Skunked on the American

I figured that fishing on a cloudy day would improve my chances. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. I don't believe I had one solid pull the entire day. I tried to make the most of the day by just appreciating the outdoors. However, catching something would of been nice.

Starting out at Paradise Beach, I fished for several hours using 8 feet of T10 and an intruder style fly. I worked several runs and even tried a new spot or two that I missed last time. After I felt I'd had enough punishment, I went to Gristmill and spent a little more time of casting practice. I didn't waste as much time here and moved over to River Bend Park hoping a fish would feel sorry for me.

Access	Paradise Beach, Gristmill, River Bend Park
Air Temp	Low 31, High 52
Water Temp/Visibility	~49 F / 4-6 feet
Weather	Cloudy w/ light drizzle
Flow	~2000 cfs
Time in/out	6:45am, 5:15pm
Leaders/Lines	Compact Scandi
	8ft of T10	Morning
	11ft of T10	Afternoon
	Int Poly Leader	Evening
	7 & 12 lb FC tippet
Flies	Various Soft Hackles	0
	3” black intruder w/ dumbell eyes	0
	Sz8 steelhead blue spider	0
	Various steelhead patterns	0

After scouting out some areas I saw on the satellite maps, I eventually ended up by the footbridge daydreaming as the rain began to fall. The day had ended and all I had to show for it were a few lost flies. Ahh, the fun of steelheading.

As you may recall from a previous post, I was curious what would happen if I put a sinktip on my compact scandi. Well, I now have the answer. There were no problems whatsoever and the line could easily turn over 11ft of T10 with a heavy 3" fly on the end. At this rate, I'm not sure if there is a need to even use a skagit line with the tips and flies I commonly use.

Weather Report

Here in Northern California, we are expected to get heavy rains starting on Monday. If you believe the forecasts, it will last for almost a week with a few breaks here and there.

This is of course good news for the steelhead. Hopefully it will move a few fish up into the various systems. Watch the water levels, and if you can somehow hit it when levels are falling again, make sure you go. A good source for information is here.

Klamath Report

Earlier this week, I traveled about 5 hours north for a day trip to the Klamath. I've never been before, but have heard good reports. Figured it was worth the drive to find out.

Also worth noting, I actually fished with someone else for a change. Ted and I met early in the morning somewhere near Hwy 5. It was a brisk day, with morning temps in the 20's. Stupid me forgot a hat, luckily it wasn't windy and although a bit nippy, it wasn't all that bad.

We suited up and got into the cold river. We were both swinging flies with our two handed rods. After a few minutes of floundering around with a 7ips sinking poly leader that seemed to hang up on every cast, I got into some fish. Most of them were quite small. Either smolts or small trout. I don't believe any of them were much over 10 inches. What they lacked in size, they made up for in aggressiveness. At one point, I caught two fish at the same time, one on each fly.

Access	Along Hwy 96
Air Temp	Low 24, High 47
Water Temp	~49 F
Weather	Sunny/Partly Cloudy
Flow	~1400 cfs
Time in/out	7:30am, 5:30pm
Leaders/Lines	Compact Scandi
	7.0 ips sink leader	All day
	12 lb FC tippet
Flies	Size 12 soft hackle	One half pounder, 22"
	3” black intruder w/ dumbell eyes	Several half pounders, 15-18 inch
	Size 8 blue steelhead spider	Smolts/small trout/half pounders
	Various steelhead patterns	pulls only

We explored this part of the river for a few hours. Eventually we decided to move downstream. I had picked out some possible locations via Google satellite maps. The first location turned out to be a dud. However, the second spot was a good one. We worked our way to the water and we both were getting bumps and pulls. As time went on, the bumps and pulls turned into caught fish. Most of them were in the 15 inch range. When I hooked one of the decent fish, Ted was nice enough to come quite a ways downstream to take the picture you see below. As someone who normally fishes alone, it was great to have someone get a picture.


She was around 17 inches and actually put up a decent fight. As with the others, I caught them with a 3” Intruder style fly. You can see it hanging out of her mouth if you look close enough. After trying out each others fishing rods, I went downstream to fish a hole at the end of a short section of rapids. I caught a few more fish, but access was difficult and I wasn't in the mood to balance on slippery rocks to try and get the fly into the only small seam that looked only slightly productive.


