Trip Report: Lower Stanislaus

While I enjoy exploring new water, there is something about the Lower Stanislaus that keeps drawing me back. It is safe to say that it is my favorite river. Partly because it is so close, partly because the fishing is so good and the river is so accessible.

Yesterday, I went out once again to the Tulloch Dam Rd and Two Mile Bar for another day of fishing. This time, I brought my switch rod and was able to access sections I've never been able to access before because of difficult casting situations. Needless to say, the day was productive. A total of 6 fish caught with hook ups on more than a dozen fish and numerous bites. One thing that I've noticed with my 10' 8" rod, it is harder to land a fish than my 8 or 9 foot fly rods. This explains why I had such a high hook up rate and low landing rate. Those dozen fish should of been caught, but escaped just out of my reach. By the end of the day, I had the problem more or less solved.

I arrived at Tulloch Dam Rd at 6:30am. Gearing up, I headed straight down to the stream and fished right where the gravel meets the river. The water was higher than ideal situations, but lower than I've seen it on other days. It was at a good level. For an hour or two, I worked my way downstream hitting all the good looking areas. The temp was warming and I decided to head back to the car and remove a layer of clothing. After eating and refilling with water, I went upstream to the second pool and worked my way downstream to where I started in the morning. The two fish that I caught were both under 11 inches and one took a size 18 red sparkle attractor nymph, the other took a size 10 hare's ear soft hackle.

Around noon, I decided to travel down to Two Mile Bar. Not a soul in sight. Well, at least not anybody fishing. One of the first things you notice when walking to the river are all the bright red and yellow ribbons hanging from trees and bushes. I had no idea what they were for until someone later told me they marked fish habitats. It seems that they are in the middle of a fish survey and these markers were part of it. Also of interest was something that happened while I was fishing a quiet section of the river minding my own business.

See anything strange?

While casting, I was focusing on the line and out of the corner of my eye saw something moving in the water. It was big, but I couldn't figure out what it was. The mass was moving towards me and eventually it became clear that a guy in snorkel gear was swimming his way upstream along the banks towards me. He and another fellow were counting fish! He stopped to talk with me and I asked him the questions you'd expect me to ask someone who has been floating up and downstream looking for fish. "Where are the fish and how big are they?" And yes, he did answer me. He let me know where the biggest population of fish were hanging out and their size. I reveal a lot on this blog, where I go and where I fish. Sometimes to a point where people get irritated. I believe sharing information is wonderful and I wish more people did it. However, this information will remain with me. I had no idea that they even counted fish in this manner. To top it all off, these guys looked like they were having fun. Floating down river through the riffles/rapids and then swimming back upstream.

After the excitement wore off, I covered both shores and the various islands of Two Mile from the flats near the wooden bridge down to the rapids a mile downstream. Fish were caught on a variety of flies, mostly size 10 soft hackles. The biggest fish of the day was only 15 inches. He was caught on a size 6 bright green marabousteelhead fly. I swung it in the current and gave it some life by yanking on the line. He took it near the end of the swing. This seems to be the way the Lower Stan works for me. Fish caught on the dangle or right at the end of a swing. Nothing new.

At the end of the day as it was getting dark, there was some sort of hatch coming off. Fish were jumping all around me. They were mostly small fish under 10 inches, but I couldn't resist. I put on the smallest (18) soft hackle I could find and played around. I caught several small fish (that I didn't count as 1 of the 6) before realizing that I was catching too many small ones and not any of decent size. No need to stress out the little guys. So I packed up.

All in all, another 14 hours of fishing on my favorite water. I saw one other guy fishing the entire day. I practically had the river to myself. Except for the snorkel guys, of course.

Trip Report: 14 Hours on the Yuba

Earlier this week, I had another opportunity to slip away for a 14-hour day of fishing. I figured this was as good of a time as any to try a new river, and this week the decision was to go to the Yuba, upstream of the Highway 20 bridge.

