No Longer Just a Trout / Steelhead Guide!!!

BIG NEWS! I am now guiding for SHAD, STRIPERS, SMALLMOUTH, LARGEMOUTH, and CARP. I have recently purchased a 18 foot jon boat with a 90 Honda to push us up and down the Sacramento River just outside of Chico. Thats right no more oars. Now we can run a drift as many times as we want to as there will be no back rowing with this boat. The SHAD are just showing up so those of you that are looking to do a SHAD TRIP the end of May through early June will be the time to get out there. I will be guiding all the warm water species through the summer in addition to my normal trout options of the Lower Sac and Yuba. If you haven't caught a striper or a shad on a fly rod then this summer is the time to do that. I will gladly help assist you in chasing the next local game fish. Below you can find my openings and reports of what to expect in the next month. Shad Openings & Summer Fishing Prime shad fishing is just a week away. Don't miss your opportunity to come shad fishing on the Sacramento River for a night. SHAD Trips are only $225/evening!!! Also to keep on your radar - once the shad leave then the striper fishing is going to be getting good. So once the shad leave come late June then the Stripers are going to be hungry and ready to eat those clousers. And as always the trout fishing will be strong in June on the Lower Sac and Yuba. Shad Trips: May 30, June 3-5, 7, 9-15 Striper/Bass/Carp Fishing: June 22-25, 27-28, July 3-12 Trout Fishing: May 30, June 3-5, 7, 9-13, 22-25, July 3-12 So Many SUMMER Options - Where to GO? The Warm Water fishing on the Lower Sac is just getting started. The best part of the warm water fishing on the Sacramemto is the ability to fish for a multitude of species in a short period of time. Literally in 1 day a person can catch a shad, striper, bass, and carp. Now I will admit that all the stars will have to align to get the Sac slam but if you like lots of variety and some really cool situations then this is the fishing for you. Shad: The Shad fishing is just getting started and within the next week things should really be going strong. There is nothing better than hanging out for a few hours and pulling on a bunch of fish. Shad are also known as the poor mans tarpon as they really pull hard. The beauty of shad fishing is the ability of getting into a good number of fish in the 2-5lb range during a short time period. Stripers: The Striper fishing has also started but will get much better once the shad are gone. With lots of shad in the river there is so much food for the stripers that they fill themselves up on live bait. Once our shad friends leave the middle part of June then its time to get out the 9 weights and throw clousers for these big bruisers. When a striper eats your fly its like a train running into your line and the battle begins. Fish in the 3-8lb range are common with fish in the mid teens a true possibility. Every time striper fishing we have a real shot at trophy fish in the 20lb class. Bass: The smallmouth fishing is going off right now. Just yesterday we had lots of grabs from smallies in the 1-2lb range. A great way to spend a couple hours sight fishing for our hard pulling warm water friends. This is a great option for a couple of hours to add to a shad trip. Yesterday the hot fly was a brown/yellow streamer. As soon as that thing hit the water those fish were all over it. Carp: There are a good number of carp right now in the shallows. Now these are fishable as of right now but will get much more consistent once the weather turns warmer. If you like to sight fish to big picky fish then this is the next frontier. Carp are big mean fish and the Sac has plenty of them in the 10-20lb class. Lower Sac Trout: The Sac continues to fish decent. Right now most days we are landing about 20ish rainbows in the 15-18" class. Right now with the flows around 10K we are spending most of our time between Bonnyview and Balls Ferry. Currently the morning time and early afternoon has been best. There is not much reason to be on the river past 4PM. The Sac will continue to fish well through June. Expect the PMDS and Caddis to continue to hatch strong throughout the summer. The hot flies have been pmds and baetis. It seems like the baetis is fishing best early in the morning and then the pmd starts happening during the middle parts of the day. This is a great time of year to get the kids out. Celebrate the end of another school year with a trip with your son or daughter. Yuba Trout: The flows on the Yuba have stabilized the last 3-4 weeks and the fishing has remained consistent. Right now we are hooking about 20ish fish per day. This is the time of year when the caddis dry fly fishing is going to start picking up in the evening times. So if you are looking to hook some fish on dry flies then now is the time to get out there. The best dry fly window is going to be the last 2 hours of the day. Hot dries are going to be tan x-caddis and ec-caddis.

