Rancho Seco today

[Quinnphoto]

The water temperatures are rising and by next week the bass will start building their beds. In the mean time fish are starting to move into the shallows for pre spawn activities. Midges were coming off the water in good numbers in the afternoon. I have fished Pyramid so much I thought I set up my rods similarly using an indicator with a balanced leech and another with midges. I finned very very slowly dragging my midges and casting and retrieving my balanced leech slowly. Usually I cast with an intermediate line pulling a nymph. ItÂ’s fun to try new ways to catch fish. I was delighted with the results. I landed ten missed 5. I caught 2 trout, 5 bass, 2 crappie and one redear or blue gill not sure. One of the two trout was good sized and one bass as well, both close to two pounds. The midge caught four and balanced leech 6. Gotta say the fishing was great but the catching was the bomb!!!

[Pvillarr]

The water temperatures are rising and by next week the bass will start building their beds. In the mean time fish are starting to move into the shallows for pre spawn activities. Midges were coming off the water in good numbers in the afternoon. I have fished Pyramid so much I thought I set up my rods similarly using an indicator with a balanced leech and another with midges. I finned very very slowly dragging my midges and casting and retrieving my balanced leech slowly. Usually I cast with an intermediate line pulling a nymph. ItÂ’s fun to try new ways to catch fish. I was delighted with the results. I landed ten missed 5. I caught 2 trout, 5 bass, 2 crappie and one redear or blue gill not sure. One of the two trout was good sized and one bass as well, both close to two pounds. The midge caught four and balanced leech 6. Gotta say the fishing was great but the catching was the bomb!!!

Sounds like a fun day! That is a hell of a lot closer than Pyramid lol.

[Quinnphoto]

Sounds like a fun day! That is a hell of a lot closer than Pyramid lol.

Got to sleep in, have breakfast, and get home to buy dinner for my wife:)

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Rancho Seco is actually a very nice place to fihs and is under rated by many.

The water is usually very clear so seeing fish is possible.

Late Fall, Winter and early Spring you can fish for planted Rainbow trout.

Spring, Summer and Fall you can fish for LMB and panfish.

They actually have a nice RV/Campground for those who wanted to stay there for a time.

_____________________________________

Veteran fly fishers Mike Monroe and Chuck Campana use to frequent Rancho Seco.

Because of the clear water both fished from small stable prams that they could stand in to sight fish some.

Mike used a large Casual Dress nymph to catch bass.

Chuck used a floating line, 15' leader and small olive woolly bugger after locating schools of planted trout.

[Quinnphoto]

Rancho Seco is actually a very nice place to fihs and is under rated by many.

The water is usually very clear so seeing fish is possible.

Late Fall, Winter and early Spring you can fish for planted Rainbow trout.

Spring, Summer and Fall you can fish for LMB and panfish.

They actually have a nice RV/Campground for those who wanted to stay there for a time.

_____________________________________

Veteran fly fishers Mike Monroe and Chuck Campana use to frequent Rancho Seco.

Because of the clear water both fished from small stable prams that they could stand in to sight fish some.

Mike used a large Casual Dress nymph to catch bass.

Chuck used a floating line, 15' leader and small olive woolly bugger after locating schools of planted trout.

Because of the pandemic I think Rancho Seco was loved too much last year and many of the meat guys kept a lot of the bass. Many were taken off their beds. It was one of the few foothill impoundments open at the start of Covid along with Lake Amador. Hopefully this year with all lakes being open Rancho Seco will be left as before so the bass population can reproduce many more of its own kind.

So Bill I never heard of a casual dress nymph before. Can you describe what it might look like?

[k.hanley]

Here you go Quinn... enjoy!

https://news.orvis.com/fly-fishing/video-tie-casual-dress

Cheers, Ken

[Scott V]

Seco bass fishery went down hill a couple years ago because a guy was spear fishing for the big females from his kayak. Luckily someone found his posts on Facebook and was turned over to the local police, DFG and Seco themselves. We posted his face all over the place and at Seco, they were checking every day for him. The POS even hid his kayak in the bushes so he wouldn't have to pay the launch fees. Hopefully the place will come back to the good old days.

I've had a annual pass there for years, one of my favorite places to fish, I'll probably be there this weekend.

[Quinnphoto]

Thanks Ken for the link. I learn something new everyday when it comes to fly fishing. I can see that fly working very well in any stillwater.