Upon arriving at 7am, there was only one car in the parking area. This guy wasn't fishing, but panning for gold. Not something I see very often and I just had to ask whether he actually ever finds anything. As it turns out, he pulls quite a bit of gold out. He spends several days there every month. I had no idea that people still did this. Kind of cool.

I went upstream of the highway 20 bridge and dipped my line in wherever it looked good. The river is pretty wide, approximately 100 feet and up. And I have a feeling it was just filled with trout. In the slower water, I could see them out there close to shore. And if you can see them that easily, they must be everywhere. Despite the numbers, they weren't the easiest fish to catch. A little on the picky side.

Starting off with various size 10 soft hackles on an intermediate sink tip, I finally found one that the fish were interested in. It was a golden dubbing with natural partridge hackle. A bit of red dubbing was mixed in. After a few grabs, I finally hooked a fish completely by accident. I was making an attempt to cross the river, while the line was just dangling below me. The fly was approximately 80 feet downstream and a 15 inch trout latched on when I wasn't paying attention. At first I thought I hooked a rock, but after a few good pulls, I realized a fish was on. I was certainly happy to catch something, but it was pretty bad timing. I was chest deep in some pretty swift water. My feet were barely getting traction on the gravel below me as is. Now with a fish on, I was now trying to deal with it and the current which was trying to push me down river into a really deep section. After turning around and heading back from where I started, I got into waist deep water where I could get good footing. I could now scoop up the rainbow with my hand.

I tried a second time to cross, but it was just too difficult. I didn't want to push my luck, so after getting 3/4 the way across, I turned back and headed upstream. I actually couldn't go very far because of the terrain and the fact I was trying to avoid getting on private property. After an hour or so of casting, I went back downstream. I got out in the river and tried to cross again. Izig zagged as the current pushed me down river trying to find a shallow enough section to cross. I covered about 300-500 yards doing this. A crossing just wasn't going to happen today.

I went back to the car around 1pm and tried the Hammond Grove park. After a while of casting, I didn't get a bite. There were certainly fish in here, but the water was much more attractive at Highway 20. After an hour or two, I decided to go back.

As the day wore on and the light angle changed, I could see into the water better and there were hundreds of fish in this slow section. I tried everything from dries to wooly buggers to big marabou streamers. Fish were following, but I just couldn't get anything to bite. I went through several nymphs of various colors and sizes and still had nothing to show for it. Enough is enough, I went back to my soft hackle box and started trying out various patterns.

I switched to a floating tip since fish were beginning to rise. Time to try a gold ribbed hare's ear soft hackle. It was a size 12 and after an 80 foot spey cast to the opposite bank where a good sized fish was jumping underneath an overhanging tree, I landed an 18 inch rainbow. He gave a good fight and it was a challenge bringing in that much line. Like the many other fish I saw, they were hanging out in 5 or 6 feet of water. It was a border between the shallows and deep.

Before the day was over, I landed one last fish. He couldn't of been more than 15 inches, but gave a decent fight. He was caught on another soft hackle that was a size 10 with a rust colored thread body and a glass bead.

After more than 14 hours of fishing, I landed three fish and had numerous bites. It was a good first trip to the Yuba. I'll be back.

On a side note, the air was filled with smoke from one of the California wild fires. The sun never really came out fully because of this. I consider myself to be in pretty good shape, even so, I felt a little fatigued by the end of the day from the smoke. Just a word of caution.

Cheap Tools

I put in another hour or two of tying steelhead patterns. Managing the large hackles and marabou takes some getting used to. The tangling of these long feathers can get annoying. I discovered a nice little device to control the problem. An old toothbrush. I'm sure this is something a lot of people have been using for their tying. But for some reason, it just never occurred to me.

Despite the fact that my wife now makes fun of me for brushing my flies, it is a great tool that I'll continue to use. It splits up the hackles and spreads everything out nicely.

