Isonychia - Pit River

[Pupa]

Heading to the Pit mid October for an annual trip. Over the years I have heard old-timers speak of fall isonychia hatches on this river. I have fished the Pit may years through Sept-Oct and have never had a single encounter. Does anyone have anything to report? The only place I have ever been able to fish this hatch is on the MFFR. It was a blast and can only imagine how much fun it would be on the Pit.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

The new higher flows on the Pit River have change the Isonychia mayflies.......maybe to non-existent?

A group of us fished the river for maybe 40 years at the old lower flows.

We always just fished the Pit in the Fall, Sept/Oct and would hit the Isonychia hatch off and on but with always good fishing.

The Pit River at the old flows was my favorite wild trout stream in the world.

I had days with old friends that were hard to describe with words.



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After the big spill on the Lower Sac, veteran guide Fred Gordon move to the Pit River for guiding for the next decade or so.

In doing so I think he introduced Frank Pipgrass to the Pit River.

Frank pretty much got hooked on the Pit and did a lot of fishing and research.

Frank believes that mid-September through mid-October was the Isonychia emergence before they raised the flows.



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Guide Fred Gordon now is hired by the CA DF&W to fish the Pit River for fish survey in the new high flows.

He told me he wears a wet suit and averages 70 trout a day.

I am sad about the high flows now because I can't really fish it or don't want to anymore.

I am excited that Fred believes it is really good for the fishery.

[tcorfey]

Bill you are a wealth of information, ever think about writing a book?

[EricO]

Heading to the Pit mid October for an annual trip. Over the years I have heard old-timers speak of fall isonychia hatches on this river. I have fished the Pit may years through Sept-Oct and have never had a single encounter. Does anyone have anything to report? The only place I have ever been able to fish this hatch is on the MFFR. It was a blast and can only imagine how much fun it would be on the Pit.

I haven't either. I've tried the flies, but never seen one bug.

Jeff F fishes the Pit alot...I'll ask him if he's ever seen a isonychia hatch materialize.

Eric

[Pupa]

Bill thanks as always for the stories and wealth of info. I've fished plenty during the fall on the Pit and even pre-high flows i never saw a bug either - more elusive than bigfoot it seems...

[StevenB]

I hope that some day the Isonychia hatch comes back on the Pit, but as far as I can tell, it was wiped out by the white water flow tests they did way back when they were studying the idea of white water flows (I think 2004?). Least ways I stopped seeing Iso on the Pit after those high flow tests.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

The Isonychia may fly nymph emerges by swimming to the edge of a big rocks, clinging at the water's edge and emerging. Then the adults crawl up to the top of the rocks and fly away. They don't float down the runs and emerge mid-stream like most other mayflies.

I have caught the nymph swimming under the surface and had them emerge in my hand.

Galen Geller (Oregon Salmon) use to tie us a great shaggy black size 10 Isonychia nymph pattern.

During the emergence activity the fishing us to be unreal.....with black nymphs in the aerated pocket water.

Over the past 40 years we hit it right a dozen times or more.


One time there was three of us fishing together. The fishing was so wild that two of us would sit on the side and took turns letting one guy fish catching large wild Pit River Rainbows on almost every cast.



*I am very sad that I can not take my grandsons up there to experience the river in those lovely lower flows in the fall.


I think I will start writing a large complete article about the history of the Pit River that I learned from others in my 50 years of working in the fishing industry in Sacramento.

The Powell Rod family were Pit River fans many decades ago.

Frank Scofield and his friends, all of the Greatest Generation, were another old group who fished the Pit River hard for years.

Over the years I sent only younger strong spirited anglers to the Pit river and some got extremely bonded with it.

I will put it up on my personal web site : http://www.billkiene.com/hobbies/fishing/

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[pearl snaps]

I have about 50 days on the Pit with the new flows, mostly in the fall, and have encountered the isonychias once. It was about this time of year, late September / early October maybe three or fours years ago. They were swarming above a stretch of fast, bubbly water at Madesi on Pit 5 below the dam riffle / run where the braids come back together. I don't know if they were hatching, mating or laying eggs. They were also larger than one would guess, more a number 8 standard shank than a 10. At the time I was using an October caddis pattern and doing well. I remember the flow was about 550 cfs.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Thanks Pearl Snaps....

I have only heard of the mating swarms and spinner falls of the Isonychia mayfly but have never seen it myself.

Most never get to fish the dries/adults on that hatch/emergence.

I have seen them sitting on the top of larger rocks during the emergence drying their wings to fly away.

[Notch]

My best fishing on the Pit River has typically been in October. I think it was 2002-2005 when I was up there almost every other weekend, fishing solo in the canyon and not seeing another fisherman for 2-3 days at a time. The Pit 5 reach was my favorite, flows were always stable at 150cfs. Back then I didn't even know what an isonychia mayfly was, but got lucky when I decided to put on a black wooley bugger. I proceeded to catch fish in every run/riffle/pool all the way to Pit 5 dam. I lost track how many fish I caught. Most were like the ones in the picture below.

Those type of days are still common on the Pit, you just have to work a little harder for them. There's no question that more water is better for the fish and ecosystem, although I'm not sure how the isonychia are digging the 2,000 cfs below Pit 5 dam right now.