Quickie on the Calaveras River

With this crazy weather, my last minute chance to wet my line changed drastically Saturday morning.  Although fishing the Little of Big Truckee on Saturday could have been decent, I just wasn't into bundling up one more time and fishing with numb feet and fingers.  So I opted for a close-to-home trip on the Calaveras River.  The Calaveras River, outside of Valley Springs, CA is a short, scenic one hour drive from my home in El Dorado Hills, CA.

The Calaveras is a good choice this time of year (with the spring run-off) as it is a tailwater flowing out of New Hogan Reservoir.  Saturday was "opening day" for this stream.  The River is closed until the 4th Saturday in May.  The weather co-operated beautifully, 60 degrees and partly cloudy and an opportunity for "some" small bug activity/hatches.

I was able to hook and land 11 fish, most wild, a few planters.  They all ranged in size from 8-13 inches, of fought hard and were clean and colorful.  I nymphed the whole day, using Mighty Mays, Mighty Mite and some small PMDs with an occasional San Juan Worm as the lead fly.

I needed a fix and got it on the Calaveras.  A good choice if you live in the Gold Country!

My ten year old...BORN TO FISH!

Back in April, my ten year old son, Carson & I made our first "fly fishing" trip together.  Now I have been taking my older son and daughter to the Lower Owens River outside of Bishop, CA for year.  This time, however, we decided on a float trip on the Lower Sacramento River in Redding.

What a great experience!  I really like the guys at www.sacriveroutfitters.com!  Tim Root was awesome and really worked with Carson.  About 15 minutes into the days float, Carson hooked one. He wanted to do it "all on his own.  Well his line (as you can see in the photo) is wrapped wrong and in turn he lost that one.  Needless to say he was into another one soon thereafter.

Carson hooked about 10 and landed 4. Not bad for your first time fly fishing, on a drift boat.  The Lower Sac Rainbows are no easy fish to land, powerful, full of life and all of good size.

I didn't do to bad myself....

If you go, be sure to use Sac River Outfitters and ask for Tim (owner and wonderful guide).  Lodging and food are cheap and there are tons of choices.  I typically use Priceline.com to get the best deals.

Fished Big and Little Truckee on Thursday.....

One word....blanked!!!

Fished Truckee around Hirschdale until about 11. Water was COLD to the point where you had to get out every so often. It was clearer than I thought and had an off green tint, flows were up but not as much as expected. We threw everything at them, traditional streamer fishing & nymphing with small micro & Mighty mays, PMDs, etc & even larger stones with either a may or worm dropper. I did read and hear that dead drifting streamers with a stone or mayfly nymph dropper was working but much lower in the river.

Started fishing the LT around 11:30 after changing rigs to much lighter tackle (5x/6x) , tiny indicators and midges in and around size 20 or smaller. We saw quite a few fish and some with good size, they were in clear, shallow water and were skittish. 

Had some looks but no eats on red and black colored midges. Actually had Baetis coming off around 4pm in very small numbers but didn't change our luck. We covered from the first pull out past the campground to within 1/4 mile of the damn and left no riffle un-fished. Only heard of a few fish taken by anyone the whole day. Daytime temps never passed 50 degrees.

River needs to get past melt off and temps need to warm up.....

Spring 2010-2nd assault on Truckee and LT Rivers

Making a second attempt at the BT and LT tomorrow.  Will start out on the "big" and fish lower in the river.  Interested to see the flows and color of river as the weather has warmed significantly in the last few days.  Will throw everything at them (streamers, midges, small mays, some march brown and green drake nymphs, stones, ants (may be a little early but they know what they are), beetles & san juans.  Hit em' deep, in the slow & just below the surface too.  More to follow.

2010 First Trip to Truckee...

With high expectations, I jumped (not rolled) out of bed Saturday to hit the Truckee Saturday.....I fished high and low in the river, meaning off Glenshire and below Hirschdale.   Nymphed Rubberlegs Golden Stones with a Mighty May Dropper....or San Juan Worm, also tried poxyback golden stones...saw a few fish but no eats.  The lower part of the river was a bit fast but was clearer than I expected and looked good.  


Between fishing the Lower and Upper River, I ran over to the Little for a look. Saw fish, fished small and light with midges and mays....got a few to move but no eats. I was hoping for those large browns who come up from Boca to be around but only saw bows.    We needed some overcast in my opinion to get bugs active....  Going again Thursday.  More to follow.