Supercharger

Not the prettiest fly but hopefully will be effective.

North Fork and Middle Fork Stanislaus

Last weekend Orvis gave a free clinic on dry fly fishing and Nymphing on the North Fork of the Stanislaus at Boards Crossing. I have to admit, I wasn't really looking forward to getting my ass up at 4am and driving 3 hours but I was getting paid to get out on the river so I knew I couldn't complain.
There was also the promise of getting in some personal fishing later in the day so I was looking forward to that since I've been so busy lately and will be busy through the middle of September.

 I met Steve and Nathan out in the east bay and we cruised up together. This was a relief because my car is really starting to be a piece of shit, and I was looking forward to chatting with Steve and Nathan for a while. We met Mark from San Jose in Arnold and all rolled in together around 8am. There were some fish rising to tiny black midges, size 28 or so. We got everyone geared up and I gave my tight line nymphing demo. I caught two fish while giving the demo. They were little 12 inch hatchery fish but I was excited because I knew that our students would get into some fish, and they did.
I was really enjoying teaching these guys some basics of nymphing. One guy caught his first fish ever and I could tell he was trying to be modest about it but he was so damn excited he couldn't hide it. That was by far the best part of the whole day. I could tell right away that he was gonna be a life time convert to the religion. Hell yeah!!

After we stopped for lunch, Steve, Nathan, myself and this dude from England from the class Phillip went down and fished Camp 9 Road on the Middle Fork. The water was raging which I think spread the fish out. Make short story shorter, we didn't do too well. We swung streamers and nymphed all the water and hooked 5 fish between all of us. I hooked one good fish and lost it in the current and landed one smaller rainbow and Mark landed 2 lost 1.
Mine was caught on the Shaggy wire caddis, green. I don't know what Mark was using.

A quick note on Fish Porn

I love looking at pictures of fish that have been caught and released to be caught another day. I don't care how big the fish is, I'm much more interested in how the fish was caught. What was the setting, what bugs where hatching, what time of day was it, why did you decide to fish that place on that particular day, etc...what is the STORY behind that fish?
When a true "Trophy" sized fish is caught I can appreciate someone's excitement and need to show others but for me, it's kind of like when a guy scores a touchdown and does a big victory dance. Act like you've been there before.
My friends are excluded in every way from this. The above only applies to strangers.

Falcon's Ledge Utah

Spent Thursday night, Friday, and Saturday fishing out of a lodge called Falcon's Ledge. It is an Orvis endorsed lodge and they put us up for free with the expectation that we would of course have a great time, and send clients back.
I had expected the fishing to be good. After all it is mid summer in the rockies, and we're all pretty experienced sticks with guides so... yeah, it was good.
We only had 2 full days of fishing so we had to choose what rivers we were going to fish. There are about 10 choices within approximately 30 min from the lodge so the choice was tough. I decided not to go to the high mountain streams because I can do that stuff in CA, even though I'm sure it would have been awesome. Some of the other people that were there chose those streams and had a great time.
I decided to fish a river called the Strawberry the first day, and was super lucky to have my name pulled out of a hat for a drift boat trip on the Green River on Saturday.
The lodge was surrounded by ponds which were fun to screw around on in the evening and early morning. I caught some fish out of those. I also caught my first Tiger Trout which is a brown mixed with a Brook Trout; they're really aggressive.

My guide for the first day was named Grant. He was a lot of fun to fish with. We used Yellow Stimi's because the Yellow Sallies were hatching, we dropped big size 14 Red Copper Johns underneath them.
We caught fish on both flies at a pretty equal rate. I caught two 20" browns and a few others that were over 15. It was a great day. Grant's grand parents and some of his aunts and uncles are little people.

