Don’t like the weather, wait a while it will change.

Wow, a little over a week ago, we were in a heat wave and getting into the 90’s. Talk about a change.

Weather today was cool and cloudy with a bit of rain. Temps have dropped dramatically, making it nice to have a good rain jacket on. Next two days are suppose to the coolest with temps in the high 60’s to low 70’s. Gonna stay cloudy all week they say, but it will warm up by the week-end.

Absolutely the best weather for fly fishing.
Yep, cool and cloudy, a little rain, add a nice hatch and it can provide all day dry fly fishing. Went on a little scouting trip today with Wayne Eng, another guide up here in Dunsmuir. We were looking at water on the Upper Sac. While this was not primarily a fishing trip I could not resist throwing a size 8 royal stimmy around.

Rose about 20 fish but did not land any. On purpose. I would drop the rod tip on the take, so that I did not hook the fish.

Here while back I was putting a report on the NorCal board and I referred to a scouting trip I had taken, A fellow asked me what the difference was between a scouting trip and a fishing trip. Purposely not hooking the fish is one of the differences, but mainly a scouting trip is more about looking at water, checking access ( it is fairly embarrassing for a guide to not be able to find the out trail when fishing a reach of his home water , and seeing what bugs are around, Of course you gotta throw a few casts to be sure the bugs you think will work,  do work.  And occasionally a scouting trip will degenerate into a fishing trip, especially when fish are eating big dry flys.
There was a mayfly hatch about 2:00 PM. I did not get a good look at the bug because I could not get my hands on one, but I have been seeing Callibaetis, and what I am calling a Slate Wing Olive on the river the last few days. Whatever it is, a Parachute Adams works just fine. Size 14 or 16.

The golden Stoneflys are out well now. The ones I am seeing now in town are the smaller of the two (?) goldens that occur on the Upper Sac. About a size 8 and the usual burnt orange body color. Recalling those yellow colored stones I was seeing early this summer, I am certain that the one in town now is a different species.
This cold weather may slow them down some. I have seen years when a cold storm like this will completely wipe out the goldens for anywhere from a few days to a week, but usually more hatch out and they return. Anyways for the last few days the fish here in town have been on the big flys very well and that should continue for several more weeks.