Lower McCloud Opener Report

[Ueyama]

It appears that everyone is fishing and there aren't too many reports. Well, the Lower McCloud for the opener was awesome. My buddy and I were very hesitant about the crowds and never have fished an opener on the McCloud. Both of us never fish any water openers, but were glad we did.

We got to the McCloud on Friday, a day before the opener, to stake clame to a camping spot and to conduct some non-fishing surveillance.

The river was running clear like glass. The flows were at about 450-475 CFS. The best hatches were in the late afternoon and not the late evening. Mutliple hatches were occuring. We seined the river and there were numerous mayflies, caddis, and stoneflies. The stones were ranging anywhere from size 14-8. Most were in size 12. The hot nymphs were bh pt's, black ap's (I tie them with black paint bristles for legs and tails), Mercer stones in green, and micro-mays. The hot dry was a size 16-14 adams, either standard or parachute. Didn't test any other dries, because we didn't need to.

I always keep the fish in the water and only pull out fish once the camera is prepped in hand.

[b] Brown #1 "I BOUGHT MY SAGE LAUNCH @ KEINE'S !!!"


[b] Brown #2 Regiritating a small 3" fingerling. Hope you can see.


[b]The Swimming Pool


[b]More Scenery

[JT]

I love that river! That's where I learned how to fish for trout in streams. It's an incredible place.

[Darian]

Amen JT,.... Altho I rarely fish it, the McCloud is my favorite river for Trout in California. There's nothing like rivers rising in volcanic country.

[bigtj]

Thanks for the pics. As far as other opener reports, check out my post "good luck saturday" I have a report about the McCloud opener there. I agree on flies, everything must have been working, because like you I only had to use a couple patterns (6 flies in total) and didn't really have to change except when my flies got destroyed. What a great day!