Stripers in San Francisco Bay

I'm no longer employed by one of the worlds largest fly fishing companies. After 10 years on our current lease in San Francisco, Orvis decided that the rent went up to much and shut the store down. While I am a little bummed that they couldn't figure out how to open a smaller store and keep us employed, I'll never say anything bad about Orvis as a company. They treat their employees well, or as well as any other corporation I guess.

What I'm most bummed about is the lack of money going into my bank account every 2 weeks. Don't worry, I've got some stuff in the works for new revenue streams. However, until that happens I have decided that I will stick close to home, save gas, and study the pursuit of Striped Bass. 

I have a few buddies who know some killer spots in the Bay Area for Stripers. I had some success fishing yesterday just before high tide on a chartruese and white clouser tied on a 1/0 hook. I was stripping in fast with a pause every few strips. I have heard of other stripping techniques and I think all can be productive although the fast, hard strip seems to be what most guys are doing.

Today, I went out with my buddy James and when we left the house, it was warm, sunny, no wind. As soon as we parked the wind came in strong and we were pretty much doomed. It was blowing right at us, angling in from the west. I was hauling pretty hard when a gust came up and blew my fly right into the path of my right hand. If you've never buried a 1/0 hook with barb into your hand, don't start trying. And remember to de-barb your hooks. That's all I'll say about that. After I pulled this thing out and cleaned up the blood all over my rod and hands I re-tied and fished for about 20 minutes. Didn't touch a thing.

I look forward to posting more reports in the near future. I will be fishing a lot until I'm tied into another job. Stay tuned!

San Diego Bay and the Truckee

Went out with Bob Day of "En La Mosca" fly fishing outfitters in San Diego bay a couple of weeks ago. Bob is an Orvis endorsed guide and I highly recommend him if anyone wants a nice easy day of fishing while in San Diego.
I took my buddy Latane who had never caught a fish on a fly rod. Latane used a spinning rod most of the day but asked Bob if he could use a fly rod. Bob had him casting a 300gr sinking line in about 10 minutes and Latane landed his first fish on a fly rod...awesome.
Bob put us on tons of fish, he knows the bay really well. We also boated a yellow fin croaker, lizard fish and a bunch of smelt. We used small to medium sized clousers and the bass were hitting pretty much anything. Even after my little clouser was totally trashed and hardly recognizable they kept biting.
I used a 6 weight which was perfect for the 12-14 inch bass. They put a nice bend in the rod.

A few days later I was with my brother and we were on our way up the hill to Reno NV. I had never fished the Truckee outside of CA and was really looking forward to exploring some new water. My buddy Jan at Orvis in Reno gave me some great info on flies and access points so I was pretty sure we'd get on fish.
If you've never been to Reno, its kind of like a trashier, smaller Las Vegas. The casinos are pretty nice though and the hotels are cheap which is awesome since the Truckee access points are only 15-20 minutes from downtown Reno.
The fish were in slow water and on the first day we saw a decent BWO hatch and hooked up with some nice fish. The weather was awesome, warm and sunny.
Saturday was really tough. We fished a spot that was super snaggy and I lost tons of flies. There was trash everywhere and the fish must have had lock jaw. The only fish caught all day was a nice fat bow that carson hooked on a little wd-40.

This is a section of the river closer to Reno. Most of the river didn't look this trashed. A fucking disgrace.

On Sunday I was really hung over. We spent a few hours at the casino on Saturday night and when I woke up I knew it was gonna be a challenge getting to the river. I pushed the curtains back on the window in the hotel room to reveal a cloudy, rainy day. I had heard about some recent epic BWO hatches on this stretch of the river and knew that today might be the best day yet.
I nursed my hangover at Denny's for about an hour and a half and then we hit the river around 10am.

This section is where we fished on Friday and hooked up using small black mayfly nymphs in the slow water.

It ended up being the best BWO hatch I've ever fished. It wasn't easy hooking up but we both hooked and landed some really nice browns and rainbows. Mostly on dries but also on small black emergers.