Fly of the Week #21

I've finally found a little tying time and decided to change things up. In my opinion, steelhead and various spey style flies can be some of the nicest looking ones around. I've always wanted to make them, but have never given it a shot. Not until now.

("Popsicle" - Click for larger image)

This is one of my first attempts. I know, there is plenty of room for improvement! I plan to keep working on them when I get more opportunities. Also, since I'm just messing around right now, these are being tied on the cheapest hooks I can find. When I get better, I'll invest in some nice spey hooks.

("Popsicle" - Click for larger image)

This fly is modeled after the Popsicle. Orange marabou in back, red in the center, and purple up front. Within that mix is just a touch of flashabou. Upfront you'll see some guinea hackle. I've been tying a few other patterns and more will be posted here soon!

Trip Report: American River

My work is slowly returning back to normal. I'm hoping to get more opportunities to get on the water in the next couple of weeks. As a matter of a fact, just yesterday, I skipped out for a long day on the American in Sacramento.

The goal was to try and catch some Shad. Unfortunately, they didn't get the memo. Mother nature must of also missed it and supplied me with a day of insanely bad conditions.

I arrived at Elmanto around 6:30am, quickly geared up and hit river. I immediately noticed that the water was much higher than it was last time I was out a few months ago. Later in the day, a regular verified my suspicion and let me know that they raised the water level over night. Perfect timing! I'm sure the sudden rise didn't make the fish any more eager to bite. Not to mention the incredible amount of debris floating down the river. It was almost like an obstacle course. I spent more time cleaning the hook on my flies than anything else. Not to mention the amount of caught branches, leaves, and huge logs.

The day started off windy and only got worse as it went. I'm not sure how many MPH it was gusting, but I would have a feeling it went past 40 or 50 mph part of the day. It was insane. No wonder I was the only one fly fishing in the area.

After feeling a little uncomfortable with the water level and wind, I went down river past the clay banks. On my way to that sharp left turn, I fished the holes and shallow runs, and actually everything in between. I was rigged up with a variety of bright flashy flies and a few sink tip lines. The strong wind made it difficult to cast very far. It was hard to really cover much of the river. Lucky for me, I had my switch rod and because I wasn't casting over head, it made the wind a little more manageable.

As time went on, my goal became less fishing oriented and more about finding a location that was a little less breezy. That never really happened, so I made the most of the day and pushed on. Around 1pm, I decided to go back to the car and get some food. As I entered the parking lot, I immediately noticed that the guy next to me had his car broken into. I'm told this happens a lot here, I'm just lucky that it wasn't mine that got hit. That was close enough, I decided to go elsewhere.

I arrive at Upper Sunrise a few minutes later and paid my $5 access fee. The wind was even crazier here and because the water was so high, I could barely get my fly out into the current. What a rough day. Next was a drive down to both Watt and Howe to look. I've never been to this area and was curious what I was missing. It didn't look terribly inviting, so I once again drove back to where I started in the morning.

After parking in what seemed to be a safer place, I headed back to the river and tried again. I did actually see a trout that was at least 30 inches. Probably more. He was about 12 feet down, right along the clay banks. I put my line in and managed to get my fly down far enough, but he didn't bite. He did check it out and the other 3 flies I tried. However, that was it.

Now getting close to 7pm, the wind was just getting even crazier. It was easily pushing past 50 mph. I mean, I could barely stand. It wasn't worth the effort anymore. Even if fish were finally starting to break the surface for food. I put in a good 12 hours of fishing and that was enough.

Skunked!

Rod and line testing results

It was nice to get on the water again, even if it was only for a couple of hours. The nearby lake is stocked full of trout, but the real reason for visiting was to try out the switch rod and AFS spey line.

The RIO AFS Outbound has a 37' head with the real loading at the back of the section. The long taper to the front is a lengthy 29'. At the point where the running line starts, the line turns from green to black. A nice easy way to see where the loading point is for the line when spey casting.

