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.

Fly #47: Intruder

Ed Ward came up with an incredible steelhead fly called the Intruder. After the secret got out, it became a very popular pattern. Since it takes a really long time to tie, I made several short cuts with my variation.



While not an official Intruder. It has some of the same qualities. Minimal materials, while still looking bulky.



I've done well with big flies swung deep. Both steelhead and large trout take notice. Big flies catch big fish. One more reason to add this fly to my box.

Report: Truckee

Last week I was able to hit up the Truckee River. This is a great piece of water, I wish I had more of an opportunity to visit.

Knowing my fishing time is limited this summer, I wanted to make sure I was there bright and early. Leaving the house at 2am put me riverside just before the sun came up. I strung up my switch rod with barely enough light to see.

Carefully, I waded out and fished a long riffle just off Hwy 80. After about 15 minutes, I landed my first fish on a size 10 Prince Nymph. These flies are hot. I tie mine with a soft hackle up front in various sizes, some with beads and others without. For some reason, the fish have been excited to see them all year. If I remember correctly, I was fishing a soft hackle of some sort as my second fly on a 10ft intermediate sinking poly leader.

It was still before 7am, and I thought this was going to be a good day. I continued down stream and explored some spots I haven't been before. A few hours later, I headed back to the truck for a water refill.

After a big old drink, I scrambled down some rocks and scurried along a hillside filled with boulders the size of car tires. It was slow going. Eventually I found a spot and after a few swings, I caught my second fish. This guy was small and aggressive.

It was time to move on, I loaded up and went down the highway to the next exit and hit some spots that looked good on satellite maps. By now, the wind was whipping at least 20mph. The day was getting warmer and I decided to put on a heavier sink tip and bigger fly. I was trying to get lower in the water column to where I thought the fish were holding. A few hours went be with nothing to show for it.

I found a nice spot with deep water. I decided to put on 12ft of T10 and a 4 inch bunny leech. My switch rod didn't handle the tip and the heavy water logged fly as well as the spey. But I kept at it. Eventually, I had a nice fight with a rather large fish that lasted a whole 15 seconds before he came off. After spending another 1/2 hour trying to get him or one of his friends, I gave up and moved on.

I went back upriver to explore some more new locations. There was some white water pouring into a deep pool. This looked like a good place for fish. Unfortunately, I couldn't get anyone to bite. It was rather difficult casting. No wading whatsoever available and with trees right behind you, it was impossible to form any sort of d-loop to get the fly very far. Moving downstream yielded more wading possibilities, and the water looked excellent. However, no one was interested.

I moved upstream to a place I've been before and it was more of the same. I caught a few smaller fish, but nothing to write home about. It was getting late in the day and I needed more water. After climbing back up to the vehicle, I decided to go elsewhere instead of going back down to the river. I drove somewhere off Glenshire Blvd for my last hooray of the day.

The wind never did calm down. It was still swirling almost non-stop. Combine that with a long day and I started getting sloppy. I formed an upstream d-loop, instead of a downstream and when launching the cast forward, the fly nailed me in the forearm.

It stung. A red hot shooting pain told me the fly was in my arm deeply. After an inspection, I was right. The fly was embedded into the underside of my forearm- all the way to the hook bend. It was deep and very painful. I tried to pull it out, but my skin just stretched. I knew I had to yank it. And although the fly had no barb, the spot where the barb once existed was rather large and made for tough removal. I held my breath and yanked it out. The blood started flowing and I stood there wondering what sort of negative side effects I was going to have. I raised my arm above my head and put pressure on the hole until the blood clotted. The area was discolored and I wasn't sure if it was a big deal or not. I decided to keep fishing and take my chances. (No lasting effects. Some bruising and a couple of holes are it)

I caught a few more fish that evening in various pools/riffles. But I couldn't stop thinking about that hook and it made me apprehensive on every cast.

Just before nightfall I returned to the car and went home. I took a shower and was in bed a little over 24 hours from when I first left.

Mike Kinney Casting

This is a simple video of guide Mike Kinney casting his two hander. Mike is really well known in the steelhead world and is a nice video to watch if you are interested in two handed skagit casting.



Like Ed Ward (see next video), they have slow and smooth casting strokes.

Skagit Master

Ed Ward is one of the Skagit founders. Although I've never met the man, I've exchanged emails with him and he truly is a knowledgeable fisherman. Not only is he the "Skagit Master", he knows how to catch fish. I originally heard his name along with the famous fly he introduced to everyone. The "intruder" is well known to steelheaders. I hear he is currently using a more modest fly, simply a rabbit strip and a hook. Whatever he puts in the water, he catches fish. He is the man.

