McCloud River has gone off-color

[StevenB]

second hand reports say Mac has gone off color
reported visibility of 6-8 inches


more recent 2nd hand report as of 08/17 says visibility has improved to 16-18 Inches.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I guess the glaciers are melting?

This happens on the famous Steelhead river in British Columbia, the Dean River, if it gets too hot.

[StevenB]

Anytime night time temps up on the mountain (Shasta) are relatively high, glaciers melt and Mud creek dumps a whole bunch of glacial silt into the system above McCloud reservoir. Interestingly enough McCloud reservoir color is fine because the muddy water moves thru the lake at the level of the thermocline. You can not see it at the surface of the lake,
But it comes out the bottom of the Dam (at the faucet as it is called) and it puts the river off.
Probably last the rest of the month.

BTW this does not mean the river is totally unfishable, but it will be a lot like the Crooked River in OR.

Give the fish a few days to acclimate and they will still feed, you just can not see where you are wading.

Personally I much prefer clear water for trout fishing.

[PV_Premier]

Anytime night time temps up on the mountain (Shasta) are relatively high, glaciers melt and mud creek dumps a whole bunch of glacial silt into the system above McCloud reservoir. Interestingly enough McCloud reservoir color is fine because the muddy water moves thru the lake at the level of the thermocline. You can not see it at the surface of the lake,
But it comes out the bottom of the Dam (at the faucet as it is called) and it puts the river off.
Probably last the rest of the month.

BTW this does not mean the river is totally unfishable, but it will be a lot like the Crooked River in OR.

Give the fish a few days to acclimate and they will still feed, you just can not see where you are wading.

Very interesting, thanks for sharing this detail.

Do the fish still respond to the same bugs, ie the typical "TBS" for this time of year, or is this the time to bring out the streamer patterns with preference?

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Thanks Steve for the great info on one of our iconic trout streams.

[Rich Morrison]

If trout didn’t eat when things are off color there wouldn’t be any. Fish dark body patterns or something with a little flash or sparkle. Dark streamers can be great up there. I often find that when things are a little off color the fish are a lot less jittery than when the water is clear. They feel they are safe from above. As far as more and bigger fish go, fishing off color streams is almost as good as fishing at night. Keep in mind our “6-8 inches” is probably at least 2 or 3 feet for them. Plenty of vis to see what needs to be eaten. Off color is not blown and it makes the fishing better.

[StevenB]

Ya, Conventional wisdom says bigger dark flys are more visible to the fish in off color water.

I would lean towards using a size 8 rubber legs or Cased Caddis patterns like Bill Carnazzo's Stick Caddis (size 8-10)
but streamers could be good also.

Real key is reading the water to get your fly close to the fish so they can see it.