Hello Fellow Anglers
Its been a little while since my last fishing report, but I am hoping with the help from the guides that work with me, that we can collaborate a few more repots through out the year. My goal would be 3 to 4 fishing reports each year with a more social media reports posted more regularly. Make sure to follow NCFG's social media and the NCFG blogger to see current reports and pics from recent trips.
Current fishing conditions have been all over the map, From good days to tough days, to cant fish days due to wind and huge yoyo bump/drop in flows to some of the best fishing we've seen all season long. Currently waters are extremely high throughout the state making some rivers unfishable, some rivers only fishable with indicators and other rivers waiting on the infamous shad run. The Cottonwood Blooms have been out in full force and it should go down any day now. With peak snowmelt coming down over the next week or two, we should start seeing our river flows come down. This will make swinging for trout and steelhead much easier, and just in time for the half pounder run on the Feather and some trout spey work on the Yuba and Lower Sac. Plenty of days left to book shad trips on or local waters as well as later season steelhead, trout and striper trips.
Here is your current up to date Nor Cal Fishing Report
Feather River
Low Flow Channel 700cfs
Clarity 8ft clear
Fishing is good to great
High Flow Channel 8500kcfs
Clarity 8ft with slight green tint
Fishing is good to great
While we have been battling YOYO flows in the high flow from 4k all the way up to 11k, we are still finding some decent fishing in the high flow. At this point we should see an increase in the Low Flow at some point which will make for even better fishing in the LF. With the current flows in the HF there aren’t many souls fishing it at 10k and personally I love it. There are some sweet slow water drop offs and back eddys that cant be fished unless flows are above 8k. The fish stack up in these areas and its gang busters. The HF is not recommended for wading at 8500, boat only.
The Feather River has been our go to river since the start of 2024 and it will continue to be one of our main rivers to guide well into mid/late summer. We are seeing good numbers of steelhead from 18-22" with some pushing 6-8lbs, and fish pushing 30” have been hooked but not many to hand. Indicator fishing has been producing good to great numbers of fish and swinging up to 7k in the high flow has been really good as well. We are still waiting for the main push of spring run steelhead to show up, which should be any day now, and we still have some suckers spawning. All in all, its been a great spring fishery and will continue to fish good too great for the next month or 2.
We still have availability to fish this awesome year-round steelhead fishery.
Nymphing: Prince nymphs, sucker spawns, copper johns, caddis, mayflies, PTs, worms
Swinging: Sculpins, olive woolybuggers, small olive or rusty colored trout speys, euphoria's, fry/crayfish patters
Yuba River
Above Daguerre 5000cfs
Below Daguerre 4500cfs
Fishing above Daguerre not happening anytime soon
Fishing below is fair
Flows have been up and down then way back up again. We are seeing higher
flows due to snowmelt and with only 3300 coming out of Englebright, the rest is
coming over the top. While fishing before this big spike was extremely good,
its gonna be a while till we are able to get back on it and fish again. Keep an
eye on this fishery during the summer months, its going to be one for the
record books. Until this last big bump in flows, we were having some great dry
fly activity throwing anything stonefly-ish even skwalas. The bobber fishing was
awesome between the storms. All the reservoirs are all full and lots of cold
water for months to come. I feel with the higher-than-normal flows this year,
these fish will be more reluctant to look up at dries, so bust out those dry
fly rods and let's get some epic dry fly eats. I have been doing some recon in
the Lower “Lower” Yuba for shad and striper and been hooking some decent
stripers but the shad are slow to show. But in addition, we are seeing a decent
Cottonwood Bloom on these warmer days and that only means one thing:
SHAD SEASON is short to follow. More about this below.
Nymphs: rubberlegs, caddis, mayflies, worms,
eggs, sucker spawns, pmds, March browns, skwalas and wingless stones.
Swinging: alevins, sculpins, small leech style
patterns, woolybuggers in olive, brown, or fry colored
Drys: skwalas, stonefly patterns, stimulators,
hoppers, phat alberts, mays, caddis
Stripers below Daguerre: Anything Adachi
clousers, white/chartreuse, white/gray, rainbow/shad colors
Eagle Lake: Opens May
25th
Rating: ON FIRE
Level: 4490 ft.
Water Temps: 53° F
Water Clarity: 6ft. - 8ft
The Chironomid hatch has been Amazing this year. Lots of eager rainbows and browns feeding heavily on the midge right now! This is one you do not want to miss. Most of our action has been under the indicator. However, we have managed some smallies and browns on intermediate lines. This last cold snap slowed the fish down a little, but there are still some cooperative fish to be had. Now is the time to come up and fish. Make sure you layer up warm in the morning and scale down for a warmer afternoon. Also, the Hex Hatch is a little over a month away. We are expecting a good hatch this year. Do not wait to book your Hex trip, spots are filling quickly, and you might miss out if you delay.
Nymphs: Midge patterns, Balanced LeechStreamers: Hex nymphs, pond smelt, Balanced leeches
Dries: Spotlight Caddis emerger
Guide Tip: Check the weather before you head up, the cold snaps will slow the bite a little bit.
