Feather River

It seems that every time I go fishing on the Feather, I spend more time driving than fishing. Okay, maybe that is an exaggeration, but man, those roads in the Wildlife area are slow going.

I arrived about 2 miles downstream of the 162 bridge (in the Wildlife area) 30 minutes before sunrise. I scoped out this spot on the satellite maps, and since I hadn't been here before, there was bound to be a little risk associated with my first destination.

As it turns out, I had to walk downstream pretty far to reach any decent riffles. I don't know how long it took, but when you are anxious to get in the water, it feels like forever. I'd guess I walked a good 20-30 minutes. Missing an opportunity to fish just as the sun was rising.

I finally found some riffles. Nothing I could step and swing through. You more or less would position yourself at the top of some riffles dumping into a pool and angle casts off to one side or another. No down stream stepping possible. I wouldn't exactly call this ideal water for how I like to work. All of the negativity was erased about 20 minutes in when I caught my first fish.

Access	Wildlife Preserve
Air Temp	Low 40, High 61
Water Temp/Visibility	~57 F / 6+ feet
Weather	Sunny/Partly Cloudy/td>
Flow	Not sure
Time in/out	6am, 7:30pm
Leaders/Lines	Compact Scandi
	10ft Int Poly leader	All day
	7 & 12 lb FC tippet
Flies	Various Soft Hackles	3
	Blue Widow Spider, sz 8	2
	Various steelhead patterns	bumps/tugs

She took the fly about 70 feet away from me as it was slowly swinging through. And when I say slowly, I mean slowly. It was creeping along. When it happened, I felt absolutely no tug. There was enough bow in the line that the hook set happened automatically with no input required on my part. Actually, I didn't even know it happened. A fish jumped about 2 feet up into the air. I remember thinking to myself, "is that fish attached to my line?" After all, she was about 30 feet away from where I had guessed my fly must of been. Before I could finish my thought, I felt pressure on the line. Oh yes!

Recently renamed to - the "Blue Widow Spider"

I started gathering my wits and reeling in. She was a bruiser. She peeled off about 20 feet of line and started tugging. I recovered some line and then she shot out of the air a second time. We had a tug of war match going on for a few minutes. I'd reel some line in, and she would take off. My rod tip was pulsing up and down as she went deep down thrashing about. I finally caught site of her a little bit later and she was good sized.

By the time she was in my hand several minutes later, I held her up to my rod to get a measurement. Close to 22". Not a huge fish, but she was thick. Very healthy. If she had been to the ocean, it was a while ago. She was very trouty looking. This was no half pounder. The fly she took was a sz10 generic green soft hackle with a grey wing. This fly has been good for trout in the past. Accidentally, I bent it later on in the morning and had to retire it. I'll be sure to tie up some more.

What a nice start to the day. I decided to give the pool a rest and walked downstream. The next run required some tricky river crossings. The run produced no grabs or bumps. Several hours later, I decided to stop by the same pool from earlier, where I caught that nice fish, before heading back to the car.

I really did not like fishing this spot. But, it is hard to resist when it actually produces. I tried for another 25-30 minutes with nothing to show for it. My 10 foot intermediate poly leader was toting about 7 feet of tippet. Two flies hung off. A small size 12 generic soft hackle, and the recently re-named "Blue Widow Spider" (because it is such a killer!!). This fly has been so effective in the past, it is hard to resist in clear water conditions.

After one of my swings, I started stripping the running line back for another cast. Somewhere as I was quickly pulling line, I felt pressure. This fish was smaller. I didn't feel as much deep pull. But what I did feel is a very strong/quick fish that wanted to do anything it could to rid itself of that hook. The Blue Widow strikes again! Even stripped through the water at ridiculous speeds, it will catch steelhead.

The most recent victim must of shot out of the water a good 5 times. As she started getting closer, I realized this was a true half pounder. She was very bright. Hadn't been in the river very long at all. After picking her up, I could practically see my reflection in her 15 inch profile. Even though she wasn't a big fish, she fought with incredibly power. I was very surprised to see how small she was. I can't imagine what it must be like to catch a fresh 30+ inch steelhead. I hope I can have the pleasure some day.

It was time to walk back to the car. I was hungry and ready for another access point. Unfortunately, I didn't realize at the time, I was about to spend the next hour and a half driving around. Reminds me of the last time I was at the Feather. Too much time driving on those rough roads.

I drove up to Bedrock park and decided that it wasn't worth the time. Went upstream to see what else we had. Nothing looked ideal. I'm sure there were fish in there. But I was hoping for a true step and swing piece of water. Either it was hiding from me, or didn't exist in this spot.

Drove back into the Wildlife preserve, right past where I was earlier. Another 4 miles on the crappy roads brought me to a spot where I caught the fish earlier. Unfortunately, there wasn't an easy way to cross the river to get to the best spot to swing a fly. So, I tried to find another access I remembered from the map. No go. Back to hwy 162 and then 70 south. Got off on Pacific Heights and found another entrance to the preserve. I've been here before and figured it was worth another try. Spent the next few hours with nothing to show for it. It was now afternoon and very sunny out. The fish were probably down deep. Not willing to move for a fly just under the surface.

After debating with myself on where to go next, I decided to leave and go further downstream, outside the low flow section to a spot I'd been before. It had some decent runs. Again, nothing really happened. I messed around until the sun started going down and the little fish started rising to a hatch.

I continued to swing this area and caught some small fish and received one very strong and deep tug. I'll never know how big it was, but it felt like a good sized fish. Well into the 20's.

By the time it was getting dark, I was ready to go home. I had been on the water for more than twelve hours (minus the driving from spot to spot). Previous to the drive that morning, I had only gotten a few hours sleep. I was plain exhausted after a long day of swinging flies.

While not a crazy day of catching fish, I managed to catch a few. Two of them were great battles and exciting moments. Thanks Feather!