Dance of the Caddis

A short video of the October Caddis dancing in the sunlight over the Upper Sacramento River

Upper Sacramento fishable now 01/02/2015

Here is a new set of photos to compare to the last post.

 

Same area – much lower flows.
1040 CFS at the gauge.

I tried to bring to prior photo’s forward and put them up side by side in this post.

Could not get it to go the way I wanted.

I am gonna publish this the way it is now but still see if I can get the pics to display the way I want.  I may edit the post later to fix it.

Here in town it is maybe 3-4 inches higher than normal summer flows.
Got my new 2015 license today so I had to go break it in.
Hit a spot here in town just for a couple of hours today.  Hooked 4 and landed two.

Bottom Picture is my first fish of the new year.

Upper Sacramento at Flood stage 12/11/2014

A few pictures of the Upper Sacramento River in my back yard.
Dunsmuir, CA.

Upper Sacramento looking NE towards Butterfly Ave.

Upper Sacramento Panning Right towards Gillis Ave.

Upper Sacramento looking towards Gillis Ave.

 

Bassin on the Upper Sac

 

As mentioned in the earlier post,  This time of the year I hit the lower end of the river often.

In addition to the Lake Run rainbows,   the Bass fishing is very good.

Mostly I use a sink tip and cast wooly buggers into bassy looking water

Bass water

Same spot

Bringing him in

A small spotted bass

A small spotted bass close up

A little bigger Spotted bass

Nice bass

Sometimes you get a trout even when bassin

The Lake Runs are in.

Who:
Lake runs are a local name for a strain of rainbows that come up out of Lake Shasta into the Upper Sacramento river every year around mid-summer.

What:
16″-18″ rainbow trout are the standard size for lake runs. Some are smaller and a few are bigger. Fish to 22″ are not out of the question.

Where:
Lower end of the Upper Sacramento river. For our purposes that is the water south of the Gibson exit off I-5.
Approx 36 miles north of Redding, California, or about 18 miles south of Dunsmuir, California.

When:
NOW.  The lake runs usually start entering the river by the end of June. By mid July they are well spread through-out the lower river.
The  weather can get quite hot in the mid to late summer.  Temperatures match Redding and can hit 100 by early afternoon.
Also the river water temperature climbs to levels that are not conducive to trout fishing (70+)
This is recommend as  a morning trip.  Best water temps are generally about 8-9 AM.

How:
As usual the most consistent way to catch the lake runs is indicator nymphing.

However at times swinging woolly buggers or soft-hackles is a very effective technique.
Occasionally dry fly opportunities occur.   Dry and Dropper is also effective in the right water.

Wading into place

Hit that spot right there

The Cast

The Drift

The Swing

Fish On

Keep the tip up

The Fish

The happy angler

Winter Fishing on the Upper Sac

Despite the cold and the snow, the Upper Sac is in good shape in the town of Dunsmuir.

And there is at least one big fish in there.

Joe’s Memorial

McCloud River

McCloud River Today 04/28/11

Took a drive over to Ash Camp and the Upper McCloud today to check the water levels:

Spillway

Spillway pool

Ash camp beach

Looking upstream at ash camp

Hawkins creek upstream

Hawkins creek downstream

Hawkins creek pool

PCT bridge upstream

PCT bridge downstream

Keep in mind that all of the above pictures are above

Hawkins creek so the water at Ah-Di-Na will be bigger.

On to the Upper McCloud

Only looked at the water by Lower Falls

Lower Falls

Lower Falls

Upper McCloud kayak put-in

Upper McCloud upstream of kayak Put-in

Upper McCloud lower flat

White Mountains so far

Salt River Canyon

Heading up to the mountains

North fork White River

North fork White River

North fork White River

little Rainbow

Apache Trout

Apache Trout

meadow Stream

meadow1, originally uploaded by flyfishingguide.