Open Dates: Booking Chironomid hatch in May and the Hex Hatch in June. We have a handful of Hex Hatch dates left. Call or email for availability
American River
4000cfs
Clarity is perfect 8ft slight green tinge
Fishing is good to great
We are finally getting into those flows that really rock on the American
River. With a good amount of tweener 18-22" steelhead throughout the
system it makes for a great day on the water. We are seeing a few Bluebacks
(springers) on the AR but again we are waiting for that big push. Even without
the usual numbers of springers, we are having some sweet days hooking some
really nice steelhead. Great place to play for a day from the Bay. We are
starting to see signs of Stripers and Shad in the lower river and with the
temps warming up this week and the cottonwood blooms falling that only means 1
thing: SHAD TIME!!! More about that down below.
Nymphs: Prince nymphs, eggs, copper johns,
PTs, poxyback hares ears, hares ears, worms, sucker spawn, caddis,
mayflies
Swinging: hobo speys, euphorias, sculpins,
alevins, fry patterns
Stripers: Anything Adachi clousers,
white/chartreuse, white/gray, rainbow or shad colors
Lower Sac
.jpg)
Flows: 6k cfs by 5/14
Clarity 6-8ft typical lower sac green
Fishing is good one day tough the next, more tougher days than better days right now
The fishing remains tough. Flow drops and bumps are continuing
to be extreme, creating unhappy fish. With Shasta Lake being 5ft from full pool
and a huge amount of snow melt still left to fill the lake, flows will exceed
15k here soon if we were betting men. Current flows on 5/9/24 are 12k with an
upcoming bump to 15k. Good days are still few and far between, and with minimal
hatches happening day to day, the fish have been very selective to which flys
they want to eat. Waiting on warmer weather to spark the caddis hatches. After
another big winter, a lot of guides have been saying that the hatches are so
poor because of the 40k flows we saw in February, washing a lot of bug life downstream(Information
and thoughts from a lot of guides in the area).
However, if
flows stay steady with the scheduled release forecast of 6k by 5/14, look for
this rivers fishing to heat up and be a more consistent fishery with more
stable flows. We will start seeing better hatches, more bugs means less
selective fish and maybe even some dry fly fishing/hopper dropper action. Cant
wait. If it keeps fluctuating up and down like a yoyo, fishing will stay tough
till snowmelt is almost done. Lets keep um crossed.
Guide Tip: Patients pays off, we are fishing much harder to get our fish than usual, but put the work in and you will be rewarded. Remember August 1st is the upper river opener and for those that have never fished this crazy day, its pretty cool to fish. So if you want to fish that upper stretch on the opener, give us a jingle.
Stripers: Anything Adachi clousers, white/chartreuse, white/gray, rainbow or shad colors
Putah Creek
300cfs
Clarity 6-8ft steelhead green
Fishing is good to great
Yes, you read that right 300cfs and this is the absolute perfect flow to
fish Putah Creek. Its been fishing extremely well due to these flows and you
can access almost every foot of the 5 miles of fishable water. This is the perfect
place to fish close to the Bay area and if you want to learn how to unlock the
secrets of Putah Creek give us a ring. Its also a great place to hone your
skills due to its technical fishing. When it comes to this fishery, with us,
its all about teaching and showing you the ins and outs. We have been hitting
this river a few times a week as some of our Sac Valley rivers have been a
tad too high to fish some days.
Nymphs: small midges, small mayflies, small
caddis, small hares ears. small small and small.
Fall River
Hatches on the Fall have been inconsistent with
intermittent weather and cold overnight low temps. Our NCFG Fall River Guided
worked his first 2 days of the season on 5/7 and 5/8 and saw very different
days as far as hatches and fish to the net. The first day(5/7) the peak hatch
started around 11am and only lasted an hour and half to two hours. Much better-quality
fish the first day with all fish being over 17” and a total of 8 to the net.
The second day(5/8), the peak hatch started at 11am and lasted all day until we
got off the water around 3pm, with easy double digits to the net and all the
little fish you could catch 12” and under. Both days using mostly nymphs under
an indicator, and stripping olive leaches on intermediate sink lines is always
successful especially after the winds pick up. Dry fly fishing really depends
on how strong the wind is and how good the hatch is for the day, but finding
wind breaks and fish feeding on the surface is proving to still be successful
with the proper selection of fly and a good dead drift presentation. Midges are
hatching early morning before peak mayfly hatch at 11am, but the Fall continues
to give an average hatch period for mayflies from 11am-3pm depending on
overnight lows and how warm the high temps get during the day. The majority of
bigger fish are definitely up closer to Spring Creek coming and going for the
spawn, but there seems to be a good number of little fish mixed in with a few
dandy’s spread out through the rest of the system to Circle 7 Ranch.
Nymphs: olive nymphs
in the morning(Chile Verde perdigon with a silver or copper bead), black,
brown, and tan nymphs in the afternoon(Sweat Pea, 2-bit-hooker, PMD perdigon).