I walked back upstream, passing Ted that was now fishing where I caught that fish you see above. Went around the corner and proceeded to fish a section from earlier. On one of my casts, I was daydreaming when I felt about 7 inches of the dangling loop pull through my fingers. I set the hook and felt a sizable fish on the other end. After a few minutes, I had a nice 22 or so inch hen in my hand. Surprisingly enough, this bright steelhead took a small size 12 soft hackle. Not the trailing size 6 steelhead fly. This is one of the reasons I fish with two flies at once. You never know what they are interested in.

Continuing to step downstream, I rounded the corner to see Ted in the middle of the river fishing the far seam. I later found out that he caught some fish here. As I was swinging, I looked over at one point to see that Ted hooked a fish. It must have been a big one, because his rod was bent far over. The following is an excerpt of Ted's story. Read the rest in the comment section!

The last fish is the one that got away. And, surprisingly, it followed my fly bumped it a few times during the second half of the swing. As soon as the fly dangled, my line started to pull. I dropped the loop and waited, and waited. The reel sang for at least 10 seconds which seemed like eternity. The rod finally bent, but, I couldn't gain an inch of line. All I could do was to keep the side pressure on. After a few wraps of line in, it started running again...

It was now getting pretty late. I stayed until dark, but only caught some more smaller half pounders. What a great day. All in all, I think I brought around 18 fish to hand. Granted, a lot of them were small fish, but a good number were decent sized half pounders. I'm sure glad that Ted and I went to this river. Certainly one of the more memorable fishing trips in quite some time!

p.s. Thanks Ted for taking the photo.

Scandi vs Skagit

Common thought is that Skagit lines are what you should use when flinging sink tips and heavy flies. Unfortunately, over a typical day, I switch back and forth between fly sizes and tips so often, that going between a skagit and scandi is too much of a headache. (Yeah, I know, you can use a skagit line with a floating tip and small flies, but I prefer a more delicate presentation.) So, for those seasons that are not Winter, I'll probably be sticking with my compact scandi now.

Reason is, I performed a little test yesterday. I took a 120 grain versileader and put it on my 420 grain compact scandi. To the end of the tippet, I attached a 3" barbell intruder. On the first cast, I was ready for the fly to go absolutely no where. To my surprise it casted very nicely. The line laid over straight and I was able to hit 70-80 feet with no problems shortly thereafter.

Now I'm wondering what the max tip grain weight is that I can put at the end of that setup. We'll have to find out the answer another day. For now, I'm happy with these results. Now I know I can put on a heavy fly and decent sized sink tip on the scandi and expect it to work.

I won't be giving up on the skagit. For those days that I know I'll be using nothing but heavy tips, I'll put the skagit on and leave it on.

American River

As mentioned in an earlier post, I've decided to try and make my reports more helpful. Now, when I say more helpful, I really mean more helpful for me. This blog was originally intended as a journal I could return to, so that I could remember what happened and where. Problem is, after re-reading a few previous reports, I've found they aren't very helpful at all! Woops.

Access	Paradise Beach, William H. Pond
Air Temp	Low 38, High 64
Water Temp	~56 F
Flow	~1900 cfs
Time in/out	7:30am, 5:30pm
Leaders/Lines	Compact Scandi
	3.9 ips sink leader	Morning
	7.0 ips sink leader	Afternoon
	Intermediate sink leader	Evening
	12 lb FC tippet
Flies	Various soft hackles	0 fish
	3” black intruder w/ dumbell eyes	2 half pounders, 15-18 inch
	2" bead head black rabbit strip leech	nips/plucks
	Size 8 blue steelhead spider	1 half pounder
	Various hairwing steelhead	nips/plucks only

Arrived late due to the car accident mentioned in a previous post. Started at Paradise Beach and worked the area most of the day. Went to William H. Pond in later afternoon. Never before at this spot, had trouble finding good water. Next time, will park closer to foot bridge and work that side.

