Trip Report: Lower Stanislaus

Finally, back to my favorite haunt, the Lower Stanislaus. It was to be another hot day, at or near 100.

The day started off rather slow. In the morning, I was swinging various soft hackles in groups of two. I caught a couple of fish somewhere around 12 inches as I scurried the rocks in the deep pools. As the fish seemed to have lock jaw, I moved downstream to some areas I had never been. I actually didn't think access was possible, and never attempted to go down that far. However, it ended up being pretty easy at these flows and I found a spot with some fish that were actively feeding. I hooked a few, but they were able to rid the hook in short order.

I decided to move back upstream towards the dam and perched myself on a rock to cast all the way across stream for the biggest swing possible. At the time, I had a soft hackle in front, and a larger steelhead fly in back. I decided to do something I don't normally do, and it turned out to be an almost revelation.

Generally, the idea when swinging flies is to get them to swing as slow as possible. Potentially start with a dead drift so they can get some depth, then lower the rod tip through the swing to slow it down as it makes the trip back across the current to your side. For some odd reason, I decided to actually do short little strips. My theory was, that I'd fish that steelhead fly like a streamer through the deeper water. It had long spey hackles on it, and I figured the pulsating of those hackles would get a fish to bite.

Not long after doing this, to my surprise, I hooked a fish. He bit clear across the river, and I brought the 15 incher to hand. The whole time, I was thinking, I can't believe he went after that stripped size 4 stealhead fly.

However, when I picked him up, I noticed that he actually ate the size 12 soft hackle! Since when do fish go after a stripped soft hackle? I've been fishing soft hackles for years and years, and this is something that I rarely did! (Mainly because, the times I did it, it just didn't seem to work.) This proved key later in the day.

Another hour or two went by, and I had moved to another spot downstream. Which will remain nameless. By now, it was the hottest part of the day. Fish are supposed to be hunkered down. However, they weren't. They were keying in on a hatch and fish heads were exploding out of the water left and right. I mean, they were everywhere! I didn't know there were this many fish in the river, let alone in this one little spot. In any one instant, I could see two dozen fish breaking the surface. It was amazing. I have never seen anything like this on the Stanislaus. Come to think of it, I may of never seen this before, period! To make it even more incredible, were the size of these fish. These weren't dinks. They were decent sized of 15-20+ inch. At one point, I actually climbed up about 15 feet to get a good look and the water was filled with trout of all sizes. Hovering at various depths. Munching bugs on the surface and below. Incredible!

Needless to say, I was excited. I hurried to rig up some small soft hackles that somewhat matched size and color of what they were eating. Nothing! Not a single bite! I could actually feel fish hitting my fly line as they busted their way to the surface. However, no one was going after my flies.

Okay, okay, I had the wrong flies on. I changed it up. Same thing! I changed again and again. This went on until I had gone through literally, 15-20 different flies. I was deflated. They were so keyed in on the hatch, that they ignored everything else. And I couldn't get close enough to that food source.

I sat there staring at the fish exploding through the surface. Teasing me, and surely laughing at me. I actually walked away from this incredible hatch and went elsewhere. I caught a couple of fish in another area, but I couldn't get over that sight back in the last pool. So, I went back and tried again. Nothing, nothing and more nothing. It was hours later and these fish were still absolutely everywhere. They were gorging like there was no tomorrow (the hatch literally went on for hours during the middle and hottest part of the day!)

I started reflecting on the day and remembered that time I caught the fish by stripping a soft hackle. Since nothing else was working, I decided to try it again. I cast out into the hordes of fish and started doing quick short strips. WHAM! I caught a fish! What the??!

He was 15 inches and fought hard. When I took the fly out of his mouth, I realized he ate a size 10 soft hackle. Very much larger than the bugs that they were eating. Huh, whatever! I finally caught one of these guys.

I let the guy go and cast/strip again. WHAM! Even bigger guy. Two casts and two fish. Is this coincidence? After releasing him and casting a third time, I didn't make it 3 for 3. However, in the next hour, I caught at least 20 fish. All of them were around 15 inches, wild, and full of fight.