Insane Fishing

The fishing the last 3 weeks has been ridiculous!!!! Literally every river in the valley is fishing lights out. For those lucky enough to have been fishing in April we have had some huge days. The Lower Sac is fishing phenomenal for rainbows, the Yuba was plain stupid yesterday, and the Feather has been putting out solid numbers of chromers. Beautiful weather and lots of fish is making for some really big smiles! Check out the rest of the post for my limited openings in May and for up-to-date info on the Lower Sac, Feather, and Yuba. This good fishing should remain for through May with these late spring conditions we are experiencing. Great flows and lots of bugs means its time to get out there. I hope all of you are doing well and getting some fishing in. Stay tuned for my next post as there is going to be a change of direction in the near future. For a hint it involves buying a motor boat 2 weeks ago - starting to guide the Sacramento River for STRIPERS, SHAD, LARGEMOUTH, SMALLMOUTH, & CARP!!!!!! - and not going to Idaho anymore. But there is more info to come. Late Spring Openings - Limited Availability If you have been waiting to hit the really good fishing then now is the time to book. The outlook for the next 4-6 weeks is looking strong for both the Lower Sac and Yuba. Big hatches of bugs with really fishy flows are going to make for some awesome fishing through May. Check out my openings below: May: 10, 15-16, 21-22, 24-25, 26 (Sat.), 28 (Memorial Day), 30 The Rivers!!! The Lower Sac has been really good the last couple of weeks. The upper drifts from Bonnyview down to Anderson has been impressive with numbers of fish. Most days we are boating 30ish fish and hooking close to 50!!!!. If you are looking for a bunch of grabs then this is the time and place to be. Lots of hookups on great fish in the 15-18" class. The fishing on this drift has been so good I have not fished anywhere else the last 2 weeks. There have been runs where I am like holy crap I have never caught that many fish in that run ever. It is a really special time of year right now on the Lower Sac. What I'm really excited about is the Yuba is finally fishable again. For 6-7 weeks the flows on the Yuba have been all over the place from 30K-7K so I have been staying away from this river. But finally this warm weather has made the flows drop into the 2,500 cfs range. This is the perfect drift boat flow and the fish were super hungry yesterday. A nice mix of March Brown nymphs and eggs hooked a ton of fish. The dry fly fishing is going to be good once the water clears. With the amount of March Browns out there right now there is going to be some great dry fly fishing once the fish can see the bugs better. The Feather River has had a solid spring with most days resulting in 12ish hookups on bright pissed off fish in the 16-20" range. The name of the game this spring has been to fish the high flow. You tie on a sucker spawn and a red san juan and watch out. Crazy aggressive strikes have been the norm and some of the hottest fish in the valley have been showing off with strong moves and impressive jumps. The window on the Feather is going to be extended this year into mid - late May because of the number of fish that are still in the high flow. So expect the Low Flow Section to be putting out solid numbers of fish throughout the month of May. Nothing cooler than wet wading the Feather for spring steelhead. I love California. Tight Lines. Ryan Johnston

Feather Report Monday, March 12

I guided the Lower Feather for the first time this spring on Monday with good success. I had one angler in the boat and we hooked 10 springers in the low flow area. Here is what I took away from the trip. It didn't feel like there were a ton of fish in the system yet. We caught some really bright fresh fish but they were really spread out. Most of the fish were your typical springers in the 16-20" class. No true monsters hooked Monday. If we had nicer conditions then possibly there would have been a few more grabs but I think things should improve in the next couple of weeks. Hot flies were all over the place from small prince nymphs, Hogans SM, and sucker spawn.

Anyone looking to get in on a trip last minute I still have March 21, 24 (Sat.), 26 still open.

Hope you are all well.

Tight Lines!

Sac Continues to Fish STRONG!

The fishing on the Lower Sac continues to be really good. This last week I have fished from Anderson to Balls and from Posse to Bonnyview. Both drifts resulted in good fishing. I would say the overall fishing is better on the Lower Drifts but the big fish are eating on the Upper as well. Most days on the Anderson drift has been resulting in 30+ fish days with most of the fish between 12-14". While Posse has been a little less with 20+ fish days being the average but most of the fish going between 16-18". On Sunday we boated 1 21", 2 20", 2 19", and 4 18" rainbows.

Expect the best fishing right now to be on sunny days. When the sun comes out so do the bugs. Currently you have caddis, baetis, and pmds all hatching on the Lower Sac. If you are lucky enough to catch it there has been some solid dry fly fishing down below the Deschutes Bridge. Not big fish eating dries but its still throwing dries on the Sac. That is a pretty rare experience.

The best bugs on the Sac have been prince nymphs, hogans spring fling, olive micro may, and the rubberlegs.


This next week I will be on the Yuba trying to find some fish looking for Skwalas.

If you are interested in fishing this spring then things are starting to fill up. Only 1 weekend (March 17-18) left until mid May. All of my current openings are below:

March 15-18, 21-22, 26-28

April 9, 11-12, 17-18, 20, 23-24, 27, 30

Tight Lines!