Later in the morning, I decided to try something I hadn't done before. Put a heavy and good sized fly (3” intruder with dumb bell eyes) with 120 grain leader/tip on the end of my 420 gr compact scandi line. Had always used a skagit line for something of this weight. Guess what? It casted as well, if not better than the skagit line. Much to my surprise, 70-85 foot casts were not a problem with great turnover. Next time out, I'm going to try 10 feet of T10. At 100 grains, it will be a slightly lighter tip, but grains will be spread out differently. Want to see how smoothly it goes. If successful, I'll keep upping the grain weight to see exactly where it all falls apart.

Overall, this was a decent day on the water. I was a little frazzled from the excitement that took place in the morning. Won't be fishing next week because of Thanksgiving. Hope everyone has a good Holiday.

Side Swiped

Sometimes we get so excited to go fishing, we forget what can be one of the most important things. How to get to and from the river safely. So you can make it back to your family.

Yesterday, while driving down Hwy 80 to the American river. I was minding my business in the middle lane when peripherally I saw a truck approaching on my left side. He was VERY close to me. If my window was down, I could of easily touched the side of his vehicle. I naturally started moving to the right to avoid him and before I knew it, he moved right into me. Side swiping me and nearly causing a huge accident at 70 mph. Remember those action movies where a guy tries to run another guy off the road by smashing into the side of him? That is what this felt like. My only conclusion was that the guy had fallen asleep at the wheel and drifted into my lane. Then when he awoke, he jerked the wheel the wrong way- smashing into me. Luckily I was moving to the right, minimizing the impact.

I heard glass shattering and the crunching of metal. I slowed and started moving to the shoulder. Guess what? The guy wasn't about to stop. He kept going. I was furious! I floored it and followed him flashing my high beams. At the same time I was on the cell phone with 911.

The guy finally pulled over about 2 miles down the highway. I stayed on the phone with 911 in case he wanted to do something violent. It was about 4:30am and no one seemed to be getting off this exit in case something went wrong.

Long story- somewhat shorter. The guy had no insurance (does anyone have car insurance in this state? Pathetic!! Seems like the police don't care either!!) A CHP officer eventually showed up about 1/2 hour later after the guy had left (he was in a hurry to get out of there). Somehow or another, my car only suffered damage to the mirror. The breaking glass was his side window and the crunching must of been my beefy SUV mirror grinding his car as he moved into me.

I consider myself lucky that nothing worse happened. I was furious. But more importantly, I'm around to see my wife and son. Just wanted to say. Be careful out there.

BTW, I kept driving and although was late arriving to the river, I did fish the entire day. How's that for commitment?

Somewhere along the line..

I forgot what the purpose of this blog was. It was originally intended to be a journal of my fishing trips so I could revert back to it in order to remember what worked and what didn't. After re-reading some previous entries, it's obvious it isn't really all that helpful for me.

So, I'm going to try a new format. Starting with the next report (hopefully later today), I'll try to put more useful information in a more organized manner. We'll see how that goes.

Another Yuba Report

Went to the Yuba last week. Arrived much too early, so I took a short snooze in the car before walking to the water somewhere below Hwy 20.

This would mark my longest walk along this river. I'm not sure how many miles I covered throughout the day, but it felt like a million. Saw some new water that had plenty of salmon, a few half pounders, and some large trout. I did manage to catch a couple smaller bright fish in the morning that took a size 8 hair wing steelhead fly.

That was about it. It was quiet almost the entire day after the productive morning. Only a few short lived hookups here and there. Despite seeing a few bright fish leap 3 or 4 feet out of the water, it was non eventful. Still, you can't beat a day on the water.

Next up? The American.

Trinity Report

What better way to celebrate the fall steelhead return than a trip to the Trinity?

A few days ago I arrived somewhere upstream of Junction City before 4am. It was a deserted area that generally is devoid of people. I sat and mostly stared at the sky until the sun started to rise. What an incredible view. Thousands and thousands of stars. You certainly see nothing like that where I live, or where I normally fish for that matter.

It was a brisk 33 degrees by the time I geared up. I walked about 20 feet to get to the river to find a decent riffle. After stepping through, I had no takers. Not long after, I decided to move down river towards JC and try a different spot. Again, I made my way through several riffles and holes to get only one bump. The fish were no doubt in the deeper sections, but these were not very good for someone swinging a fly.

