Trip Report: Calaveras River

My goal last summer was to visit as many new rivers as possible. I wanted to see what was out there and do a little exploring. For me, half the fun of fly fishing is to be in the outdoors and visit new areas and see new things.

Somewhere along the way I was sidetracked by the Lower Stanislaus. The proximity to where I live and the population of trout was hard to resist. My exploration seemed to stop. I’ve been trying to make a renewed effort to visit new places.

Just a couple of days ago I forced myself to get out of the Lower Stan groove and fish a new river. The Calaveras, right beneath the New Hogan dam is just as close as the Lower Stan and made for a great day on the water.

I arrived around 8:00AM and parked my car in a day use lot just off Silver Rapids Road, just downstream from the dam. You can literally walk just a few steps to the water, but a short walk upstream was necessary to find something more trout friendly. The trail runs right near the river and access couldn’t be easier. This worried me, because what requires little work means that fishing pressure is high. It just wasn’t high today because I saw a total of only one other fisherman before I left at 6pm.

With my new and hardly broken in Reddington 8-weight rod in hand, I was hoping to hook a large steelhead. In reality, the action was pretty slow at first. Once again, as has been the case the last few months, I didn’t see any fish and had no bites for several hours. The river was running low and clear. Not exactly the best fishing conditions. I’m sure the fish were hiding and finding deeper lanes to feel safe from predators and fisherman alike.

The Calaveras is a small river. The width in most fishable places upstream of the Silver Rapids Bridge is 20-40 feet. Trees and brush line the river and back casting is not an option in most cases. No worries, this gave me more practice with my latest spey casting technique obsession. My new rod is excellent for this and I can even use two hands thanks to the nicely sized “fighting grip” on the butt of the stick. I no longer get frustrated when there are trees and brush directly behind me.

Just a little while later, I realized I was focusing so much on casting, that I forgot why I was there in the first place. To catch fish! I laughed to myself and continued upriver to see what I could find. As I got closer to the dam, it became evident that there was a pretty good hatch going on. Trout were rising to eat bugs off the surface! There are fish in the river afterall!

Unfortunately, I left my dry fly box at home. So, I continued with soft hackles just under the surface to try and see if I could get a bite. The skunk continued despite the fish eating around me. I was now near the dam and the river resembled a lake more than anything else. Still water is not my bag, it is something I’m trying to get better at, but moving water is where I’m able to catch fish. So, I left the surface eating fish do their thing and walked back downriver to find some moving water.

This time, I looked closer at all the places I passed by. There was a nice section of water moving at a walking pace that seemed to be 3-5 feet deep. This looked excellent. After a few casts I noticed some fish eating on the surface below me. I took my size 10 soft hackle (pictured here) and cast it upstream of the feeding fish. The point was to let it swing where they were and try to entice a strike.

After four or five casts, a large trout nailed my fly with some real force. It startled me as I was about to pull my line back for another cast. The fish quickly jumped out of the water and shook like a wet dog. Fish on! A big fish too! After landing back in the water with a huge splash he ran upstream towards me and as I stripped back in like a maniac, I worried that he would get off the barbless hook if I let the pressure subside.

I saw the bright white fish streak past my position and he was big! At this point I was really excited. Did I finally catch a real steelhead? Not just one of those 16” rainbows that are classified as one, but you know they haven’t been out to sea. The guy turned back down river and started taking line back. He didn’t take me to my backing or anything crazy like that. But he did put up a good fight.

After it was all said and done, I had the fish at my feet and grabbed him by the tail. Yes, technically he was a wild steelhead. While I can’t prove that he has been to the ocean, he still had his adipose fin intact and was pretty bright and silvery with a very faint pink line running down the side. I put my rod down next to him to get a measure and was happy to see that he was 24-25 inches in length. This is the biggest fish I’ve caught in a while. I don’t like the idea of keeping the fish in my hand very long, so I released him quickly and he swam out of there the first chance I gave him.

While walking the river banks, I noticed a dead wild steelhead resting on the bottom of the river. I’m not sure how he died, but have a gut feeling that someone caught and either played him too long or was rough with him. Even when you practice catch and release, if you don’t take an effort to release them quickly, they can easily die a few minutes later. This is why I don’t take a fish out and bother taking a picture. By the time I fumble around getting it ready, the fish is getting stressed even more. The time you take to do so, or laying him in the dirt for a photo op is just increasing the chance of it dying after letting it go. This dead steelhead was about 20 inches in length with a nice girth. What a shame.

The rest of my day was slow. I went through a dozen or more flies, but didn’t get much action. I walked the river from the dam to a few hundred yards downstream of the bridge. I did manage to hook one other fish that was very large. He was close to being as big as the one I caught, but could have easily been bigger. I’m not sure of course. I didn’t see him very long, he grabbed my soft hackle on the last few seconds of a swing and he snapped off my tippet where it connected to the leader. Basically, he busted an 8lb line in about ½ a second after grabbing the fly. In that split second I did see him breach the surface. He was big.

The day was wonderful. Weather was warm, the sun was out and the river was beautiful. Maybe not as pretty as some of the others in this area (there is a rock quarry right next to the river), but definitely worth the trip.

Thanks Calaveras!