The combination worked well. Even if I think the rod could of used a slightly heavier line. This particular AFS was 300 grains. I think something closer to 400 would of done the trick. However, with this weight, I could easily 1-hand overhead cast without any fatigue. This is perfect. One could continue to overhead when they have the room, or zip out line in a spey cast when tight conditions persist or take advantage of what makes this type of casting so special. Less time false casting, and more time fishing.

I was able to easily overhead with 10-20 feet of line out of the rod, the whole head, or anywhere in between. No problem. Shooting line was a breeze and if the head was nearly or completely out of the rod, line would rocket off the tip. The only thing to be aware of, is that you have to slow down a little bit if you are used to 8 or 9 foot rods. This almost 11 footer needs a little extra time.

Spey casting was easy too. It took me a little playing around to figure out where to place my D-loop anchor. However, after experimentation, I could spey cast 70 feet without much difficulty. After a little more time with this combination, I'm sure I could hit 100 feet without problem. The head also allows me to spey short distances too. Something I was a little curious about because of the long taper this line has. In fact, with that 10' RIO versileader on the front, I could cast just the leader and a short bit of line no problem.

Next week will be a trip to the American for some Shad fishing. Hopefully I'll catch some fish and can report on how it performed in that area.

Finally, a morning on the water

Work has been really busy. I haven't had a chance to go fishing in quite a while. Tomorrow morning, I'll have an opportunity to sneak out for a few hours to a nearby lake.

The real reason to go is not even to catch fish (although that would be nice), but to finally try out that switch rod with the proper line on it. A fresh AFS Outbound and some RIO 10' versileaders await. I'll report back on how the rod/line combination performed.

If everything checks out okay, I'll be slipping away next week for some Shad on the American.

Fly of the Week #20

Okay, so my fly of the week is more like fly of the month. Sorry about that. I just haven't been doing a whole of tying lately. This one was sitting around for a while waiting to have its picture taken. So without further ado...

(Click For Larger Image)

This is on a size 12 scud hook and is simply made up of tan dubbing in front and green in back. The hackle is natural colored Hungarian Partridge.

Trip Report: Tuolumne (South Fork)

What a day I was having. Other than losing a bunch of flies, a sink tip line, catching hardly anything, almost losing a flyrod and myself in the process.. I was having a good day.

It was 7:30 by the time I got to the Rainbow Pools. The plan was to just use the restroom and see if I had time to throw the line in. It was getting dark, but I tried anyway. Ended up fishing until after eight. It was so dark I couldn't see my line, if a fish were to get hooked, I hoped he would make it obvious!

Surprisingly enough, I didn't wander very far away from the car. I stopped fishing and felt my way back to the parking spot. By the time I broke everything down and got on the road again, it was 8:45pm.

If you count the Main Toulumne as two rivers (which it really is above and below the Kirkwood Power station), that's four rivers in 13 hours of fishing. Considering I didn't catch much of anything, it was a great day. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Except for maybe that scare on the Tuolumne.

Trip Report: Tuolumne (Main) (Round 2)

As I left Cherry Creek, I wasn't sure what I was going to do next. It was only 5:30 or so. I had a couple hours of fishing time left! My thought was to go to the South Fork of the Tuolumne and see if my luck would change.

On my way out of the area, I had to pass over the Main Fork of the Tuolumne again. The bridge is downstream of where I was earlier in the morning. I stopped the car and looked out. Below the Kirkwood power station, the water was thundering out. It was deep and fast. The signs warning you not to enter the water were plentiful. I decided to try it anyway. This was a perfect chance to try out my new second hand grip on my fly rod. The plan was to attach a heavy sinking tip, a heavy wooly bugger and spey cast (again, no back casting room) into the current.

The rod worked like a charm, I was able to fling that heavy setup wherever I wanted. I was surprised. Thanks to the nice even current, there was no need to mend, and you could just swing the fly across, hoping for a bite. Once again, no fish were interested. It didn't really look like a fishy spot. The water was just really swift. It was more of a casting experience than anything.

