Upper American River

[dtp916]

I checked with DFG--all forks of the American are open with the gear/take limitations. Mosquito Ridge road is closed 20 miles in from Foresthill. It's 11 + miles to Ralston Powerhouse, so access to the Rubicon above Ralston is virtually nil.

Rubicon is open too?!!

[Bill Carnazzo]

Yup. The Rube is the main trib. of the Middle Fork at Oxbow. The Middle Fork as it goes into Oxbow is just a tiny trickle due to being essentially dewatered by PCWA's upstream hydro facilities. See my article in the new issue of California Fly Fisher.

[dtp916]

Hey Bill, what have you been catching them on right now? I was looking over your website, you have a lot of helpful and useful info. i like how you bring Ty with you fishing, I try to bring my dog as much as I can. Do you ever have problems bringing your dog in that area? I can't bring mine to Putah, he gets loaded with ticks , but everywhere else i go he seems to do fine...

[Bill Carnazzo]

The fish will take a deeply drifted dark olive stonefly. I have been using a #8 or 10 sparsely tied version with an epoxy wing case. My dog passed on this winter--he was 17 years old. The part of the Rubicon that is fishable at this time does not have brush or trees around it so your dog should be fine there.

[David Lee]

Bill -

Sorry to hear about your pooch . 17 years is a pretty good run , though .....

David

[dtp916]

I'm so sorry about your dog Bill. Good job at keeping him here for 17 years - that is incredible! RIP Ty you will be greatly missed.

[gilly]

Bill,
I was wondering what the water temps are on the middle fork. I've been out 2-3 hours a day on the South Fork in the HW 50 canyon for the past 3 days. The water temps range from 39-42 degress from Riverton up to Kyburz. I've only recieved one take while dredging a deep hole with a black leach pattern. My guess is that the fish are extremely lethargic with these temps and are hard pressed to seek out food. There was a pretty good mayfly hatch with a few caddis that lasted until 6:30 or so this evening but not a fish to be found coming to the surface to feed. Any tips that could be used one canyon south would be greatly appreciated.
Todd

[JT]

Bill,
I used to fish the middle fork a few times a year with my dad while I was growing up. We fished below the Ruck-a-Chucky Rapids. This was before I got into flyfishing. It's been over 10 years since I've fished this river and I'm not too familiar with the hatches here. Do you fish this section much? What kind of flies would you recommend here?

[Bill Carnazzo]

I generally use stonefly nymphs fished deep there during the "normal" season. I suspect that they will work there now also. I always add a trailer fly--usually a caddis pupa if in the afternoon, or a PT if in the morning. Probably any good mayfly nymph would work. The fish will be deep so you might also try swinging a large fly (sculpin, wooley bugger, etc.) through the deeper holes. There are some very large browns that live there.

[Bill Carnazzo]

The temps in the parts of the middle fork where I've been fishing are close to normal now. The main reason for this is that the Rubicon, which in effect becomes the middle fork at Ralston, flows down the canyon from Hell Hole entirely in the sun with consequent warming in the lower reaches. Below Oxbow the temperature drops because it comes out of the lake (oxbow). On its way to the confluence it warms again but not as much. I don't fish the Eldorado side of the divide much, but as I recall the portion you are fishing is shaded and probably cooler than the Rubicon. For that reason I would stick with larger, heavier flies and a short line nymphing strategy such as "Czech" style nymphing, or high-stick style. You're probably going to have to put the fly right in front of the fish in order to induce a take because they tend to be lethargic in winter conditions.