Burney Creek and Upper McCloud River

[JT]

I went camping this week with my wife. We started out at Burney Falls, and headed over to Fowler's Camp on the Upper McCloud River. Tuesday morning I fished Burney Creek for a couple of hours and only managed to land two fish, both rainbows. That evening I also fished the creek, landing seven, including a 16" brown. I hooked many more fish, but these fish are pretty good at throwing small barbless hooks. I was using a two nymph set up, but the fish only wanted the smaller fly, a #16 and later a #18 tan micro mayfly.

The next evening I fished the Upper McCloud River for a couple of hours. I landed twelve: one brown and eleven rainbows. Only one of these was caught on a dry (#20 Griffith's Gnat), the only brown of the day. I tried a few other dries, but the fish didn't seem to want to come to the surface, so I went deep with a #12 green drake nymph. In the first five casts I hooked five fish. Another producer was a #10 golden stone nymph. Again, the top fly was a #16 tan micro mayfly. The next morning I landed ten: one brown, six brookies, and four rainbows. All were landed on a #12 green drake nymph or the #16 tan micro mayfly. I tried green and tan Fox Poopahs, midges, and other mayfly patterns, but they didn't work well.

I wanted to fish the Pit River but never made it over there. I also wanted to fish the Lower McCloud River, but we ran out of time. The storm that blew through the area put a damper on things. I ended up spending a lot of time with my wife, though, which was a plus. We did some kayaking on Lake Britton, some sight-seeing, and once the rain stopped we did a little hiking. I can't wait to get back out there. That is a beautiful area.

[Adam Grace]

Nice report. I wish that I had taken time to fish the upper McCloud during my last trip there, but waders fatigue got the better of us, thanks to the preserve.

[dtp916]

Top producer was a MICRO MAY

Only cuz that's all you been fishing!!!

Nice job buddy, sorry I couldn't go with you today

[JT]

If the micro may keeps catching fish the way it has been, I'll be fishing it for a long time.

[Adam Grace]

'm glad that you had a nice trip. That's a nice area to fish. Gregg and I fished that area last year and had a great trip. We fished Burney Creek, the Pit, the Fall River and a little time on Hat Creek before we left. That's a beautiful area, and the Burney Falls Camping area was very nice, especially with the addition of their new general store.