcata during Grad School at HSU during the Summer of 2000. I fished 3 Falls in a row: 2000-2002. If you will recall, 2001 was best steelhead return since 1979. Eureka Fly Shop had 150+ fish days with 3 rods on the Lower Klamath, and I was having 20+ fish days regularly above Weitchpec up to Green Rifle and Ice Cream Rifle with fish up to 30". Then 2002 probably saw a smaller return, but the fish were even bigger. I used to fish Big and Stone Lagoon at least 5 days per month catching wild steelhead up to 28 inches on a 5 weight. I had 50 fish days consisting of wild steelhead and sea run brown trout. Rediculous. Truly, hooking 24+" wild fish while stripping mohair leeches on a 5 weight with the Pacific crashing less that 20 yards behind me, having the entire lagoon to myself, are memories I will cherish forever.

I have not lived in Humboldt county in quite sometime and don't get to fish much anymore. But a couple things have crossed my mind regarding this board: a) the members are fishing less and b) members are fishing less because the fishing has not been as good.

I am sure many of you will correct me. Maybe there are many reports on other baords. I don't know and don't have time or interest to check. But rarely is a picture of a wild steelhead ever posted to this board. There were pics all the time during the early 2000 deacade. I even fished Big Lagoon late in the Summer of 2009, and the trail I took to my most productive area of the lagoon was all grown up, which means no one is even attempting to access this area by foot.

My belief is that if the fishing were better, we'd be seeing the Kodak.

Dale, I'm in touch with Skirt via Facebook. When we communicate these days it's more about women than about fly fishing--though that comes up sometimes, too. Interesting that troutnut mentioned NFF, as I was thinking of heading up that way in a couple of weeks myself. Fishing NFF, staying up in Quincy, maybe hitting some smaller streams like Haypress, NF Yuba, etc. Any thoughts on Middle Fork? I've never fished it.

I'll let Skirt know he should start laying down the NCFFB fertilizer...

troutnut wrote:
Hey TD, I drove to Quincy yesterday, drove back thru the NFFR canyon about 7pm. Only hatches I saw were dragon flies and mosquitos. Flows seemed to be ~ 350cfs, (just my guess) NO ONE FISHING! Camp areas un UNFFR were pretty full for a weekday, but no one fishing there either. I saw NO fish rising, and sat along river at RockCrest bridge for about 40 minutes with the dogs. It is too deep to wade safely now, places where I would have fished before, I wouldn't consider it now. Water is still warm.

Where is all the IMPROVED HABITAT and fish populations we were promised?



shouldnt there be isonychia hatching by now.

weitchpecwitch wrote:
I have not posted here in quite sometime. Probably not since 2006. I began reading the board while living in Arcata during Grad School at HSU during the Summer of 2000. I fished 3 Falls in a row: 2000-2002. If you will recall, 2001 was best steelhead return since 1979. Eureka Fly Shop had 150+ fish days with 3 rods on the Lower Klamath, and I was having 20+ fish days regularly above Weitchpec up to Green Rifle and Ice Cream Rifle with fish up to 30". Then 2002 probably saw a smaller return, but the fish were even bigger. I used to fish Big and Stone Lagoon at least 5 days per month catching wild steelhead up to 28 inches on a 5 weight. I had 50 fish days consisting of wild steelhead and sea run brown trout. Rediculous. Truly, hooking 24+" wild fish while stripping mohair leeches on a 5 weight with the Pacific crashing less that 20 yards behind me, having the entire lagoon to myself, are memories I will cherish forever.

I have not lived in Humboldt county in quite sometime and don't get to fish much anymore. But a couple things have crossed my mind regarding this board: a) the members are fishing less and b) members are fishing less because the fishing has not been as good.

I am sure many of you will correct me. Maybe there are many reports on other baords. I don't know and don't have time or interest to check. But rarely is a picture of a wild steelhead ever posted to this board. There were pics all the time during the early 2000 deacade. I even fished Big Lagoon late in the Summer of 2009, and the trail I took to my most productive area of the lagoon was all grown up, which means no one is even attempting to access this area by foot.

My belief is that if the fishing were better, we'd be seeing the Kodak.





The board was a different place back then . If you posted a fish pic or report you wouldnt get flamed by some dickhead (that has never caught a steelhead in his life for holding the fish out of the water.) btw fishing is awesome right now on the olympic Pennisula there are tons of steelhead in a couple of the rivers. The summer/ fall coho are starting to show up
I hooked and landed two chrome coho today.

michaelnel wrote:
This place has a bad reputation when I have heard it talked about on other boards. I joined up after the big blowup, but from what I understand someone else was running the board for a long time and the place just turned into a bickerfest.

I have not felt inclined to post, although I post a lot on some other ff boards.

It seems to me that even with the very low number of posts, very little is about flyfishing in northern California. Heck, that main story about flyfishing in Montana has been on the front page for over a year, in fact those guys have gone back and done that trip again already.

How about the main story on a board about flyfishing in Northern California be about flyfishing in Northern California?

This place has been a major disappointment to me and to many others. When I first joined up here there were lots of posts by users cussing other users. It looked like a real unfriendly place, and still does.



why dont you write a story and submit it.

I meant to say sea run cutthroat and not sea run brown, although I know they do exist on Trinity.

fishhawk wrote:
why dont you write a story and submit it.


If I have a fishing adventure that involves flyfishing in Northern California and it's worth writing about, I will.

The isonichias on the NFFR are dead! Thanks to the white water river rapers.

TD

Hi Michael aka Featherfisher,

How the heck have you been?

TD