The Lower Sac 2/22 - 2/23

Well lets just say that we did some fishing admist another winter storm. It is about time we get somewhat of a normal winter. This rain is going to be great for all of California's and Idaho's water sheeds. Both states need the rain and snow desparetly. Even with the nasty weather we had this weekend we managed to find some fish feeding. I dont know if it was the darker conditions but my last two days on the water really got those big rainbows eating. If you read my last report we were catching lots of little guys, but the last couple of days it seems like every fish was between 16''-20''. Both days we hooked over thirty fish. It has been a while since I have seen all of those larger fish eating heavily like that on a consistent basis. Who says that you can catch fish in the rain? As long as the wind stays down it seems like the fish on the sac will eat. The patterns of choice were eggs and copper johns. We caught a handful of fish on small baetis patterns with the rainy weather but it seemed like they wanted flies that were larger and brighter. The Lower Sac is still fairly low around 4500cfs and the upper river is most likely going to explode with spring caddis during our next stretch of warm weather. For those of you who dont have dates booked get ready because it is just a matter of time before the Lower Sac turns on fire. I have Feb.29, March 3, March 14, and March 30 available for those of you that want to get in on the spring caddis bite!

Tight Lines,
Ryan Johnston

The Lower Sac 2/16 - 2/19

Well lets just say that the Lower Sac went off the last four days. It was some of the best fishing that I have seen out there since the egg bite in October. At times there were spots that were just plain silly. The fish were being supper grabby and the majority of the time your indactor was slamming under the water. Three of the four days we hooked over 50 fish and the fourth day we managed to do 30. Most of the fish we were catching were a little bit on the small side for the lower sac with the majority of them going between 10''-14''. However Eric Roesser, a student from Chico State, got a pig rainbow that went 22''. It doesn't get much better than hooking 50 rainbows and landing a 22'' toad. Last time Eric and his dad fished with me Eric got a 23'' steelhead. I guess he has got the big fish mojo going. Im not exactly sure what turned the fish on because there were not many bugs out. My best guess is that the fish were really active due to the first true warm weather of 2008. It is pretty nice when you are out in the middle of February and it is 70 degrees on the water. The water is still pretty low on the sac with flows around 3500 cfs but at these flows most of the upper river sets up pretty nicely. The fish were on all kinds of different bugs from small caddis, small mayflies, big stones, and eggs. You just had to figure out what was on their menu for the particular day you were out there. If you are interested in doing some fishing I have February 29 and March 2 still available. Tight Lines!

The Yuba River on 2/11/08

I had the opportunity to guide Steelhead Steve and Jarrett Black on the Yuba yesterday. The river was a little off color yesterday with about 3 feet of visibility. However it did not seem to affect the fishing because we had a fairly successful day. We boated 12 rainbows and lost about 10 others. We had a latter start time and got on the water at 10:00AM and we were off around 5:30. Most of the fish we caught came on San Juan Worms and Stones, but we did get the random fish on baetis and pmd nymphs. There were quite a few Skwala's out with a handful of March Browns. So we were able to raise 5 rainbows throwing Skwala and March Brown Dries. With this warmer weather I would expect the hatches to get better from here on out. With that said though the color of the water will probably remain the same with as much snow is still up in the mountains that will pump off color water into Deer Creek. So it looks like another early spring is upon us. Get those shorts out and get ready to throw some dries! If you want chances at nypmhing, throwing dries, and stripping streamers than the Yuba is the river for you. It is truly a special place. If you are interested I have a few prime dates left to go and hit this Northern California gem.

The Lower Sac on 1/31/08 and Feather on 2/1/08

Well lets just say that the last two days on the river did not go as planned. I had Ron Lustig out to do some fishing from Nashville, TN. The plan was to do some winter trout fishing on the Lower Sac. As most of you know the Lower Sac is a fairly dependable bet during the winter months with fish eating eggs and baetis. Well it wasn't so dependable yesterday, but the main reason was due to the storm. I was planning on floating from Posse grounds down to Bonny twice, but we only managed to get down it once. We started fishing around 8:30 with about 2.5 feet of visibility. By 9:30 the visibility was down to 1.5 feet. By 10:30 the visibility was down to .5 feet. So needless to say that the river blew out. We did manage to get a single fish on an egg pattern right off the posse riffle but that was the only grab to be had. I haven't had a morning that tough on the Lower Sac for over a year. I must admit that it was quite the humbling process.

So when the two of us got to the boat launch we had to figure out our game plan for the following day. The options were to fish the Lower Sac again the following day even though it probably wouldn't clear (not a good idea), go fish the Yuba which is also blown out (not a good idea), or go fish the Feather really late into the season (also not the best idea). Well we decided on the Feather since it was the only river that I guide which is running clear. It wasn't a horrible day out there but very tough. Ron managed to hook one nice adult steelhead and one half pounder. Ron hung in there and I am sure his arm is going to be sore from all of the casting that he did. So I guess you could say that it was another humbling day. Well I think I have had all of the humbling that I need for a while. Hopefully we will get a little break from the storms to let the rivers rest. For those of you that are interested in throwing some casts this winter I still have a handful of availabilities for February.

Tight Lines from a humbled man!