Spring Fishing - Lower Sac, Yuba, & Feather Reports

[RJSFLYTRIP]

Fly Guys & Gals,

I hope you are all having a great week. It looks like we are finally getting a real taste of winter again. Rain is forecasted for the next week. For awhile there I was thinking spring was here to stay. The big news is that all of our valley rivers are already starting to fish good. Big caddis hatches on the Sac and even the March Browns are starting to pop their heads up on the Yuba. It is a little scary that we started catching fish on our spring patterns in the end of January. The weather this winter is setting up for a great spring on all of our valley rivers. Low flows and lots of bugs! Check out the fishing reports and my openings below. I look forward to spending some time with you this spring.

It is that time of year again when the Sac, Yuba, and Feather blow up. So make sure to get in on the bite. You dont want to miss the caddis hatch on the Sac, the March Brown/PMD hatch on the Yuba, or the run of Spring Steelhead on the Feather. Prime weekend dates are already filling up. Check out my openings below.

March: 3-4, 8, 12-13, 15-18, 20-24, 30-31

April: 2-6, 9, 11-13, 15, 20-22, 24-26


Lower Sac:

Caddis Hatch in January & February? YES, the Sac is already in its spring time trends. The middle parts of the river from Anderson down to Balls Ferry have been fishing LIGHTS OUT for average sized fish. Currently most days we are landing 30+ rainbows. If you are into lots of grabs then from now until April the Lower Sac is going to be the place to be. We are not seeing lots of big fish as most of the rainbows we are catching are going from 12-14". However every day we are getting a handful of great quality trout. This last week one of my clients found and landed a late 23" clipped hen on this drift. So there are some great fish still to be caught. This cold weather will slow things down for a bit but come March time the Sac is going to be blow up! Hot flies have been prince nymphs, king prince, zug bug, micromay, and Hogan's S&M.


Yuba River:

Is the same thing happening on the Yuba? Well yes. Spring Time has hit the Yuba as well. There are Skwalas flying around, March Browns starting to hatch, and a crazy early PMD here and there. The Skwala hatch has not been quite as good this year. The word on the street is that the high flows in December probably knocked these bugs around as they started their crawling migration. However I have been seeing a few on the water. Currently most days we are hooking 15-20 rainbows. However watch out for the next set of warm weather. With this little bit of cold those bugs will be itching to do their thing when it gets back to 70. WATCH OUT BECAUSE THE YUBA IS GOING TO BE GOOD! The hot bugs of late have been rubberlegs, red copper johns, skwala stone, Hogan's Clinger, Hogan's S&M, and of course San Juans!


Feather River:

Well................It is not spring time on the Feather! The only reason is there are very few fish in there right now. Get pumped because we are about 1 month away from this place blowing up as well. For those of you that dont know this is by far my favorite time of year to fish on the Feather. There is not a hotter fish in the valley. If you are lucky enough to hook one of those Feather River Adult steelhead then that fish will keep you coming back year after year. I literally have clients that only want to fish this river with me. Typical days on the Feather result in 10-12 hookups on steelhead between 16-24". If you are lucky enough then sometimes you can find that fish that is pushing the high 20's mark. Prime time is Mid March to Mid May!

Tight Lines,
Ryan Johnston

[RJSFLYTRIP]

Well today is the second day ever that I have guided in the snow. Pretty crazy weather for Redding. We started fishing about 9AM and the first 1.5 hours there was a steady snow/sleet coming down. Needless to say there wer not lots of bugs coming off in the cold. However right about 11AM the fish started to eat. We landed 5 fish in the hour on Red Headed Step Childs, Olive Gidgets, adnd Micromays. The only issue was that my client threw in the towel a little after noon. I guess all of the rain/snow/sleet got to him. Once you start shivering I guess there is nothing that you can really do except get out of the cold. I can tell you though he was more excited about the car heater than a kid on Christmas morning!!! Hindsight we should have started around 10:30 but I guess you never know. Things are looking up for the weekend if you want to fish in Redding. Looks like Saturday and Sunday the weather is going to hold up for us.

Just as a note the Yuba is currently blown out. So check the flows before heading out toward Marysville.

Tight Lines!

[Troutstalker55B]

Snow and steelheading are one thing but on the valley floor it's insane. My brother was fishing the Feather in December of 1973 for steelies and it was snowing, AND he was wet wading as he could not afford waders at that time! The fish gods were with him as he landed a 13 pound buck with the Oakie fly! He said it was the coldest day of his life.

Jon.

[RJSFLYTRIP]

To anyone interested I had a last minute cancellation for Monday. I will offer a full day of fishing at the half day cost of 275. The trip will have to be on the Lower Sac as the Yuba is currently blown out. Right now we are landing between 20-25 rainbows a day on the Sac. Plus it looks like the weather on Monday is going to be awesome. Email me at ryan@rjsflytrips.com if you want to get in on the deal.

Hope everyone is staying warm.

Tight Lines!

