Fall Fishing Update

This has been an interesting month. Typically it is easy to figure out the best fishing this time of year. Do you want tons of grabs or roll the dice and try to find some steelhead? This is the question that typically answers itself in October. However this month it has been some what of a head scratcher. Read my thoughts and outlooks below. Hope this helps you to figure out where to go next week.

Lower Sac: The fishing on the Sac has been good but not great. This fall our numbers on trout have been down. Most days right now we are landing 20-25 trout. The egg bite is slowly still progressing and is usually better on overcast/rainy days. However the one bright spot for the Sac has been the size of the rainbows. Take yesterday for example. Just in the afternoon we landed 3 20" fish, 4 19" fish, and 3 18" fish. For the pure size of the trout it really doesn't get any better. So the name of the game has been doing a short float in the morning when the fishing is tight and then heading back up river to Posse grounds once the fishing picks up in the afternoon. The last three weeks the afternoon has been much better than the morning. Hot flies have been eggs, tan pupahs, tan birds nest, micro mays, and Hogan's S&M. I would expect the Lower Sac to stay status quo for the next couple of weeks. However those of you looking to do some steelhead fishing things should improve on the lower stretches of the river. Expect the pressure on the river to start decreasing as people move over to the Trinity.

Feather: The Feather is continuing to progress nicely. There are still tons of salmon spawning in the river. But even more exciting than that is there are still salmon in the deep water moving up. The next month on the Feather should be really good. I guided 2 half day trips on the river this week and each day we saw a mix of half pounders and adults. Monday we hooked 8 fish and Thursday we hooked 7 in about 5hours of fishing. Most of the steelhead that are in the system are between 18-23". However there are a few big fish still being caught. I have yet to go down to High Flow but will venture down there this week. The hot flies have been eggs and eggs. Every fish that I have hooked in the last four trips on the river has been on an egg pattern.

Yuba: I don't have the best information on the Yuba as I have not been over in three weeks. I keep hearing rumors that there are salmon in the lower stretches of the river by Hammond Grove. If you go over there try eggs and small may fly nymphs. This river is going to stop fishing once we get into the dull drums of November. So don't have huge expectations if you head out to the Yuba. Things will pick up again in December once the winter run of Salmon start and there is less pressure on the water.

Well........that is about everything that I have seen. Hope this info helps you out. Get excited because the first good steelhead fishing of the year is just around the corner. If you are looking for some last minute openings I have November 9,17,22-23, and 28-30 available. See you out there.

Fish Hard!

Cancellation this Saturday

For anyone interested I just had a cancellation for this Saturday. Right now the Yuba is fishing really good for trout. So that is probably where you will want to go. The last couple of days out there have been impressive with 30+ hookups on great fish. Actually yesterday is the best trip I have ever had out there. If you want to go out email me ASAP at ryan@rjsflytrips.com.

Tight Lines!

Yuba & Lower Sac Report

Well I am finally back on the river. It has been a nice three weeks off of catching up on overdue Cast Hope work and sleeping in. It is nice being able to get up around 8AM each morning. Not to many more days of that left until Thanksgiving. The good news is that the fall is quickly approaching and the signs of the first salmon have been spotted on both the Yuba and Lower Sac. I was on each river once this last week. Here is a detailed report of what I saw on each.

The Yuba fished well.......my clients hooked 20+ rainbows and landed about 15 for the boat. Pretty typical day on the Yuba. It seemed like the morning and the middle of the day fished the best. The fishing seemed to tighten up in the afternoon around 3PM. What was crazy is that one of my clients had two fish on the same nymph rig twice during the day. We never landed both trout. It seems like this happens periodically throughout the year but rarely do we land both fish. In 7 years of guiding have only landed both twice. The good news is that I saw about 30 salmon swimming around in the deeper water. So in about 1-2 weeks we should start to see our first salmon on redds. The hot flies were eggs, fox pupah, small pheasant tails, and copper johns.

The Lower Sac was a different story as compared to the Yuba. I had a Cast Hope trip there on Thursday and I decided to do a short float from Posse Grounds down to Aqua Golf. We fished from 10AM till 3PM. The morning was brutal!!!! We didn't even hook our first fish until noon. The fishing was so tough we pulled over underneath the Sundial bridge to pick some blackberries. I thought this would keep the youngster entertained for a while. After some blackberry picking and eating lunch the fishing turned on. The fish started to eat around 1PM and for the rest of the day it was pretty typical Lower Sac. The hot flies were tan birds nest, fox pupah, and Hogans S&M.

