hat creek

[joshfish]

fly fished hat creek for the first time today. i fished the upper creek not the wild section. i have gear fished the creek many times with great sucess but only hooked two and lost them both on the fly. if anyone can give me some tips on flies to use, method to fish them and maybe some spots to fish it that would be great. i did stick to plan and didnt pick up the spinning rod all day even though my buddy was killing them with salmon eggs. even with no fish to hand it was still great to get up there and beat the 106 degree weather in redding.

[Xnjb707X]

7x and small small dries.. or use streamers midday.

[JD]

You do not need particularly small flies or tippet for the upper stretch (i.e. above town of Hat Creek). This is all mostly planted water so the only trick in my experience is to use enough weight to get the flies down. Anywhere the bait fisherman are getting fish, you should be able to hook some as well. Globugs might be useful, but standard nymphs such as the Pheasant Tail and the Prince (bead heads) work just fine. You might have to get closer to the fish than the bait fisherman (stealthy approach will help), but short deep presentations will usually produce if the stream has been planted lately.

Good luck.