Again, I packed my bags and moved further down stream. After another couple of hours of swinging through some runs, I found this rock poking about 2 feet out of the water. It created a nice pocket behind and in front. I'd guess the water was about 7 feet deep immediately behind the boulder. A little deeper than what would be ideal. Casting across stream would of resulted in not being able to get deep enough. My game plan was to cast directly from above and at a slight angle, dangling the fly below. Allowing the size 8 soft hackle to drift in the currents and get pulled down by the hydraulics.

This was an ideal spot. Upriver of this boulder was some very fast/rough water. Below was another section of slightly less rough water. This rock was the first good resting spot for steelhead after coming up through the riffles. Because of its depth and relative safety, it also served as holding water if they wanted to stay longer. Simply said, it just looked good. So I wanted to make sure to cover it thoroughly.

That size 8 green/blue soft hackle with green body was just slowly moving in and out of the seams. The blue collar moved well and was perfect for this water. Just enough wire ribbing weight helped to sink it.

Hatchery Hen took this Size 8

I dropped the fly in front of the rock, dancing it around in the soft cushion. On one of the swings, I had a deep tug. Big fish! I wasn't expecting it, and I probably pulled the fly right out of his mouth. I calmed myself down and repeated the cast. Nothing. I tried several times and switch flies out. Still nothing.

After going back to that original blue soft hackle, I tried another time and received a couple of pecks. Probably from one of the smaller fish that were in the area. Since I had covered the front of the boulder well, I now worked on the seams to the far side. After repositioning myself, I sent the fly down both sides in the soft/hard water edge. No takers. Finally, I put the fly well behind the rock and slowly stripped it through the soft water. Gave it several periods of rest to let the fly float around in the current.

At some point, I felt this very slight hesitation in the line. My thought process is to slowly raise my rod tip on any hesitations or light pecks to see if anyone is home. I only set the hook if I feel the weight of a fish or pulling of line. In this case, after raising my rod I felt resistance. Not long after, the fish felt me pulling and went in the other direction. I set the hook, causing the fish to take a short run.

At this point, I didn't know how big or little the fish was. However, about 10 seconds there was no doubt. I tried to pull in some line when she came charging towards me. As it was, I had a coil of line laying in the water at my feet. I quickly reeled it up so that I could fight her on the reel. After I accomplished that, I started to pull the fish who was now holding tight behind the rock. She didn't like the tugging and went even deeper, bending my rod completely over in the process. Upon seeing this, it started to dawn on me that this could be a big one.

I tried to pull her out of the hole and up towards the surface. I caught a glimpse of her and then immediately saw her take off downstream pulling about 20 feet of line out. It was by no means a brutal run. What she lacked in putting distance between us, she made up for with deep pulls that bent my 6-weight over, almost to the butt.

I didn't want to lose this one. The bigger fish I've hooked lately have all gotten away. She wasn't jumping out of the water or making blistering runs, so I had an easier time of it. After about 5 or 10 minutes of getting her close to only have her bolt for another run, I finally tailed her.

This hatchery hen measured 28 or 29 inches with a nice girth. Definitely a healthy fish and pretty darn bright to boot.

It was only 3pm, but I considered quitting for the day. I actually felt satisfied. However, instead, I opted to go and explore some new water. I traveled a ways down river and after having no luck, came back up river to finish the day almost where I had started. I had a couple more very strong grabs and a couple of short lived hookups. But no more steelhead to my hand. I did catch at least 10 trout in the last evening hatch. They were no more than 15 inches in size, but put up a good fight.

It was a great day and catching a good sized fish made the long drive home more tolerable.

Lower Stan Report

The week before last, I made a trip to the Lower Stan. I'm sure you already figured that out if you read my other recent posts. So, here I am, late as usual with the official trip report.

Got to the dam before sunrise. So early in fact, I took a little snooze in the car. Luckily, I awoke before it got too light out. After suiting up, I went straight down to the river and started casting.

The river was up slightly from the last time I was here. Water temp was in the upper 50's. No sign of fish feeding on the top, but I knew they were down there. Just had to find someone willing to take a chance.

