What will be fishable first? Early July predictions?

[Troutsource]

Upper Sac (Dog Creek / Delta)
McCloud
Pit 3
Truckee
Yuba - NF
Yuba - main stem
Battle Creek

And any date predictions or predictions for early July? Fishable means consistently fishable in a non-hazardous manner for at least a week (no snowmelt/turbidity issues, no abnormal difficulty wading). Fishable enough so that you'd be willing to plan, as you write your post, to a rare 3-day trip with friends traveling from out of state, getting in on the earliest action before the river is crawling with fishermen.

I remember a few years back the Upper Sac wasn't fishable until early July. The Fly Shop made the declaration on their web site, and we hauled ass and fished it the next day and it was on fire with caddis in the lower sections. Hoping to get out in early July again, but not sure what will be on tap (besides Rolling Rock).

I'm going to throw my poorly educated guesses out there:

Upper Sac (Dog Creek / Delta) -- July 5
McCloud -- June 25
Pit 3 -- June 20
Truckee -- June 15
Yuba - NF -- June 15
Yuba - main stem -- June 10
Battle Creek -- June 20

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Averagely the McCloud River will fish first out of that group, then the Upper Sac, Truckee and NF Yuba.

Early in cold high water I would fish in the afternoons.

In cold water early and late is not usually that good.

Fish a big black heavy #4/6 stone fly nymph and a #12/14 Prince nymph on 3x.

Try some big adult stones in the warm afternoons.

Just some ideas.....the folks who are not experts or guides.

Nice to find water over 50 degrees?

.

[PV_Premier]

Too early to say. First let's see how much snow melts in this heat wave this week.

But I'll tell you what I'm doing for 4th of July weekend. Headed to Smoky Mtn national park to harass some brookies.

[hwchubb]

Even last year the North Fork Yuba was WAYYY up in mid, June, though we found a few fish along the edges (spots that were bone dry at normal flows). May be mid-July this year. Planning my first High Sierra trip for the end of July.

[cdevine]

If you can recall 2010-11 that is probably your best gauge because this year has been like no other. I really think we are talking July and later for some freestone streams. 200% of normal is not normal! Truckee is at 5k plus right now which its never been for this long this deep in the year. We still have 20 feet plus of snow!

Agree that mccloud and upper sac will be fishable earlier than places like north yuba and truckee as defined by "fishable" flows in your opening remarks. All I know is late summer and fall will be awesome this year. And quite frankly spring has been very good if you can find softer edges.

Good luck!!

[Jeff F]

I believe PG&E is doing some work on the Pit #3 dam/tunnels and that's why the flows have been up on that stretch (500cfs+). Normal is like 350cfs or so. From what I've heard, once they finish the work, the flows will come down to "normal". #4 and #5 are raging and probably won't come down for a while. And knowing how greedy PG&E is, they're gonna milk all the power they can get outta this high water year. They don't give a rats ass about fishermen. Same with the NF Feather.

[yankeefanbob]

I believe PG&E is doing some work on the Pit #3 dam/tunnels and that's why the flows have been up on that stretch (500cfs+). Normal is like 350cfs or so. From what I've heard, once they finish the work, the flows will come down to "normal". #4 and #5 are raging and probably won't come down for a while. And knowing how greedy PG&E is, they're gonna milk all the power they can get outta this high water year. They don't give a rats ass about fishermen. Same with the NF Feather.

Agreed!!!

[yubaman]

Several years ago when we had some big snow, I took the opportunity to billy goat it into some of the creeks below snowline in the American River drainage. I figured the creeks below snowline had to settle down first. The fishing was excellent at the time, with some large fish in small water, and lots of fish period. Some of these creeks just don't get hit. One of these was Shirttail Creek, which goes into the NF American just south of Weimar.

Most of the creeks were some pretty aggressive hiking with over 1000' elevation climbs to get to. I imagine with the water conditions the last 3 years, there has probably been some severe die-off in these small creeks, and the trout population maybe all but nonexistent for a couple of years. Too bad.

With those climbs in and out of some of these places, Unfortunately, I'm not investing that kind of physical work at 57 years old to prospect and find out. But if someone younger wants to . . .

[Troutsource]

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

Sounds like the McCloud and Upper Sac are the best bets. I guess the McCloud drainage is more aquifer-based than most. Someone said once that the majority of the flow in late summer comes from water that entered the aquifer several years earlier.

Any thoughts on the Lower Yuba or Battle Creek? Or Deer Creek for that matter -- I've heard good things but never been there. Hopefully the Yuba doesn't take too long to recover from the scouring it got.

Hopefully Pit 3 is back to normal flows by July. I think it's the most prolific water I've ever fished, though my body pays a price.

Since moving out here from the eastern US (grew up fishing in PA) over 15 yrs ago, I've been obsessed with the bigger more western water (with bigger fish) that was rare back home. But maybe this will be the year to do some experimenting. I have fished the Rubicon once near the bridge in low water where we could scamper upstream -- that was really nice, but there were 8 million mosquitoes, and a bat bounced off our windshield on the drive home (at which point we closed our windows).

We are definitely spoiled by riches out here. Back east, a much higher percentage of the water slows way down or becomes unfishable by mid/later summer. And the season is much shorter with a faster onset of fall (though I guess lots of streams are fishable earlier since there's not as much snowmelt). The most "western" river I ever fished back there was the Upper Delaware -- bottom release and technically fishable year-round, I think. I'd be curious if anyone here has ever fished the Delaware or Penn's Creek or Slate Run in PA.

[yubaman]

Never have fished either. I have been told that the aquifer cycle up on the McCloud is 60 years! I suspect that is true. I think the Yuba will run very, very high all summer. At 8K-9K flows right now, it is really unfishable. I suspect it will be fishable, at very high flows in the summer. My guess would be around 4K.