PDA

View Full Version : Email report from our guide friend Hogan Brown



Bill Kiene semi-retired
01-13-2013, 06:14 PM
Happy New Year

The onslaught of late fall / early winter storms seems to have passed and the rivers and creeks are settling back to normal and getting on with winter fishing. There is plenty of water, and we are not seeing the low flows of mid winter that we have in previous winters. With no big storms on the forecast winter hatches and fishing should be consistent for the next few weeks if not months.

The Lower Yuba has been stable for over a week now at 1900cfs and the clarity is perfect with a bit of color. There are a few winter steelhead in the system and with the higher then normal flows more and more should show up over the next 2 months. Skwala Stonefly hatches should start to get going as the weather is suppose to warm up over the next week and the baetis hatches should get going as well with maybe even a few early march browns. This is a great time of year, as long as the weather stays stable, to swing flies, nymph, and fish dries all in the same day.

The Lower Sacramento River is back to fishable clarity and cranking out its normal big winter fish. I have spent a fair amount of days over the last month on the upper floats on the sac and hooked some of the biggest rainbows of the year. We are not hooking huge numbers of fish but plenty of action throughout the day with some big fish in the mix. Fishing should remain good over the next few weeks. If we start to get some of that early warm February weather the spring caddis hatches will start up and move into March,which is one of the best months of the year on the Lower Sac.

Butte Creek will remain open until Feb 15 and with any rain the river will jump up again to floatable flows, but for right now the flows are at perfect wade fishing flows. There are good numbers of fish throughout the creek and fishing so far this season has been very good.

Feather River spring steelhead fishing usually gets going in March and if the fall run was any indication of how the spring run will be it should be a great year. Spring is a great time to swing flies on switch rods or light spey rods along with nymphing. I have both Scott and Echo switch and light spey rods for anglers to use if they want to try this style of fishing.

I have raised my rates for 2013 to $425 for a full day and $325 for a half day and I still have a few winter and early spring dates open:

Jan 20, 21, 26

Feb 2, 3, 9, 16,

March 16, 17, 23, 24, 31

As always check out my blog or hgb fly fishing on Facebook for the latest fishing info and other random information.

Hogan Brown
www.hgbflyfishing.com
www.hgbflyfishing.blogspot.com
www.casthope.org
****Check out HGB Fly Fishing on Facebook****

Bill Kiene semi-retired
01-13-2013, 06:17 PM
"Feather River spring steelhead fishing usually gets going in March and if the fall run was any indication of how the spring run will be it should be a great year. Spring is a great time to swing flies on switch rods or light spey rods along with nymphing. I have both Scott and Echo switch and light spey rods for anglers to use if they want to try this style of fishing."

I would highly recommend getting with Hogan in the spring on the Lower Feather River to swing flies for spring run Steeelhead.

March/April/May.....

.

Kyle C.
01-13-2013, 07:34 PM
Are there any good access points for wading for steelhead on butte creek?

Hogan Brown
01-13-2013, 08:15 PM
Thanks for putting this up bill!

With regards to butte Kyle explore honey run road south east of Chico. Be careful of the locals up in the canyon though they are a rough bunch. They don't look to kindly on trespassers so make sure you aren't on private property. Good luck!

Ben J
01-13-2013, 08:24 PM
Having floated Butte during the summer (with a tube and beer, not a raft and rods), I can fully agree with Hogan's advice above. The locals are grumpy and quick to get in your face, even if you're taking a break on the bank while floating by. I would love to fish this creek at some point, regardless.

Kyle C.
01-13-2013, 08:41 PM
Thanks for the advice! Maybe I will check out Honey Run Road sometime soon. There looks to be some good water a little downstream of the covered bridge. Thanks again.