[RJSFLYTRIP]

I hope you are all having a great week. Well winter is still here in the North Valley. Hopefully you guys are not frozen blocks of ice from the cold last week. I think that my fingers are just now defrosting. The last couple of weeks have been some of the coldest that I have ever seen. One client of mine was not so lucky 2 weeks ago when we sat in 1.5 hours of snow in Redding. Yes I said snow in Redding. But even with the snow flakes we were able to find a few fish to bite. Things are starting to look warmer for the week to come but even with that there is more rain in the forecast. Well you ready for the good news...............cold weather means the hatches are going to be huge when it gets warm again. So expect the fishing from the mid March - mid April to be excellent. That means there will still be March Browns on the Yuba and Caddis on the Lower Sac. So get excited because there is really good fishing to come. Check out my latest fishing report and openings below. I look forward to spending some time with you guys this spring.

Openings:
March: 3-4, 8, 12-17, 20-24

April: 3-6, 11-13, 15, 20-22, 25-26

May: 2-7, 9-10, 17-20, 28-31

Weekend Dates Still Open: March 12-13, March 20, April 3, May 7, May 28-29


Lower Sac:
Well it has been an interesting month on the Lower Sac. The conditions have been all over the board. Warm early in the month and freezing temperatures of late. Needless to say the hatches on the Sac have also been bouncing around. We have seen some huge caddis hatches under the sunny weather and really big blue wing hatches with the rain. The hatches have been impressive for the last month. I had clients last week that were lucky enough to be in the biggest caddis hatch of the year thus far. There were so many caddis out that we grabbed a dry fly rod. In one tail out we hooked 2 fish on caddis dries. Now I know that doesn't seem like a big deal but that is more rare than hooking a steelhead on the Sac. The middle stretches of the Sac continue to fish the best with most of my time being spent on either Bonnyview to Anderson or Anderson to Balls Ferry. The hot flies of late have been prince nymphs, Hogan's S&M, Brown Micro Mays, Small Flashback PTs, and rubberlegs. Currently the river is fishing pretty normal with most days resulting in 25+ rainbows landed. Expect things to blow up on the Lower Sac when we finally get some sunny weather in the high 60s. When that happens the fishing is going to be SILLY!

Yuba River:

The Yuba has been having a rough go for the last couple of weeks. There have been small windows to fish the Yuba with major fluctuating flows on the river. Currently the river is fishable and flowing at 2,000 CFS. However with more rain coming tomorrow I expect Deer Creek to blow the Yuba out for a couple more days. Probably by next weekend the Yuba will be good to go again. It just depends on how much water we get in the next couple of days. With all of the changing conditions I have not been on the Yuba for the last couple of weeks. But if I were to go out there I would try rubberlegs, San Juans, Hogans S&M, Hogans Clinger, Copper Johns, and even some eggs. Expect things to get really good hear as well when we get some warm weather. Hopefully the flows will not be up when that happens. To be honest I am bitting at the bit to get out there.


Feather River:

Well................It is not spring time on the Feather! The only reason is there are very few fish in there right now. I talked to a guy who guided the Feather last week and they only hooked a couple of fish. So it is still to early for the Feather to start fishing. But get pumped because we are about 2-3 weeks away from this place blowing up as well. If you want to go out there scouting then throw all of your favorite green caddis patterns, Hogans S&Ms, San Juans, Birds Nest, Alevins, Etc. The Spring is by far my favorite time of year to fish the Feather. If you fish it enough then you will have one of those magical days out there where everything seems to align and there are tons of fish in the system that want to eat your fly. Hang on and don't screw up when you hit the big one. Expect the Feather to peak from mid March through April.

February's Big Fish of the Month!

The big fish award for February is going to Jesus Cardenas. Jesus has been fishing with me for about 3 years now. He lucked into this great 23" clipped steelhead on the Lower Sac the second week of February. The best part of this fish is that it absolutely hammered his fly. This fish was moving so fast that I saw it under the boat by the time he was setting the hook. The crazy part is this fish passed up the Rubberlegs to eat a small prince nymph. Dumb fish! In the end Jesus did everything right and we netted this fish right above Deschutes Bridge. Jesus will get $50 off his next trip with me. I hope there are more steelhead to come this spring! It seems like there are always a few it just depends if you are lucky enough to land one. Maybe you will be the next big fish winner.

[cadisaction]

Hey Ryan what do you know about the egg bite on the Yuba when should we start looking for that action?

[Ralph]

If you're talking about salmon eggs, Sept - Feb. Sucker spawn is Feb-June.

[RJSFLYTRIP]

Ralph is right. No salmon in the Yuba right now. It wont be until next fall when the next egg bite starts. But sometimes salmon egg patterns (beads and microspawn) will continue to catch fish even when there are no salmon in the river. If you get off color water on the Yuba then eggs and beads can be very effective. I catch fish on egg patterns all throughout the year but the crazy good time is the fall and early winter. Hope that clears things up for you.

Tight Lines!