As reported in a previous post, I didn't see any salmon. Not that I was fishing for them, but I would like to see a better return. Unfortunately, it didn't look very good.

Had a three fly rig on with various soft hackles up front and a small hair wing steelhead fly as the anchor. Other than a couple of 10 inchers, it was quiet. I wandered down to where the water spills through a tight space and dumped into a slower section. If you are familiar with this area, you know what I'm referring to. For me, this is strictly a hang-down presentation. Let out some line and the current pulls it out the required distance. After letting it fish for a few moments, I'd start stripping it in. At one point, I had a really strong grab. The fish felt very solid and may of been a biggie. Unfortunately, he wouldn't commit and I couldn't get him to come back.

After a couple hours, I headed to the dam. Caught a few 15 inchers right near the dam. It was a little chilly with the water spraying down on me, so I worked myself downstream to find a bunch of fish feeding. A size 20 fly probably would of matched, but I wasn't in the mood to tie one on. Instead I found similar colors in a size 14, 12, and an attractor 10 for the anchor.

I could feel the line being hit as fish were on their way to the surface for the real deal. They completely ignored my offerings! After nearly slipping and falling into a deep slot, I carefully positioned myself for a down and across cast approx 20 feet over the feeding fish. The idea was that bigger fish were positioned a little bit further downstream where the current was slightly slower. After a few casts, I caught a nice 18 inch trout full of anger. Not more than 5 minutes later, I caught another. This went on for a while. These bigger fish were taking my fly after the hang down, while I was teasing the fly or slowly stripping it back. These fish ignored the fact that my flies were much bigger than the real bugs. In fact, the size 10 with a green color body, that in no way looked like the actual hatching bug, was getting the most attention. Matching the hatch is so overrated. :)

At some point I left the dam for two-mile. If my memory serves correctly, it was around 2pm. I caught some really small dinks and one 15 incher, but it was mostly quiet. Walking far down river till the canyon, I decided enough was enough. The water was just high and fast enough I couldn't find good holding water. I headed back and messed around a little in a few areas before closing up shop.

It was a pretty productive day. Caught around a dozen decent sized fish and a whole bunch under 12". A couple of them were bright with virtually no color. Almost certainly from the ocean. While I may not fish the Lower Stan that much anymore, it almost always makes for a productive day.

My Un-Scientific Salmon Count

While fishing the Lower Stan last week, I noticed a huge difference in the number of Salmon from this time last year. Unfortunately, I did not see a single one. Not to say there weren't there. I could of just simply missed them. However, last year at this time, I saw so many up and down the river, they seemed eerily absent. I can't help but wonder if there was a connection between the lack of fish and that I saw the DFG looking hard for poachers.

Hopefully they are just moving in late and will be here soon.

DFG on the river

I'd just like to say thanks to the DFG for being around the Lower Stanislaus. This is the first time I've seen them out there, and they were aggressively looking for poachers. As I was packing my car to move to another spot, they asked me a lot of questions about who I saw down at the river. It was a good feeling to know that they were there. Hope they show up more often.

Yuba Report

At the last minute, I was able to get away from the daily grind and get a day of fishing in. Based on decent reports, I decided to go to the Yuba.

This was the first time I've been on this river while the upriver of Hwy 20 portion was closed. Thanks to previous scoutings, I've found some excellent runs to fish in. This day was no exception.

I started the morning before it was light out. I waited in my car until the sun came up to avoid twisting or falling down a hill. Eventually I made it to my destination and started fishing. Even though I had the spey rod, I only needed roughly 15 feet of line. I was fishing a slow section off the main current near the bank. Looked fishy enough, but nobody wanted to play. Since I don't believe in sitting around and pounding one spot, I moved on.

Eventually I came to a stretch that I had found on a previous trip. With the low water (around 850 cfs), it was even more attractive looking. With my three fly setup, I put on a small size 14 soft hackle up front, a winged wet size 12 as the middle dropper, and the anchor was a size 8 steelhead fly of the skunk variety. Stepped through the first 20 yards of this run with nothing to show for it. As the current slowed, I started getting bumps and grabs.

Eventually I caught and landed a nice bright 20 inch fish. She took the skunk fly at the very beginning of the swing. I don't remember feeling the grab, but my spidey sense told me that someone was home. So, I set the hook and there she was.