I worked myself closer to the bridge and was about 10 feet away. I was river left and after the fly is dangling below, I would spey cast back slightly upstream. This worked fine. I decided to do some snake rolls. No problem, everything worked. Then, I pushed my luck.

I was messing around and somehow whipped my line into the bridge structure about 10 feet away and 20 feet up. Luckily the sink tip was wrapped around and not my fly line itself. I knew the fly was lost. But I was really concerned about breaking my fly line.

I had to pull extremely hard to break it off. I was really surprised how much force it took. Lucky for me, the connection on the sink tip failed before my fly line did. I lost the sink tip, but saved the line. Whew.

Just when I thought everything was okay. I didn't know that the top half of my rod had come loose. I brought it around and it fell into the river! Not only have I lost 10 or so flies today, but I was about to lose my fly rod.

The current is really fast here. Lucky for me, the fly rod fell apart upstream of my position and I had about 3 seconds to grab it before it passed me and was lost forever. I scrambled down from the rock I was on and grabbed it. Almost dunking myself in the process. In retrospect, it was really foolish. I saved a rod, but almost fell into water that was well over 10 feet deep and moving at a sprinters pace.

I was lucky! Needless to say, I packed it up and head for the car. But my day wasn't over yet!

Trip Report: Cherry Creek

The day was very familiar to me. It was an almost exact repeat of a trip I had last Summer. If you recall, I went to the Main Tuolumne in the morning and was skunked. Afterwards, I went to Cherry Creek and ended up catching more than 20 fish!

With that day in mind, I was excited to get back to Cherry. Visions of catching multiple fish was getting me excited. Unfortunately, it didn't end up as successful of a day.

This time, I started downstream of the Cherry Lake Rd. bridge. I didn't get any bites or see any fish. I know they were there. It may of just been a little too cold for them, and they were hunkered down in the rocks. Whatever the case, I wasn't pulling them out.

After getting restless, I went upstream about a mile stopping at all the fishy looking locations. This took several hours. Anyone that knows Cherry Creek knows it isn't a big river, and it is filled with boulders that require a lot of hopping around and pin point casting with little or no back casting room.

Lucky for me, I just modified my rod with an extended handle on the butt. This 4 inch handle provides extra leverage for spey casting. I can easily whip that rod around and cast 50-60 feet without any room behind me. Although Cherry Creek is normally smaller than this, the second hand handle came in handy (say that 4 times fast!) quite often. This rod now works great for single hand pin point casting, or two handed spey casting. You wouldn't be able to spey across a large river, but you can easily do it on small to moderate ones. Leave the big rivers for my new 10'8" switch rod. More details on that later.

Hours have gone by and I still haven't caught any fish. It would of been a disappointing day if it weren't so pretty out in the middle of no-where.

The wind was starting to pick up and I was getting a little bruised from scampering around on boulders. I decided to head back downstream towards the bridge. Almost directly underneath the bridge looked to be a perfect spot for trout. The sun was shaded by the overhead structure, and the layout of the stream looked perfect.

I stealthily worked my way into position. Moving quietly through the water, I hid behind some boulders and gently casted into the current. My 9ft leader had a 3-4 foot tippet on and a size 16 soft hackle tied on the end. This setup was gently presenting itself to the enormous trout that lie underneath.

As the fly dangled in the current - directly below me, I felt a tug on my line and pulled a fish to hand. This 3 incher put up an enormous fight! Well, okay, maybe not much of a fight. At least I knew there was a fish in this river somewhere.

Before this happened, I was getting frustrated. Not by the lack of fish being caught, but by the number of flies I was losing. I don't know what was going on, on that day. But flies were just getting hung up everywhere. Cherry Creek snatched at least 4 more from me.

I had run out of water and decided to go back to the car to refuel. Anyone that has been to Cherry Lake Rd bridge knows that the trip to the creek is a very steep climb. With the loose rocks it can be kind of hazardous. After getting to the car, I figured it wasn't worth going back down again. Especially since I wasn't catching anything.