I will be on the water 6-7 days a week through the end of October so I will try to update my blog once a week to keep everyone in touch of current conditions.

For those of you looking to do some fishing my October is completely booked. However now is the time to book prime steelhead dates for the Feather and Lower Sac. I currently have Nov. 1-6 and 8-11 available. These are the two best weeks for steelhead fishing on both of these rivers.

Tight Lines!

Last South Fork Update

The South Fork has finally hit the dull-drums of summer. This typically hits about the first week of August but like everything else this summer we are about 3 weeks behind schedule on our hatches and weather patterns. The PMD hatch is pooping out and the hoppers have not started yet so the fish don't have a lot to be excited about. Needless to say we are really having to work for the grabs and those fish are becoming little picky snobs.

Currently there are no hot drifts in the river. All of the sections are fishing about the same. The upper and canyon stretches have small windows of PMD fishing in the afternoon. While the lower still has a few golden stones and the random hopper to entice the fish. I saw my first hopper two days ago. So that should reignite the river for a couple of weeks once we see enough of them. The last week I have been bouncing back and forth between the upper canyon, lower canyon, and lower sections of the river. Lots of fish between 12-18" being caught but no real big dogs of late. The hot bugs have been para-hoppers, Lawsons Pink PMD cripple, rusty spinner, and the lightning bug.

Last Sunday I got the chance to go fish with a couple of guide buddies of mine from the Lodge. We took my friends jet boat down to Tilden on the main snake. This is the land of big fish. Not lots of grabs but the ones you get are good. Between three of us we hooked 10 trout and landed 6 of them. We had 4 rainbows between 20-21". No monsters that day but the video on my blog says it all.

The good news is that I am coming home in 7 days. I am excited to take a couple of weeks off before the grind of the fall starts. For those of you interested in fishing the Lower Sac, Yuba, and Feather this fall contact me ASAP for prime dates. I still have October 25-28, 31 (Sunday) and November 6-7 (Saturday & Sunday) available. These are prime dates for either the Lower Sac or Feather.

I hope you are all doing well.

Tight Lines!

South Fork Snake (ID) Report & August Hoppers

Well......Once again it has been a slow start to our fishing on the South Fork of the Snake here in Irwin, Idaho. Currently the river is still high at 16,000 CFS and a frigid 52 degrees. With the high and cold water our hatches have been delayed by a couple of weeks. That means no dry flies yet. The name of the game has been nymphing. The fishing has been fairly average the first couple of weeks with most days landing 25-30 trout per boat. The hot flies have been rubberlegs, San Juans (pink & red), and any small baetis nymph. The last week there have been lots of rainbows and browns caught. Not to many cuttys yet as they are starting to finish their spawning season. Right now the best fishing has been on the Lower Stretches of the river (ie: Cottonwood to Byington & Byington to Lorenzo).

The good news is that yesterday I saw my first Salmon Fly of the season. So get ready because the S. Fork is days away from blowing up. Big Dry Flies are on the horizon. In addition to the big bugs we are starting to see more Green Drakes each day on the river. So I have to assume by the middle of next week it will be time to put the indicators away and string up those dry fly rods.

I also wanted to mention that the word out here in the Rockies is that there is going to be a huge infestation of hoppers this summer. Fish & Game are calling for one of the largest hopper hatches that they have seen in years. If that forecast holds up we could have some ridiculous fishing this August. So get excited any of you that are making your way to Idaho, Montana, or Wyoming this summer. Gotta love throwing hoppers against undercut banks.

Lastly I wanted to finish my post with an awesome fishing story. Last week I guided Daniele and her husband Bart for 6 days on the S. Fork. All week Daniele was catching the largest fish of the trip. So naturally Bart was excited and frustrated all at the same time. Well the last day of the trip Daniele laid it on thick with some great big fish mojo. Her last day of fishing on the upper resulted in her catching a 19" rainbow, 20" brown, 21" brown, and 22.5" brown. It was awesome watching her pull in big fish after big fish. What a way to end the trip! Check out the two photos!





For those of you that want to come out here check out the Lodge at Palisades Creek. Also people are starting to call about CA dates in the fall so you will want to start figuring out those calendars to get in on prime dates!

Tight Lines!

I'm Still Alive

Well.......It has been a while since my last post. Life has been really busy with Cast Hope, Guiding, and Planning for my 4th Season on the South Fork. The good news is that life is back to normal. Cast Hope had an awesome 1st Annual Benefit and Auction on May 22, 2010. There was a great turnout with over 100 people showing up at Lelands for a great cause. Plus we made some money as well. All of the money raised is going to help get youth on the water fly fishing. If you were unable to make it to the 1st annual hopefully we will see you out there next year.