Guide Tips for the Fall: -
having a proper dead drift presentation feeding line from anchor is really what
the fish want, and at the end of each drift make sure you let the flys swing
through the column for 5-10 seconds before retrieving your drift for another
round.
Shasta Lake:
The Lake is nearing full pool creating a lot of floating debris hazards for boats, but it is also in peak form with numbers exceeding 50 fish a day. "Float and fly” is the preferred method winter through spring, but with warm weather on the horizon, the fish have been eating streamers well and they have started to eat topwater flys more consistently as the weather gets warmer. Currently the lake is slipping out of "pre spawn" and into “spawn” with fish moving into shallow water and making beds. Current Water temps are mid 60’s, but with warm weather coming in, we expect to see the main body heating up quickly. The Pit arm is still very dingy with water clarity fluctuating between 3ft-6ft. All other arms and creek inlets are starting to clear up all the way to 20ft visibility. A lot of fish have been suspended in the 10-15ft range in 30-40ft of water, but still our best success is float and fly up against the bank in the first 10ft of water. Still haven’t seen the big groups of threadfin shad moving around or getting busted by fish, but its only a matter of time before we can hunt bait balls away from the bank chasing the groups of shad and bass around in deeper water. Here very soon the main body is going to heat up and the spots and smallmouth are going to move down into the depths for cooler conditions, or they will push up into the tributaries where the water is cooler. Come July, Im targeting the tributary water for the remainder of the summer until water temps start to recede in the main body.
Flies: olive and brownish/red crawdads and thread fin shad patterns in the water with better clarity, low visibility, purple crawdads have been the best fly for the past 2 months with Float-and-Fly, or a black or purple leach.Guide Tips for Shasta: - Using rattles in your flys, especially in dingy water, has proven to get more grabs throughout the day vs a fly without a rattle(mainly crawdads, but also works with baitfish).
Other Local Lakes
Lake Oroville, Rollins, and many others are fishing extremely well right
now and are definitely worth the drive if you want to try something a bit
different than what your Nor Cal Rivers offer.
SHAD
GOT SHAD!!!!
We offer shad trips on rivers throughout Northern California, from beginners to experienced anglers as well as with 2 handed rods Single handed rods for swinging and with Single handed rods fishing indicators.
The Cottonwood blooms are falling, we are going to see low 90* temps in
the next week and that only means one thing, SHAD SEASON is almost here!!!
Nor Cal Fly Guides and Fly Fishing Specialties has a phenomenal guide
crew that cover our main Nor Cal Rivers for shad that include:
Yuba and American (main rivers)
Feather and Sacramento Rivers (back up rivers)
NCFG & FFS are offering a 2024 SHAD SEASON special
Details:
American River ONLY
Morning or Evening (evening is best)
$375 3hr SHAD Fishing Session
Full day and half day trips available on the Yuba, Feather, American and
Sacramento
Details:
$600 full day
$475 half day
My 2024 Shad season full days are all booked up, but I am
available for evenings trips on the Yuba River for the 2024 season. (reserve
your 2025 dates NOW)
We have several guides that will have you covered for all your shad fishing needs. Book now while prime dates still remain.
Don’t forget about the Striper season. We are already seeing good numbers
on the Sac with stripers slowly trickling on our colder rivers like the
American and Yuba with a few on the Feather too.
There you have it folks, your Northern California fishing report hot off the press. We hope you are able to get out in the next few weeks and enjoy some of the best fishing we will see all season long. Time to get out and get bent.
.jpg)
Local Waters - Yuba, Feather, American, Lower SacAugust 12, 21
Oct 21 22 24 25 28 29 30
Nov 23 24 26
Dec 20 21 22 28 29 30
Evenings: May June July for 2024 Shad season
Northern Waters Trinity & Lower Sac
Sept 3 4 10 11
Oct 12 13
Nov 22 23
Dec 1 2 3 4 5 6 9-17
My 2025 dates available for Local or Northern Waters upon request
I'm suggesting to everyone who would like to book with me, booking at a minimum of 6-8 months in advance for prime-time dates is highly recommended.
Please don't be discouraged that I am more booked up this year than ever before, we can get you booked up with me for future dates if needed. If you would like to book now or in the near future, I am proud to announce that I have hand selected some of the finest guides in Northern California to assist me in the higher demand of bookings for Nor Cal Fly Guides. These guides work "with me" not for me, and I couldn't be happier with the team of guides that lend a helping hand to NCFG clients. From ex-teachers, to full time guides, ex-fly shop owners, shop workers/guides to part time guides that have been fly fishing all their lives, these guides are the best. The biggest asset these guides have is they all have the same "teaching" mentality as I do.
Thank you for viewing.
Please follow us on Facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/NorCalFlyGuides
Please follow us on Instagram at
https://www.instagram.com/nor_cal_fly_guides?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
Please follow Nor Cal Fly Guides blog at
https://norcalflyguides.blogspot.com/
