Northern California: Lower McCloud, Manzanita and Hat Creek - Mid-June
My dad and I spent a great week on the Upper Sac, Lower McCloud and Manzanita Lake. Lower McCloud: We hiked down to the Nature Conservancy water below Ah-di-nah campground. We picked up several fish in the afternoon and early evening, but saw the fishing pick up in the very late evening, 8:45 to 9:30. I used a caddis but we had our best luck on size16-18 mayfly and caddis patterns. We caught several nice fish. We saw some real big heads.
Hat Creek: I had fished there several times before, without any real success. This time, using an x-caddis, I learned why people fish here - I hooked a large rainbow on a size16 elk-hair caddis. It was an honest 18'. Late evening, 9:15
Upper Sacramento: We did well here one evening. We caught several fish between 7:30 to 8:30 at Ney Springs. The next evening, downstream at Castello, a beautiful stretch of water, we got skunked. The water flow was higher than I have seen in 10 years.
Manzanita: This was where I got my first float tube ride before I was six months old. The first day we fished from our float tubes with Callabaetis duns and emergers. We noticed there were ants on the surface. But we only picked up a few smaller fish. Giving Manzanita a second chance the next day, we walked the shore line and at 11:15 knocked 'em dead in the cove by the trail to the camp on little black ants: two browns in 10 minutes. We landed several big browns and lost several more.
Hot Tips: If you are fishing the McCloud in the summer, stay on the river until you need your bright headlamp to tie on the last fly and only then walk the trail back to the car! AND try black ants on Manzanita Lake.
Late summer we had another great trip to Montana, but that's another story. - Weston Frisk flyguy513@yahoo.com
Hot Creek Flyfishing Ranch - September 25th
I won a day of fishing here in the March Club Meeting's raffle, and used it in the second week of the Mammoth Fishout. The trout were rising during a prolific caddis hatch from 10 AM to 2 PM. The caddis were very small and a size 22 green Caddis parachute pattern was the ticket. The largest I caught was 16". Needless to say I had a great time.
I also fished the public section of Hot Creek, the Upper Owens(Long Ears), the San Joaquin, and McGee Creek below I-395 with equal success, using Royal Wulffs and Stimulators and a WD 40 pattern. - Ray Dow
San Luis Reservoir, O'Neill Forebay, October 7th
Dougald Scott and I fished the afternoon at the Forebay till dusk. We fished the flats on the Mederios side in our float tubes. Dougald fished the dark side (intermediate line) and I fished on top (floating line, chartreuse and yellow gurgler, 5 foot 17lb. leader). The water was way up and few if any weed beds were exposed. The fish were scattered and there was very little surface striper activity. The weather was perfect, though. Gentle breeze to flat calm, 72¡F. Water temp around 67¡F. Dougald caught 15 or so stripers to 18 inches and a rather large catfish, fair hooked. I managed five black bass to 7 inches all on a gurgler with lots more follows and slashes at the bait. The birds of prey were out including owls. The low angle light illuminating objects in the foreground against a darker amber background and nearly unlimited views of the horizon make this a great place to be on a day like this. October and November are great months, weather permitting, to catch stripers on top in the Forebay. - Harry Petrakis
Medicine Lake, CA - October 10th
Tuesday I was fishing Medicine Lake (7,000 ft MSL). The water temp was 54 degreesF and the air temp was 29 degreesF with wind 10 to 15 mph. Are you getting the picture? In 2 hrs. my friend and I caught 13 fish, but we missed the hook set on another 15 or so. We were missing the hook set because we kept losing sight of the dry flies in the troughs between the 6-12 inch waves. I don't think I've ever heard of taking trout on dry flies under these conditions. - Joe Bigas
[ed: I don't think I've heard of many people even fishing under those conditions. I'd say they earned every one.]
Monterey Bay off Lovers Point - October 11th
Harry Schoonbaert., Ed Kelleher, Ken Marple and I went out at 9 AM (banker's hours) on our kayaks. We were four flyfishers with six memberships to clubs (two had dual memberships).
Early, the wind, swell and currents were all going different directions. The confused conditions improved as the morning progressed. We caught most fish on outer edges of far out kelp beds, all with more than a few kelp hook-ups. This might have been a good time to try out a drag chute if I had one.
The wind came up mid-day and we all returned to the sandy beach about 1 PM. The surf was very calm when we landed. I landed first and did a "Brendan" by catching the rest of the incoming boats and pulling 'yak and flyfisher up onto the beach. All fish but one were returned to grow up and mate and be caught another day.
Those 'yaks are heavy when you have to carry them back up the steps. Of course, we worked as teams with two on each 'yak for the carry in and out part of the day. Ed can launch on his own out of there by using a wheeled cart to get up and down the stairs.
This wouldn't have been possible without Brendan Crahan's tutelage. Thanks for the lessons, Brendan, I've learned a lot. - Tom Pelikan