In a month or two, he will be featured in a DVD called appropriately enough, "Skagit Master". This is definitely something that will be in my player. And that is saying a lot, since I don't make a habbit of collecting fishing/casting videos. Here is the trailer for this film.



Visit youTube to see this in HD!

Surf Perch?

I made my first attempt at fly fishing in the ocean. Only spent a couple of hours while my wife and son played in the sand. I got a bump or two, but nothing more. It was more a chance to figure out what the heck I was doing. I really had no clue.



In an unusual twist, I actually have video! Since my wife was around with a camera, you can see a few seconds of me casting my switch rod over head. The two handed rod worked surprisingly well, I was able to cast pretty far over the breakers through a wicked wind blowing in my face. Even with the 10 foot sink tip.

If it weren't for the wind knots, it was a killer day. I'd like to go again soon.

Trip Report: Yuba

For this first time in I don't know how long, I went fishing on a Sunday. I normally avoid the weekends due to crowds. However, considering my workload, I didn't have a choice.

Surprisingly enough, my trip to the Yuba, above and below the 20 bridge, was relatively uncrowded. I did see other fisherman, but had no problem finding empty spots.

I'm going to wrap up this report quickly as I need to get back to work. The day was warm and the wind was acceptable for a change. I ended up catching 3 fish. None of them were over 15 inches. One was caught in deep water while high sticking my spey rod (yeah, I know, not the best use of a spey rod) around some rocks, right near the shore. If I remember correctly, he took a size 12 bead head prince nymph. About an hour later, I caught a 15 inch fiesty trout on the swing in some heavy riffles. This guy was caught on a size 10 partridge and orange soft hackle. The last fish was caught late in the evening on a small generic steelhead fly.

Started the day off with a 420 grain skagit line and 8feet of T-10 sink tip. I worked a run above the hwy 20 bridge pretty thoroughly for nothing. At some point, around noon, I switched to a 420 grain scandi line with a 15 foot floating leader and tried skating some flies. No takers.

I kept the scandi line on and switched to a 10 ft 3.6ips polyleader. This was kept on for almost the rest of the day. This is what I had on while catching those three fish. Late in the day I moved to a clear 10ft 1.5ips polyleader. Nothing with that one.

It was a good time. Especially appreciated because I'm not able to get out much to the river lately. Fingers are crossed for another opportunity soon.

Flow around 2,000
Water temp approximately 50 degrees.

Underwater fly fishing?

Because of a brutal work schedule, I'm not able to do much fishing these days. The only thing I seem to be able to do is live through others experiences.



I found this video on the net. Wow- how excited would this be? Amazing.

Fly #46: Sunset Blue Waker

This is one of my favorite waking flies so far. After giving it a test drive, I'll let you know how it performs.

Trip Report: American (Shad)

I've always wanted to try fishing for Shad, but I've never taken the plunge. On Monday evening, I took up an offer to be shown where to go on the American for these feisty fish.

We weren't to meet until 6pm, so I arrived a little early around 3:30 for some potential half pounder action. The temp was in the high 90's and thank goodness for leaky waders, cause I was pretty miserable. I waded and walked down some riffles and pools, but didn't get anything more than a bite. So much for steelhead.

I met Aaron a little after six and we walked for a few minutes upriver. He knew exactly where to go. Aaron started flicking out his jig (he wasn't using a fly rod) trying to locate the fish. I watched for a few casts and then started trying to get my line out there. We were in a section without much current, and frankly, I was struggling. I couldn't get the fly out very far and without the current swinging the line downriver, it was awkward at best.

Aaron didn't have the same problem and it wasn't long before he caught his first fish. He offered to give up his spot and I stepped in and didn't have any luck. Aaron seemed to catch fish wherever he was, so I knew they were there, I just couldn't get 'em.

I'm not sure how much time went by, but we moved downstream. Eventually and smartly I took off the longer scandi line and put on the short compact skagit with a 10 foot sinking leader. This allowed me to strip in further each time. We were now in a place with more current and swinging was possible.

Aaron needed to take off, and before he left, he gave me the jig that he was using. I thought I'd try it. My shad flies didn't seem to be working (upon further review, I think it was the presentation, not the fly) anyway.

Not more than a few minutes later, I was getting casts out 60-70 feet. Flicking it slightly upstream, I'd let it sink for a bit then twitch the rod here and there, followed by a strip. I finally got a bump! The next cast, I caught my first shad. He wasn't real big (maybe 15 inches), but inch for inch, he gave up a decent fight.

It was getting late and I was just now discovering a method that worked. Too bad it took me until then to figure it out! By dark, I caught 3 shad and hooked a bunch more. Whatever I was doing - worked. I'll be back to try again. Thanks Aaron!