That was the only fish I pulled out of that run this morning. Several other bumps and grabs, but nothing more. I decided to cross stream, which would of been impossible at higher flows and fished a sweet looking spot that produced a bunch of grabs. Unfortunately, I was low on drinking water and a headache was developing. I reluctantly left the fishiest looking spot and probably the best time of day to try and avoid a full-blown migraine.

The long 1/2 hour walk back to the car wasn't fun. However, upon getting back, I was surprised to see it was already noon! Time flew. I decided not to drive anywhere else, but simply walk upriver to another spot that had been productive on a previous trip. On the way there, I saw a group of 15-20 salmon spawning. I sat and watched them for about half an hour. Some of these fish were very good size. It was fun to see the big males chase off the smaller fish. It was a constant game of cat and mouse. What a hard life these guys have!

In my opinion, fishing here would of been a no-no, even if you weren't targeting the salmon. I decided to walk downriver. Eventually the water got fast enough that the salmon were no longer doing their business. I put my line in and started swinging. Nothing.

Eventually I went far enough downstream to get back where I started in the morning. I caught another fish or two in that same run. I stayed until about an hour before nightfall, and decided I'd get closer to my car prior to dark. I didn't want to get stranded out there without a flashlight. I've been through that before, and it wasn't something I wanted to repeat.

One last stop at a run that I had been to before. It is short, but always looked productive. I got a bunch of grabs and hookups that didn't last too long. The fish were being aggressive but non committal. Then, I felt this slight tug and slowly raised my rod to find a fish was on. This was a good fight, it took me a while to bring him in. He wanted to make a few runs and did pull a little line out. But, generally, I don't screw around and try to bring these guys in quick so that they aren't exhausted. This bright female was around 23 inches. A nice way to end the day!

Fall Cleaning

I'm overdue for a fly cleaning/check/reorganization. The last few days I've taken every fly I have (hundreds of them) and looked each and every one over. Firstly, I check to make sure it still looks fishy. Hackles still pointed in the right direction and wings together, etc. If it passes the look-test, I make sure the barbs are removed. Yes, there are a few flies with barbs, or barbs that aren't completely squashed. No matter if the regulations require it or not, I've decided to flatten them all.

Lastly, I'm sharpening all the hook points to make sure they are extremely grabby. I'd rather not lose "the big one" because of a dull point.

This is a time consuming process, but the results are worth it. I know my flies are in good shape and I know what type of patterns need to be re-tied. Not to mention my boxes look much more organized!

Trip Report: American River

My parents have been visiting from out of town, so this report is long overdue. Since my trip up to the Cowlitz in Washington, I've been hitting the American River a few times. I know, I swore I wouldn't go back to this place. However, the proximity is sometimes hard to ignore.

I can't go into details, because frankly, I don't remember any. Next time I need to write about it as soon as I get home. Not a week or two later.

One thing that I do remember, the weather was HOT. Around 100 degrees or so. That didn't stop me from doing a little more exploring outside of the Rossmore/El Manto area. I found some great water all the way from Watt to Upper Sunrise. Although fishing was slow, I caught a few half pounders in the 17 inch range. I used a variety of flies including soft hackles and smaller steelhead flies. All of the fish were caught on the steelhead patterns. Whether they were hairwings or speys.

I don't normally see other fly fisherman using two handers in my neck of the woods. However, I did see quite a few over those days. One of them proceeded to low-hole me on Upper Sunrise. Come on guys, use some common sense!? The other two were friendly and more interested in sitting around and drinking beer than fishing. Which was fine. At least they didn't jump in below me!

While wading around Watt. I found a revolver in about 4 feet of water. I opted to not reach down and grab it. I didn't feel like soaking myself, so it was left there. I called the Sacramento Police Dept, who referred me to the Parks Dept. I described where I found it and I'll assume they went and got it. On a later visit a few days later, I looked for it again and couldn't find it. Hopefully the authorities got it and not some hooligan.

Next week, I'm going to head up to the Lower Feather or Yuba. It will be one of those last minute decisions. I've got a new pair of waders to keep the water out! When the day is over, I look forward to having dry clothes underneath!