Reports from Nor Cal fly fishing guide Hogan Brown.......June 17, 2019

OPEN DATES – IF YOU WANT TO GET ON MY CANCELLATION LIST SHOOT ME AN EMAIL AS THERE ARE INEVITABLY CANCELLATIONS THAT COME UP.

July 10,
Aug 3, 31

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Hope everyone is getting out and enjoying the summer…seems like it went from spring to summer in about 7 days here in Chico. One weekend it was raining and cold then the next week it was dry and hot, so goes northern California I guess. Run off is getting under hand in some places and still raging out of control in others. For myself I have been spending nearly every day on the Sac chasing stripers. While I always say I am going to get out and do some trout or bass fishing on my days off I always seem to just head back out to the river…so is the draw of that place.

Striper season is off and running and conditions are shaping up, as it seems every year to be different then the last. We have “high” but nowhere near abnormal or blown out water. The river is hovering around 10K CFS and clarity really varies depending on where you are in the river. Nowhere is “blown out” by any means, but there are areas with 3 feet of visibility and there are areas with 6” of visibility and knowing where color comes from throughout the river is key to finding good fishing.

Last year we dealt with COLD water and this year it seems we may, believe it or not, be dealing with warm water. While dirty water heats up faster then clear water water temps are still WARM. The last week taking off at Butte City water temps had reached 68-69 by the end of the day where the water never got that warm ALL summer or fall last year. While this doesn’t turn off or on the bite it just changes it. The one thing it will do is DRASTICALLY and negatively affect salmon fishing as the good salmon fishing we had last year was due to the much colder then average water temps.

Supposedly there are still some shad around but with the prolific returns on the Lower Yuba River I did not guide shad at all this spring and with the weird weather this May I didn't even fish for them.

Lower Yuba River – Finally seems to be dropping, today it is down to 5100cfs and looks to be dropping each hour…who knows what the plan is. That said it is getting to a safe floatable flow here as my take out is right above the diversion dam so the higher flows are a bit dicey taking out RIGHT at the lip of the dam. That said clarity is awesome as anglers are hammering shad below the diversion dam and people are floating the public stretches of the river and getting some trout above. I am sure that July through the fall are going to be great fishing on the Lower Yuba for trout.

Hogan Brown

https://www.hgbflyfishing.com/