Woke up the next day at 5:30am and hit the road with Tucker for the Green at 630. Met our guide Nick Johnson in Dutch John.
The river was crowded with rafters but it didn't really effect the fishing, just kind of ruined the serenity of being on the river. They were having one hell of a good time but I wish they'd have chosen to play in a reservoir instead of one of the most beautiful and trout filled rivers in the world.
There were a number of other drift boats out too but everyone got along just fine. Accepting one dumb ass on a huge raft that was alone. He low holed us once and Nick gave him a dirty look, he didn't come too close after that.
We fished dries all day which was awesome. The hot fly up top which was Tuckers idea was a black spotlight caddis, size 18. I hooked one on a renegade also.
We dropped a PT size 18 off of a hopper down low and started hooking rainbows on the pt's. The last fish of the day was a nice brown on a hopper.

Lots of fish caught. Lost one brown at the boat that was 20"+ and another rainbow that charged the boat that was probably around the same size but its tough to say. The smallest fish was 14".

Lower Yuba 7/15

Fished up river from Parks Bar bridge from 2:30 - 6:30. It was about 100 degrees when we got there and we wanted to fish until dark. There's no way I could have stuck it out all day. I hadn't fished the Yuba for a few weeks so I had no idea what to expect. I decided to set my buddy Rob up with a nymph rig and all I did was swing soft hackles on a greased line all day. I hooked two nice fish on either a birds nest or a Partridge with green body, I never was able to tell and they both came off. Caught a dink on the Birds nest.
Rob didn't hook up but I used his rig in one spot and hooked a nice fish on FKA Prince. That fish was probably 13-14"

We went down river around 7pm and fished a nice flat until dark. We hooked 3 fish total and I landed one that was about 12 inches. It was hooked on a Partridge and green. It hit the fly and I felt the bump, I continued to let the fly swing and it came back and smacked it pretty good.

I didn't see any caddis all day but the fish seemed to like the swung caddis patterns anyways. I'd call the fishing fair. Around dark there were some tiny mayflies hatching but I don't know what they were. There weren't many of them around, they were a light grey color and size 18-20. There were an amazing amount of Dragon Flies around and I wonder if they were eating any hatching insects making them difficult to see flying around. I only saw one, maybe two real rises from feeding fish all day.

McCloud and Pit 6/30 - 7/3

I love teaching people how to fish, but I was definitely relieved when we did our last class on June 30th.
As soon as we were finished I drove up to Ash Camp on the McCloud river and fished an awesome Golden Stone hatch. I didn't bring my camera so I don't have any pics but suffice it to say that I haven't seen a hatch like that in a long time.
Ash camp was full but some guys were nice enough to let me set up my tent at their site. The next day I hiked down the Pacific Crest Trail about 25 minutes toward Ah-Di-Nah and fished the whole way back. This took me about 9 hours and I saw only one other guy all day. I caught fish in nearly every hole. Olive Micro May was working good. Then I used a #16 natural birds nest because I saw some caddis coming off. I also had takes on the Golden Stone nymph. Hooked a few fish swinging that birds nest which was fun. Most fish were caught tight line nymphing. I had some follows from big browns in a couple pools where I took a moment to string up a big heavy sink tip but no takers.
Camped at Ash camp again that night and drove over to Pit 3 the next day. The best fly of the day was a #16 black Micro May but the big Jimmy Legs was working well also. I fished my lucky birds nest in the evening for some real hogs. The fishing was really REALLY good. Hardly any thing was rising and I fished until almost dark.
I got pretty beat up fishing for approximately 20 hours in 3 days on the McCloud and Pit so by tuesday I was tired. I met up with friend and Orvis guide Chuck from Wild Waters Fly Fishing in Mt. Shasta on Tuesday morning and he showed me an awesome spot on the Upper Sac where all of the planted trout hang out. We hooked about 20 fish in an hour and then I drove home.

I'm gonna go fish the Yuba next week so stay tuned.

Lower Yuba 6/18

Fished down river from hwy 20. 1800cfs. Sunny, clear, 90 degrees. Started around noon. Got two near the bridge right away on the Red Headed Stepchild. Then didn't get a grab until later in the evening. Met up with Kieth and went way down river. Hooked a few swinging a natural Birds Nest #16 and a few more on a #18 Film Critic. Really big PED and Stone Fly hatch starting around 6pm and going until dark. Hardly any caddis seen.