Pit river report
Yet another action-packed outing on the Pit with my brother. Sorry no pics
July 5: Evening on Upper Sac near Delta. The water was quite warm and low and the fishing was real slow. No hatches coming off and nothing happening subsurface. With the McCloud blown, the gravitational pull towards the Pit could not be denied.
July 6: Pulled into Pit 3 Talus Siren 9am with nobody around (through Burney). Flows seemed awfully low - pre-new-normal high flows low if that makes any sense. I checked the hourly CFS and apparently it remained around 350 throughout the weekend - very strange. Fishing was excellent until around noonish when the skunk set in for a couple hours. Water was relatively warm and air was blazing hot. Fishing was electric for about an hour upon first shadows (5 or 6pm) and then slowed to a steady pace until nightfall. Exited river at Rock Creek. 100% fish caught subsurface, of which 90% caught on brown rubberlegs. A few caught on various smaller nymphs (dark lords, caddis larvae, sallies). Camped at primitive site below Ruling Creek and had the place to ourselves. Gratitude to whoever left the firewood! No road closures. Pit 4 looked lower than normal. Damage: broken rod and beat-up body.
July 7: Pit 3 Delucci Ridge around 1pm after a 6 pack - not recommended on the Pit, let alone in 100 degree weather. Fishing was decent and then slowed down considerably. I suddenly realized that the wading seemed to be getting tougher by the minute. Went upstream and wading was just not practical given the flows. The big hole on the opposite bank we nailed last summer seemed to have disappeared. Again, i was 100% that the flows had been bumped. We drove back to Rock Creek and the wading was really tough. Entirely different conditions from the evening before. Figuring that the bump in flows had thrown the fish, we headed to Pit 4. Arrived around 7pm and the fishing was great until bat hour. A few faux browns (aka suckers) were brought to net. We stopped a beautiful mountain lion in its tracks as it was crossing the road at night. (I ran into one nearby as it was crossing the river the year before) Camped again in primitive site. Damage: headache and swollen hands from tossing junk with a 10' - 5" 7 weight repetitively for thousands of times, sucker slime.
July 8: Pit 4. Hiked down river and got into some nice fish. Flows definitely seemed much lower than usual but the data shows a consistent 450. What gives? Delusions of the promised land beyond the ridge led us through the forest, up cliffs and across the carnage of blown-out feeder creeks that seemed to have flooded the entire area. We eventually aborted mission due to the heat, the beer, the poison oak and being out of shape. Fished up river to the camp site. Very productive fishing and landed a 21" brown in some slack water in front of a large boulder. That is my third brown of that size on the Pit - more than I've gotten on the McCloud. My brother nearly got heat stroke/dehydration and drank almost 2 gallons of water on getting back to camp. Fished the evening up river and the fishing was on fire - for about an hour. Again, once that shade hit the water, the fish went on an eating frenzy. It quickly slowed to dribs and drabs until nightfall. Damage: Broken wading staff, poison oak(?), dehydration, broken body.
July 9: First full day of bodily recovery.
July 10: Second full day of bodily recovery.
Next time on the Pit, I would definitely have on hand a camel back to hydrate, spare wading staff in vest and a spare rod. We had walkie talkies which were a godsend and snake guards over the waders although no rattlers seen.
Great trip. Can't wait to get back there and inflict more bodily damage.
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Originally Posted by cdevine
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