The Lower Sac on 3/29 & 3/30

I had the opportunity to guide a couple of my regulars from Sonoma on Friday and Saturday last weekend on the Lower Sac. Both days we decided to float from Anderson River Park down to Balls Ferry. Both days saw significant hatches of PMD's, Baetis, and March Browns. The funny part of both days was that the fishing was better when there were less bugs out. I really couldn't figure out what the fish wanted with all of the different mayflies. The river fished a little above average and we were hooking around 35 rainbows a day. The hot bug was a coffee brown rubberleg. Friday there were a few special moments that dont happen every day on the Sac. We managed to get three rainbows on PMD dry fly patterns in the middle of the day. The real big surprise was the 26.5'' steelhead that we managed to catch on the last run of the day. I have never caughten a steelhead that late in March. When I saw that fish I got really excited. It really makes me want to get the chance at some more steelies but the odds are that is going to have to wait until next fall. I guess we will have to see if there are any left in April.

For those of you who are interested in fishing the Lower Sac of the Yuba I had two cancellations for April 18 and 19.

Yuba and Lower Sac Report 3/7-3/9

I had the opportunity to guide Friday, Saturday, and Sunday this past weekend. The weather was beautiful with these warm 70 degree days that we have been having in northern California. I think that spring is finally upon us. It is time to shake off those winter blues and go check out your favorite trout stream. It wont be to long now until trout opener. Those of you who are waiting to fish all of the upper streams make sure not to miss out on the good opportunities that some of our tailwaters have to offer. For those of you interested in doing a little fishing I only have a few days left. My availibiilities are March 30, April 9, April 23, April 30, and May 9. Here is a little summary of my last three days on the water.

The Yuba River on Friday was tough. Since the weather was warm I was expecting some great hatches out on the water. The entire day I only saw a handful of pmds, march browns, and skwalas. Nothing was coming off on anything of what I consider a consistent basis. Flats where there are usually lots of rising fish only had a single sporadic riser here and there. So with the lack of bug activity it was hard to get the fish to eat. In total we hooked 10 fiesty rainbows and landed 8 of them. Lucky for us we got a couple really nice ones that were in the 18'' range. I wish every fish fought as hard as those Yuba bows. They are hands down the strongest fighting trout I have ever seen.

The Lower Sac on Saturday and Sunday was good. On both days there were decent hatches of spring caddis and it really got the fish eating. Saturday was a lot of fun and I got the opportunity to guide Maggie (junior in high school) and Erin (5th grade) on their first ever fly fishing trip. Both of them did great and caught a handful of rainbows, but Erin out did everybody with her 18'' fish. When you are 11 and your first rainbow you ever catch is 18'' that means there are good things to come in this girls fishing future. I was thoroughly impressed with both of the girls willingness to learn and enthusiam to pull on some fish.

Sunday I had two of my regulars up from Sacramento and we hooked close to 50 fish. The real treat on Sunday was that we ran into two clipped half pounders. One halfpounder was 19'' and the other was 20''. That is the latest that I have ever caughten a steelhead on the Lower Sac. Prior to the ones yesterday the latest I had ever caught one was in the end of January. The Lower Sac is a great river. You truly get spoiled with nubers like the ones we have been having over the last several weeks.

Give me a call if you are interested in doing any fly fishing on the Lower Sac, Yuba, Feather, or Putah Creek.

Tight Lines!

The Lower Sac 3/1-3/3

The Lower Sac was a little up and down this last weekend. I kept hoping that the spring caddis were going to pop, but the wind did play a little havoc on the hatch and our drifts. On Saturday the fishing was pretty average with 20 fish to the boat. The wind blew for about 2 hours in the middle of the day and it really turned off the flats. This time of year the flats can really hold lots of fish as they get into their spring caddis mode. So that was a little disappointing. You know the Lower Sac is a special river when an average day is 20 fish landed in the net.

Sunday was a different story all together. I had one angler who had never fished the Sac and I was excited to show him what a gem the river can be. Just be thankful that you weren't out there because it was brutal conditions and fishing. The wind was blowing 20-25 mph from the time we started until about 4PM. At 3PM my client had only landed 3 fish. With winds like that it is better to spend a day going and flying a kite. However when the wind started to die down the fish got really grabby. From 4PM until about 530PM, when we took off, my client landed 13 really nice rainbows. Getting pounded out there in the wind ended up paying off in the last two hours. All in all my client had a great time, but I am glad he had a little glimpse of what the Lower Sac can fish like.

Again Monday was another story. The weather was warm and the wind calm and we saw our first real nice hatch of caddis come off on the Sac. Lets just say that the Lower Sac went off. We hooked over 50 fish and we actually rose 4 fish on dries. The river is starting to get into its spring trend where the morning is a little slow and the afternoons the bite picks up. The hot flies for the weekend were eggs, stones, and princes.

If you are interested in doing any trips in the next month I have March 30 and March 31 available.

Tight Lines!

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!