Yuba 2/1/13

Well I got skunked on the Yuba again. I committed to throwing dries and I guess my patterns weren't up to the standards of the fish this past trip.
It was a great day though. Sunny and about 70 degrees. 1400 CFS.
Everyone I spoke to on Friday was having a pretty tough day.
The Skwalas are around but not in big numbers. I saw a lot of Skwala nymphs under rocks so I think its only a matter of time before it really gets going. It will definitely be crowded though, even with the slow fishing on Friday there were probably more than 10 boats on the water and a healthy amount of wade fisherman. I was wading also and found some nice big stretches of water to myself.

Can't figure out how to get the Macro working

If you go and want to catch fish I'd stick with nymphs. Small mayfly patterns and stones, unless of course you see fish rising.

Coastal Steel

About 3 months ago my friend and boss Steve said, "we're taking a Steelhead trip in January, you pick the spot, I'll drive and figure out the time off." OK!
My first thought was, "shit, January is coastal Steelhead time and that's where we are gonna go." So that's what I said we should do and he said, "Sounds Good!!"
Well, about two months go by and he starts coming up with some other plans to fish this small tributary to the one of the big northern Steelhead rivers. I didn't say no because I was cool with anything as long as we hit the coast on the way back for at least a day. My goal was to swing flies only and the small tributary would only be nymphing.
Well, with about 4 days left until the trip, he had to bail because of a family issue, understandable. I was bummed but thought, well, I can do whatever I want now.
I swung flies for the first two days and didn't touch a fish. I fished 3 different rivers. On the afternoon of the third day I faced a dilemma. I knew fish were in the river and that guys were getting them on egg patterns.
Now, I know some people will say, "oh man you have to stick with it!" "The swing is the thing!" etc... And I agree with that, but I really wanted to feel the pull of a fresh Pacific Steelhead so I admit, I turned to the darkside. If I had the opportunity to fish the coast more often, I would probably have stuck with the swing but there are plans in the works to move out of Cali already so this might be my last trip.
I also had to consider how lucky I was that everything lined up. The weather was clear, the river was low and clear AND there were fish waiting for the next rain.

Jeep compared to a Redwood

This slide was huge. Probably blew out the river for a whole season

Camp Site at the Coast

Ocean in the distance

Jeep trail and takeout

Lower Yuba 1/5

In 2012 my year started on the Mokelumne. I fine river in many ways but in my opinion a far cry from the challenges and beauty that the Yuba holds, so I was pumped when my buddies had time to go to the Yuba.
Drifted from about 10-3. Water had about 2 feet of visibility and it was cold and windy. We were hoping for some Skwalas but it didn't warm up enough. They are there though and the first bit of warmer weather will bring them out.
We still threw dries for a while for nothing. We mostly just chilled out and enjoyed the drift, fished a little. It was a perfect way to start 2013. "It was just good to be out there" amen...

57 Days

That's how many times I was out on the water this past year.
Notable memories:
1. First Carp on a fly
2. First time ever fishing in Kansas and Missouri
3. First Coastal Cutthroat
4. First time fishing the Rogue River
5. First Musky on a fly
This year has brought me many amazing fishing opportunities and I'm looking forward to more in 2013. My goal for in the New Year is to fish more than 70 days. That means cutting back at work and I think that can be done.
I also want to make sure and keep a positive attitude about all kinds of fishing. I don't want to fall into a  "purist" frame of mind, I don't think that's cool. People should fish in whatever way makes them enjoy it most. If you want to use a bobber every time you fish, if you want to use trout beads, if you use a spey rod to indicator fish, so be it. The above are all things I've recently heard people speak poorly of and I sat, listened, and just respectfully nodded.
Just have a great time and stop to smell the air and listen to the river, or lake and the animals that make that place their home.

Hopefully 2013 will bring me closer to this place!

Lower Yuba 12/18

Took the new whip out for its inaugural trip to the Yuba this past Tuesday. It was great. My buddy Chuck and I cruised out at the leisurely hour of 7am and were fishing by 9:30. The ski/snowboard rack works great for transporting rods.

 The water was high and off color but the fishing was good. We spent more time hanging out and looking at the water than we did fishing but managed a couple of nice fish on egg patterns (still some spawning salmon in the river) and big stone fly patterns.
I also spent about an hour swinging a olive/black wooly bugger and had two takes but didn't set well and came unbuttoned.
If you go, use a lot of weight to get the fly way down to the bottom, nothing new there, but with the higher water its even more of a necessity. I would suggest swinging dark streamers also.