Now I am looking forward to taking off to guide my fourth season on the South Fork of the Snake River in Idaho. In one week I will be leaving those deared indicators of the Sac, Yuba, and Feather and trading them in for big Salmonfly dries. But before I do that there is more guiding to be done here in CA.

Alright enough about me you say..........What is going on with our local rivers? Well here is what I saw this week:

Lower Sac: The Sac continues to fish well even with the high water. Currently the river is at 15,000 CFS. It took the fish a couple of days to adjust to the high water but now they are back on the feed again. This last week it seems like the majority of the guides out have been focusing on the river from Bonnyview down to Balls Ferry. It is really easy to do these longer drifts now because there is current everywhere and you get pushed down river much faster. The key to finding fish has been fishing the softer water on the edge of the riffles. I have been getting very few fish in the flats. Most of the fish seemed to be grouped up in the slower tailouts and runs. The hot bugs have been rubberlegs (8), king princes (16), tan birds nest (16), flashback pheasant tail (14), and mercers epoxyback pmd (16).

Yuba: Well currently the Yuba has BIG water with the flows at 6,000 CFS. I was lucky enough to guide it this week when the water was still at 3,200 CFS. The fishing was really good with the spring like conditions that are continuing to hold on. Like the Lower Sac most of the fish we caught came in the softer edges of the riffles. It seems like the fish were trying to hold up in the softer water just outside of the major current. I found fish in all of my regular spots. The hot bugs were the Foxy Stone (12), Red Copper John (16), and Olive Fox Pupah (16). The dry fly fishing was almost non-existent. But then again I missed the prime caddis time as we were off the water by 4PM.

Feather: I have not been on the Feather for over a month now. But I am hearing rumors that there are still some spring steelhead to be caught. Talking to another guide who fished it last week he said that they hooked 11 fish and three of them were over 20 inches. Now this is second hand information so take it in stride. So the Feather sounds like an option as well. It might be a roll of the dice this late in the season but it sounds like fish are still moving into the system with this late rain we are getting. Plus if you get a big boy then it was well worth your time.


That is all of the info I got. Still some good fishing to be had in the valley as long as temperatures stay in the 80's and 90's. Once we start hitting those 100 degree days then time to start hitting your favorite mountain streams (assuming they are not blown out from the snow).

Hope this helps.

Tight Lines!

Hot Spring Fishing Continues

Well we are getting to the end of April and there is more rain coming this week. Can you believe that it is going to be in the high 50s? At least we are getting some water for the years to come. Since we have been having a cooler year this means that our spring fishing is going to persist through the middle of May. Those more typical summer fishing will not start showing up for another month. This is great news because right now the fish are still really grabby. The last couple of weeks I have been primarily on the Lower Sac with a handful of day on the Yuba. Below you can find what I have been seeing on these rivers.

The Lower Sac has been fishing really good if you don't get stuck on the river during a major flow change of 1,000+ cfs. Currently the river is at 6,500 cfs. I have been living on the Anderson sections of the river from Sac RV/Anderson River Park to Balls Ferry. Most days right now we are boating 30+ rainbows. A lot of the fish we are getting are between 14-16" with a handful of shots at bows 18" or larger. Actually today we hooked and lost about a 5-6lb steelhead. Another big fish gets away. I'M PRETTY SURE THAT IS THE STORY OF MY GUIDING CAREER! LOL! The hot bugs have been rubberlegs, yellow microspawn, king prince, and prince nymphs. Over the next 2-3 weeks expect the fishing to remain consistent. As the flows increase the fish are going to start moving. I'm getting excited because this means soon we can start fishing more of the clay down on the lower drifts.

The Yuba is starting to get back to its normal self. Most days we are hooking 15-20 rainbows. The dry fly fishing has tightened up this last week. Not as many fish rising in the flats. Currently the bug life has been some sporadic hatches of pmds, march browns, baetis, and yellow sallies. But it seems to me that the transition to caddis as the main food source has begun. I saw a lot more caddis this week than I have all spring. So as the weather gets warmer the later part of next week the caddis fishing should start to get really good. For those of you wanting to stay late in the day you should be rewarded with some decent dry fly fishing. The hot bugs this last week has been San Juan Worms, Copper Johns, Hogan's S&M, and Olive Pupah.

Well for those of you that want to get out the first couple weeks of May I have some prime openings. May 3, 4, 5, 11, 13, 17, & 18. All of these dates should be great for some fishing on the Lower Sac or Yuba. Let me know if you want to get out.

Tight Lines!