Fishing (very) high flows in the Fall
Anybody have any CA experience fishing high flows in the Fall? We have a trip planned for Mccloud next weekend. Our timing is impeccable.
We've been monitoring every sensor imaginable trying to set our expectations: turbidity, flows, weather, etc. We are anticipating high to very high flows, maybe in the 800's, if not higher. At those flows, the silt turbidity from the lake should dissipate a bit with all the clear feeder streams adding volume.
Is it laughably optimistic that the fish might still be eating/scavaging along the banks for worms, terrestrials, etc, instead of whatever baetis and october caddis might have survived?
Can anyone out there help us keep our dreams alive?
nope, sorry, no help, more like kill the dream
"We've been monitoring every sensor imaginable trying to set our expectations: turbidity, flows, weather, etc. We are anticipating high to very high flows, maybe in the 800's, if not higher. At those flows, the silt turbidity from the lake should dissipate a bit with all the clear feeder streams adding volume. "
Ah, no, unless you are talking about fishing the bollibokka, there are not enough feeder streams above the Ah-Di-Na area to make much of a difference in turbidity.
On the other hand I would not expect high flows, the reservoir is not full so there should not be water coming over the spillway.
Take right now for example:
The MSS gauge which is close to Shasta lake (on the bollibokka) is showing flows of 1,171 but the MCA gauge (Ah-Di-Na) is showing only 328 and is already going down.
However the turbidity has really gone up. Talked to someone who was fishing the Ash Camp area on Friday and they reported that at the start of the day visibility was about 1 foot but by the afternoon visibility was essentially 0.
I would not expect the water to clear enough to be fish-able by next week-end.
You can come on up and give it a try but I would plan on fishing the USac as a back up.
Right now the USac is muddy here in Dunsmuir, but the rain is supposed to be done by mid-week and the USac drops and clears quickly.
Just look at today on the DLT gauge:
The river topped out at 4,902 at 1:00 PM and is already back down to 2,537 at 9:00 PM
I would expect it to be fish-able by next week-end.
More to the point of your specific question, yes I have a lot of experience fishing the rivers at high flows in the Fall
However much more on the USac than on the McCloud.
They are both fishable in select spots but you have to cover a lot of ground to find those spots which is why I usually fish the USac at high flows, much more water choices and much easier to get to.
