McCloud river clarity

[Ben Kobrin]

Hi guys. I'm headed up to the McCloud River this weekend. I know that the PG&E flow experiments are scheduled to end on Thursday, which I thought would be perfect for a weekend fishing trip. Now we've got a heat wave headed our way and I'm worried about runoff blowing out the river.

Does anyone know the river well enough to give me an educated guess about how it will respond to the hot weather? Thanks all!

-Ben

[bigtj]

The flows are at 1,200 that's still pretty big water. Clarity shouldn't be an issue, the "bite" and finding a good place to fish could be (the jump in flows can throw the fishing off for a while). At 1,200 fish the edges and eddies and BE CAREFUL.

I would just go and have fun. The opener in '06 we fished it at 3,200 cfs and although the fishing was very physical we caught a ton of fish and had a blast.

[Ben Kobrin]

As expected, the weather was crazy hot. No wind to speak of. The flows were brought down to normal and the water was crystal clear. Despite the great conditions, fishing was tough. We hit three spots over the day and a half of fishing and only one produced. Still, beautiful river and a lot of fun. In all I landed 5, all in the 14-17" range...3 rainbows and 2 browns.

Here is a pic of a beautiful fish. Also interesting is that it was caught on a Royal Wulff fly and a Joan Wulff Favorite Winston rod! Those Wulff's know their stuff.

[bigtj]

Great pics, thanks for sharing and glad you had a good time. That place is pretty special!

-John