Trip Report: Tuolumne (Main)

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to step out for a day of fishing. I ended up going to three rivers and decided to break up each report into separate posts.

The first stop was the Main Fork of the Tuolumne River. Arriving at 7am, I stepped outside of the car to a brisk 31 degrees air temp. Being the only one around at the day use area near Kirkwood Power Station, I walked upstream to throw the line in.

I didn't have a water temp gauge with me, so I cannot be very accurate, however, I'd guess the water was in the upper 50's and very clear. The flow was almost exactly as it was the time I was here last Summer. What the actual numbers are, I'm not sure.

My first stop was at a deep pool where water was plunging in and the floor was made up of good sized boulders. Plenty of hiding spots for fish. It was too early in the morning to see into the water very far, so I didn't actually see any fish. I can only imagine they were there. After a good 15 minutes I decided to move upstream for better water.

As the sun rose, the air temp warmed. My multiple layers were starting to be too much. After taking off a pullover, I was back in business. I tried various runs, ripples, and pools. No bites. I did see some fish as the morning wore on. They looked to be in the 10-15 inch area and they were feeding. I threw various patterns in trying to get them to bite. No luck.

The fish were mostly in the 5-9 foot depths. Although I did see a few hovering a couple of feet down and gobbling up bugs as they floated by.

This day was the day for losing flies. Here on the Tuolumne, I lost a pin-on fly patch that had 4-6 flies on them drying off. That was disappointing. However, if you keep reading, you'll see that this was only the beginning of losing flies and worse.

Spey O Rama!

Last Friday I went into San Francisco for the "Spey O Rama". It was held at the Golden Gate Fly Casting Club. First of all, this club's facility is amazing. There are three large casting pools, a lodge, and plenty of friendly members.

As a single hand fly fisher, why did I go to a spey casting event? Well, first off, I'm using quite a bit of spey casting techniques in my single handed fishing. Second, I'm considering a jump into switch rods. There were several vendors and custom rod builders at the event. I had ample opportunity to test a bunch of them out and see if it was something I wanted to invest in.

I tried out a Meiser, a Beulah, a CND, and a GLoomis. My favorite was the Meiser. That should be no surprise, they are pretty much considered the gold standard in switch rods. Within a few minutes of casting this 10'8" rod, I was throwing casts past 70 feet. I could of gone much further too, if it weren't for the trees/bushes at the end of this particular casting pool. The Beulah would be my second choice. Although I wasn't able to cast it as far, I think it was mainly due to the line that was on.

The problem with the rods and the particular lines they had on them, is that they were difficult to overhand cast. Even two handed overhead. I'm sure if I explained to the vendors what I wanted to do, they could match a rod and line up for me that would work. However, one shouldn't expect a switch rod to cast as well one handed as your average fly rod.

So will I be buying a switch soon? Well, not exactly. The plan is to buy a blank and build one. It's not as difficult as it sounds. More on that later.

Long Time No Post

I've been quite busy the last few weeks, I just wanted to stop in and say that I'm still alive. I've basically had no time to fish or tie any flies. Everyday life has gotten in the way. I hope to make a few more posts in the next week or so.

Fly of the Week #19

Between preparing taxes and dealing with work issues, I've had very little time for fishing or fly tying. What you see below is just something I took a picture of some time ago.

I've found a little time to tie in the last couple of days, but haven't taken any pictures yet. Hope to get on that soon. I'm also happy to say that I'm going out on the float tube tomorrow morning to try once again to catch a still water trout. Something I'm not having much luck with. I've had to totally change my mindset, and I'm not quite there yet.

Honestly, I don't even remember tying this fly. However, by looking at it, I can tell as much as you can! :) Size 10 scud hook, creme thread, gold tinsel with some various dubbing colors thrown on top. The hackle looks like American Speckled Hen.