AR Last night

[Tiger]

Jeff, he'll drive around for hours now looking for your Lexus. When he finds you he stands about a foot from you and starts hackin the water. I finally had to get a new truck. Gave him the slip until he discovered me about six months later. Now it's back to the same old crap. I need a new truck!

[Jeff C.]

LDRed 3 last night above Watt. The spin guys were doing better. A guy below me got 4 and Guppy got 10 above me.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Nice report Jeff

[Jeff C.]

Landed 3 last night. The gear guys were doing better getting real close to the bottom. Gonna try some T-14 today.

[Jeff C.]

The T-14 didn't work out too well. It was fine for the deeper water but kept getting hung up on the bottom at the end of the swing. Fished for 2.5 hours and didn't get a grab. Lots of spin guys showed up. 10 guys in the area that I was fishing and 8 up above where Guppy was. Yesterday's Fishing Line report in the Sac Bee sure brought them out of the woodwork. No one caught anything while I was there except for Guppy (2) and his friend (1). Time to fine some new water!

[OceanSunfish]

I saw and read the report in the Bee purely for entertainment value..... It was a 'cut 'n paste' report from 1998 or thereabouts or whenever the river is at 2.5K.....

Too bad the report did nothing but give you company.

I appreciate your reports.

[amoeba]

The T-14 didn't work out too well. It was fine for the deeper water but kept getting hung up on the bottom at the end of the swing. Fished for 2.5 hours and didn't get a grab. Lots of spin guys showed up. 10 guys in the area that I was fishing and 8 up above where Guppy was. Yesterday's Fishing Line report in the Sac Bee sure brought them out of the woodwork. No one caught anything while I was there except for Guppy (2) and his friend (1). Time to fine some new water!

Well - out of curiousity in seeing what the flip a fly fisherman would do in this roiling high river right now, I scouted the whole area up and down from Watt at the usual spots and didn't see a soul fishing last night 5-8 pm (nothing was reported on this sight). Wind was picking up, and there's more this morning.

I will report thusly - a whole bunch of chilly water was observed.

[WinterrunRon]

The T-14 didn't work out too well. It was fine for the deeper water but kept getting hung up on the bottom at the end of the swing. Fished for 2.5 hours and didn't get a grab. Lots of spin guys showed up. 10 guys in the area that I was fishing and 8 up above where Guppy was. Yesterday's Fishing Line report in the Sac Bee sure brought them out of the woodwork. No one caught anything while I was there except for Guppy (2) and his friend (1). Time to fine some new water!

Jeff, I'm curious...

When you change from different densities of sink tip, do you shorten the heavier ones (or lengthen the lighter ones) to maintain the same sink tip weight or are all the tips the same length and the rod is able to handle the various lines weights within it's grain window.

[steeliejim]

I saw and read the report in the Bee purely for entertainment value..... It was a 'cut 'n paste' report from 1998 or thereabouts or whenever the river is at 2.5K.....

Too bad the report did nothing but give you company.

I appreciate your reports.

Huh? Now I'm rolling my eyes at the lack of reading comprehension. Here's the report from the Bee that supposedly is a "cut-and-paste":


<<Although still high, the river's fishability continued to improve with flows now down to 7,000 cfs. A few striped bass were being taken, including a 40 pounder caught on a black plastic worm, and some small steelhead were (caught on) drifted nightcrawlers, but the focus is rapidly turning to shad. They are now present up to Riverbend Park, and should be all the way up to Sailor Bar in a week. Fishing should only get better in the weeks to come as the water warms and flows continue to drop.>>

Let's see--the AR had been flowing at 9k and higher for many weeks, and is down to 7k cfs, not an optimum-for-fishing flow by any means, but a darn sight better than the case a short time ago. The report also says shad are present, and clearly they are, cuz there's tons of them down at the mouth of the AR, and they've ALWAYS been at least half way up the AR by mid-May. It doesn't say anywhere that the fishing is red hot, but spin fishermen are catching them with some regularity.

Yeah, the media gets its share of blame, often deservedly so, but methinks the criticism here, has more to do more someone not liking anyone getting the word out in a timely fashion that shad are present in the AR.

And, as to giving up "secret" shad fishing spots on the AR, that gave me a good laugh (eyes rolling again). Come on, there's no such thing. Once a school of shad arrives at a certain stretch of river (and this is still the very front end of the run), they will settle in to an area of a preferred flow velocity and depth-- year after year after year after year...until a flood alters the river topography that provides the attraction--which hasn't happened in a long time.

OTOH, just because shad are present doesn't mean they are going to be all that interested in biting a fly. Especially not in this cold water. But, we have fish, and we have fishable water. That's what the article says. Seems to me that's more than good enough for lots of us.

As Bill points out, fishing for shad will be better in June, and, this year, probably better yet in July since shad really do like warm water. Flows might well remain above optimum levels and temperatures lower than optimum (for shad) throughout the season, though.

[Jeff C.]

Tips are pretty much all the same length (12.5 ft on the sink tips and 10 ft. on the T-11 and T-14). You just have to adjust your casting stoke when changing between the T material.