Lower Sac was EPIC!

I took 2 of my regular clients out on the Lower Sac and the fishing was absolutely ridiculous. It was seriously the best February day of fishing that I have ever had in 9 years of guiding. Today was one of those days that seemed like nothing could go wrong. We boated over 50+ rainbows, 3 steelhead in the 20-22" range, and caught 2 fish on dry flies. I think I had a little taste of heaven today.

SPRING CADDIS have already started. Today fished like the first of March. There was caddis hatching throughout the day and the fish were on the grab. I think as long as the warm weather holds then there is going to be great fishing on the Lower Sac in the next couple of weeks. If you are into lots of action and pulling on a bunch of fish then you need to get out there. Now all of the trips might not be 50 fish days but there a lot of hungry fish willing to eat your fly.

I still have Feb. 9, 11-12, 14-17 open in the next couple of weeks. They are forecasting a 70 degree day on Thursday and those caddis are going to come off strong with that warm weather. Let me know if you want to get in some last minute fishing for a screaming deal of $295.

Tight Lines!

Yuba Feb. 2, 2012

I fished the Yuba today with 2 of my regular clients. Fishing was solid. Really slow in the morning. By the time we were fishing it was around 9:30AM and we didn't even hook a fish until 11ish. Rough start but after that things started to pick up. We ended up hooking 20+ rainbows and landed 2 hatchery steelhead. There was no real hot fly as we caught fish on 8 different bugs from stoneflies, san juans, may flies, etc. Very litte bugs on the river today. I think the cooler evening mixed with a windy day kept the bugs away. The Skwala Hatch is going to happen really soon.

One absolute crazy thing that happened today is that one of those hatchery steelhead ate a Skwala dry against the bank. That is definitely the first steelhead I have ever had eat a dry on that River. I have caughten them on caddis during the spring time on the Feather but never on the Yuba. Really cool that you never know what is going to happen each time you go out there.

If you want to do one of my discounted days then I still have Feb. 7, 9, 11-12 (Sat/Sun), 14-17, 22, 28 still available.

Take Care & Tight Lines!

Discounted Fishing & Spring Valley Preveiw

Big news...there is some crazy good deals to fish in February. February is a good time to catch those 1st spring hatches. Skwalas on the Yuba and early Caddis on the Lower Sac. So check your calendars if you want to save some great $. Also spring is filling up so if you want to fish during the prime time of March and April now is the time to start booking. Weekend dates for these two months are almost gone!!!!

What is the big news in my life? Well it has been an interesting month. The first week of January I had surgery on my tailbone so I have not been doing much of anything lately. I haven't been able to sit down for 3 weeks!!! But the great news is as of yesterday my Doctor cleared me to start fishing and rowing the boat again. So I guess you can say that my Ass has been cleared. LOL. It will be nice to get back on the water.


February Deals & Spring Openings

During the month of February I am going to be offering select discounted trips. I will be discounting full day trips by $130/day. You get a full day trip at the half day price of $295!!! Check out the discounted days below. Also the next couple of weeks is time to start booking your spring fishing dates as prime time openings are filling up. Open dates below:

February Discounts ($295 full day): 5-9, 11-17, 20-21, 28

March: 1, 6-7, 15-16, 17-18 (Sat/Sun), 19-23, 27-28

April: 2, 5-6, 7 (Sat), 9-13, 14-15 (Sat/Sun),16-20, 23-24, 27,30


Spring Fishing Coming Soon!

Some of the best fishing of the year is just around the corner. For those dry fly fisherman out there the Yuba is going to be prime. The Skwala hatch is a couple weeks away, the March Browns will come in March, and then the PMDS in April. If you want to throw dries to picky feisty rainbows then the spring is the best time of year on the Yuba.

The Lower Sac famous caddis hatch is going to happen in March and April. What most people dont realize is that the hatch actually starts in the end of February. Once the warm weather shows up the Sac just goes off. If you want some of the most epic nymph fishing in northern California then the next several months are the time to go. Spring is the time for numbers on the Lower Sac.

Don't forget about the Feather!!! The spring run of steelhead the last 2 years has been impressive. Last year we saw more big fish and greater numbers of fish than I have ever seen. This is a band wagon that you need to jump on. The Feather River is getting better and better. Prime time for the springers is mid March - early May. These are the hottest fish in the valley all year long. You think the fall is cool the spring fish are even better!!!!


Well that is it. I hope you guys are doing well and getting some good steelhead fishing in. Sounds like there are a lot of fish around this winter.

Tight Lines,
Ryan Johnston
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