Nice one! And wild!!
Some years ago lower American river expert, Captain Andy Guibord, used a "larger than the natural" #8/10 olive caddis emerger.
He would just swing them on a floating line.
Today Andy also likes to swing a small sculpin imitation that he and Mark Kranhold developed. They use smaller two handed fly rods
with a floating Scandi head and sink-tip.
In the Fall most use insect, egg, crayfish and fish imitations on the Valley rivers rather than classic Steelhead flies.
If you use steelhead flies I would just use sparce #8/10.
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I have to go back and look at Erik's wonderful fish again......
.
Bill Kiene (Boca Grande)
567 Barber Street
Sebastian, Florida 32958
Fly Fishing Travel Consultant
Certified FFF Casting Instructor
Email: billkiene63@gmail.com
Cell: 530/753-5267
Web: www.billkiene.com
Contact me for any reason........
______________________________________
Great fish...they're out there...can't catch them from the couch...
I might take a walk over to Watt on Sunday morning after seeing that...
He was swinging a brindle bug, yellow and brown/black I believe, but could have been an olive and black one too. Erik was generous enough to let me try one of his brindle bugs and give me his recipe for tying them. He said he does well with both the yellow and olive variations, it is pretty simple to tie.
Erik is old school.......we mostly used Brindle Bugs for years.
Now I think we found out that an #8/10 wet 'fly / nymph' of your choice will usually work.
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Just did some emailing with Jeff Ching and asked him what he was doing now?
He said he fishes almost every day.
He is fishing for Steelhead and for Stripers now.
I asked him what was the latest he caught a Shad in the American.
He said in October but they are all small males.
Bill Kiene (Boca Grande)
567 Barber Street
Sebastian, Florida 32958
Fly Fishing Travel Consultant
Certified FFF Casting Instructor
Email: billkiene63@gmail.com
Cell: 530/753-5267
Web: www.billkiene.com
Contact me for any reason........
______________________________________
Sure looks like the hunt is on in here! Been a while since I shared anything but this thread is perfect for my report.
I have been doing my first drifts with my boat on the AR, between Rossmore down to Watt. There has been steelhead on every trip with a 50/50 split on native fish and hatchery. 5wt Echo switch rod, OPST Commando smooth with s5/s6 sink tip, 8lb flouro about 4' to my leech pattern I use every year. This last weekend was the most steelhead for me ever in a single day. 5 adults, 2 native 3 hatchery, between 16-22" on the high end of the spectrum. I've noticed the fish are going after active flies, not a dead drift. In fact every trout I have caught in the last month has been stripping back my fly. Striper are still around, I got one Sunday fishing near a run I had great success with from my boat, just wading the stretch. Again on the strip. Fish have been getting caught during all times of the day. Heck, I had 4 inside 20 minutes around 3pm on a sunny day during the float last weekend.
I've only seen a salmon getting flossed in the morning two weeks ago, put on a good show.
I'll be headed out again this Sunday to float and see what I can find. Our flows are much better this season and hopefully a wet winter approaches. Late Aug-end of Sept has been great steelhead fishing the last three years for me. The fall season should be productive with the factors at play holding a positive look for the next few months.
BUT there is always something that messes with our game...if I remember correctly flows have been drastically adjusted during the week of steelhead opener and things just feel like they go downhill from there until shad season comes around. I can't see the current release from Lake Folsom continuing much longer and fear we will see another hard adjustment to the flows of the American.
Thank 2W&C......
Great post......looks like a good year?
Most years in late August we would see the half-pounders arrive.
I guess right now we have good flows and good temps.
Bill Kiene (Boca Grande)
567 Barber Street
Sebastian, Florida 32958
Fly Fishing Travel Consultant
Certified FFF Casting Instructor
Email: billkiene63@gmail.com
Cell: 530/753-5267
Web: www.billkiene.com
Contact me for any reason........
______________________________________
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