Water Clarity Report

Amidst all of the rain we have had in the last couple of weeks I am sure you all are wondering about clarity on the local rivers. I guided the Yuba on Friday and was only expecting about 3-4 feet of visibility with deer creek flowing around 100cfs. When I showed up at the river it was like last weeks storm never even happened. The Yuba was extremely clear and there was about 6 feet of visibility. With all of the rain I am sure that deer creek has to be pumping quite a bit of color into the water but it probably is fishable. Friday the fishing was good but not excellent. We hooked 17 rainbows and landed 10 of them. The hot flies were rubberlegs, copper johns, and small olive caddis patterns. The morning was pretty slow with hardly any bugs on the water. We hooked the majority of our fish after 1PM. The cool thing is that we landed two big yuba rainbows with one going 23" and the other 21". Those big fish really pull on that river.

The clarity on the Lower Sac on Saturday was about 4 feet up in Posse Grounds. The fishing was good and we boated 30+ rainbows on a variety of nymphs from rubberlegs, red copper johns, red headed step child, and flashback pt's. Sunday the story was a whole lot different on the upper drift between Posse and Bonnyview. The water clarity this morning was about 3 feet above Sundial Bridge but only about 1 foot at the 44 bridge. Needless to say the fishing above sundial was awesome. We landed 8 fish from the boat launch to the bridge but after that only 3 more fish were hooked. I ended up rowing off because the water was brown brown! It could have been an epic day if we would have kept the 3 feet of clarity. Oh well. We all know that the rain is much needed. The clarity on the Lower Sac should be back to fishable by the middle of the week.

For anyone interested in fishing I will take $100 off anyone wanting to get guided on the Lower Sac or Yuba on March 1, 2, 4, or 6. A great price for some late winter fishing.

Fish Hard even in the Rain!

Lower Sac Spring Caddis Hatch Around the Corner

With all of the warm weather the north state is getting those fish on the Lower Sac are starting to look for caddis. I was on the river three times last week and each trip the hot fly of the day was some caddis variation. So this means that the caddis hatch is getting close. Each time on the river I would see a handful of caddis fluttering about but not anything a fly fisherman would call a hatch. All I can say is that you want to be on the Lower Sac when that hatch comes off. Last year it was arguably some of the best fishing during the entire year. When the fish start gorging themselves on caddis the fishing can get pretty silly on the river. Currently things are just getting going. Currently we are boating 25+ rainbows on the middle drifts of the river. But when that caddis hatch starts those numbers are going to go way up. The spring caddis hatch should last for about 3-4 weeks. So make sure you plan accordingly to get some time on the water.

The last couple of weeks on the middle part of the river, between Anderson and Jellys Ferry, we have been hooking a stray steelhead about every other day. Actually one of my clients had a treat last week when he hooked two adult steelies in the same day. This doesn't happen very often on the Sac. Especially in the middle of winter. But it looks like it is going to set up like last spring where we hook steelhead all the way through May. It is exciting when you have a chance of hooking a random steelie in the midst of a massive caddis hatch.

Contact me ASAP if you want prime dates for the Sac or the Yuba.

Fish Hard!