Tales of fishing outings, all true!
* Green River Utah
We just spent two days at the Green River in Flaming Gorge. It was incredible. The gorge itself was beautiful. The first night we got there it was really windy and extremely hard to fish. I got really frustrated because I had been waiting the whole trip to fish this river. Mike saw how upset I was and decided to give me a big surprise the next morning. He had hired a private guide and a boat for me to go down the river all day, and get fly fishing lessons, and catch lots of fish. Of course, at first I was upset at him because I didn't want to go if he couldn't go (someone needed to stay with the pups) but he insisted so I went. I had the best fishing time of my life. I caught so many fish. I caught a 19" brown trout! That is huge!! It was so fun. Mike stayed and fished along the riverbank and caught a couple of nice fish too. This is a trip that we will definitely have to do again, maybe with the club next year. - Cindy & Mike Phinn
* Keswick Reservoir (between Shasta Dam and Redding), August 17
Tim Loomis, Harry Petrakis, and I accompanied guide Chip O'Brien and his friend Russ Terra on a great day of fishing in a very different kind of setting for trout fishing. Keswick is a 9 mile stretch of the Sacramento River running between Shasta Dam and Keswick Dam, just above Redding. Technically it is a reservoir, but it has a swift current running through it (no white water though). We launched our float tubes just below Shasta Dam and drifted downstream for a couple of miles. We were fishing large (#12) midge and Bird's nest patterns below and indicator. Chip scored 15 rainbows with the largest a 21 incher. He said this was a fairly low score for a day on Keswick. Russ didn't say how many he caught but did say he had two 21 inchers. Tim was high man in the SCFF group with more than ten rainbows to 16". Harry followed with a score of four, and I ended up on the bottom with only two fish. I'm sure we'll do better next time. This is a fun fishery and well worth a visit. Check out Chip's article in the Spring 2004 issue of NW Fly Fishing. Security across Shasta Dam is extremely tight so send in an application for clearance at least a week ahead of your trip. You can download the application at: www.usbr.gov/mp/ncao. If you hire Chip as your guide, you won't have to bother with a permit. - Dougald Scott
* Monterey Bay, August 20
Harry Petrakis and I did some scouting for the Rockfish Fishout coming up in two weeks. We found lots of willing blue and olive rockfish up to 3 pounds at several reefs off of Soquel Point, Capitola and South Rock. The trick was locating the fish. Once we found signals on the fish finder, we caught fish. The hot fly was the Fast Eddy (see Fly Tying Class, this issue). Harry managed to dredge up several lingcod using a plastic swim bait (no keepers, they have to be 30" long). There was word from the Capitola Wharf that there had been two undersize white sea bass taken the day before off Capitola. It looks like there's going to be lots of action for the Rockfish Fishout; don't miss it. - Dougald Scott