What is the moral of the story? When you think you know something, you really don't. I would of never tried stripping those soft hackles if it weren't for that steelhead fly I tied on earlier in the day. Now, I have a new trick up my sleeve. And you can be sure I'll do it again.

This turned out to be one of those epic days of fishing. Not only did I catch a boat load, but learned something in the process. This happened a couple of years ago on Cherry Creek, and I know how seldom these days actually come along. It won't soon be forgotten.

Trip Report: Yuba

It was another hot day on the Yuba. Temps were probably near or above 100 degrees. Not so bad as long as I stayed near or in the water. Fishing was pretty good, however, in typical Yuba fashion, nothing mind blowing.

I arrived around 6:30am and was fishing above Hwy 20 not long after. Within the first couple of hours I had caught a couple of trout in the mid teens on soft hackles swung through the current. I spent more time than usual in only a few areas, trying to get some fish to bite on various flies, but it just wasn't turning on. No fish were rising and they must have been hunkered down in deeper holes.

By mid afternoon, I parked myself at the island just above the Hwy 20 bridge. I had 10ft of T-14 sink tip and an intruder style fly with barbell eyes. The setup cast well with my 12'6” spey rod and I was trying to entice the larger fish that were in the pool deep below. For the longest time, I didn't have any bites, but finally had a rather large fish come from the depths to latch onto my fly. It was more exciting than usual, because I saw the whole thing. He was slowly pacing the fly as I was stripping it in, and when it was within 15 feet of me, he roared upwards and engulfed it. I'm not sure how big he was, because he only stayed attached for about 10 seconds. However, he gave up a good fight and broke the surface a few times to frantically rid himself of the hook. My estimation was that around 22 inches. He had no problem attacking that 4 inch intruder.

This trip was last week, and honestly, I'm having a hard time remember the details since I've been on another river between now and then, memories are faded. If I remember correctly, I hooked a few more fish before nightfall. Sometime in the late afternoon, I met up with a friend who caught a few fish of his own too.

Near dark, we almost reached the parking area along the dirt path, luckily, before it was too late, we saw a rather large rattle snake in our way. We paused as he scurried off. Man, I do not like snakes! This guy looked to be 3 or 4 feet long and was almost impossible to see. Glad no one stepped on him.

Fly #50: A couple of winged steelhead patterns

Starting off with a flashy wing, this steelhead fly is tied on a size 8 salmon hook. Dubbing is arctic fox with oval tinsel ribbing. The tag is silver tinsel. Generally, I'd use this during high or off color water. Or in some cases, when nothing else seems to be working.


The second fly is made up of much more muted tones. I'd use this on clear water. However, if the water is really low, I'd probably opt for a fly that is more sparse than this.


I decided to use hare's ear for dubbing. I don't do this very often on steelhead flies. Not sure why, it really has great buggy qualities that would attract trout or steelhead that have been in the rivers for a while.

Fly #49: Blue Spider Steel

A recent re-stocking of tying material included some blue hackle. While I'm a big fan of neutral tone flies, patterns very similar to this have caught both trout and steelhead.


I firmly buy into the thought process that presentation is far more important than fly choice. If you are targeting trout during a hatch, you may want to roughly match it. However, when a hatch isn't on, you can catch fish on just about anything if you make it move the right way.

Fly #48: Feather Wing

In order to prepare for Fall, I've been tying a few steelhead flies. The one you see below was tied on a size 8 salmon hook. Flies similar to this have been very successful in the Central/Northern Californian steelhead waters.


Generally speaking, I have more confidence in flies with natural tones. Besides working on steelhead, this will also catch trout and if you're not careful, squawfish! :)

Still Kicking

I've been busy with other things, so this blog hasn't been updated a whole lot lately. There are a backlog of flies ready to be photographed and soon to be fishing reports.

I promise to have something worth reading/looking at in the next couple of days. You'll shortly see some Yuba, Feather, and Stanislaus reports. In early September there will even be some steelhead reports from my trip to Washington.