McCloud - Any updates on the pending road closure at the Ad Di Na Turnoff?

[ICE]

Greetings All,
I am hoping someone might provide an update to access to the AH-DI-NA campground and Conservancy. I have a trip in early Oct. and want to plan accordingly.
Patterns and suggestions welcome as well.

J. Ice

[mattv-mcfly]

I am also interested. It looks like the turbidity and flow are good. How is the road? The NF site says that the road is in very rough condition and is not advisable to travel on. Is this all hearsay to keep us from getting down there for some awesome fishing?

[StevenB]

Word as of last week is river still a little off-color but fish-able. Water is blue-white glacier runoff color not brown.
Visibility is approx 18 inches at conservancy.

Have not heard anything about the road being any worse that usual.

Some big browns have been caught recently so they are in there.

No reports on any special flys working.
The usual stuff:
size 8 Rubber legs,
14-18 Dark lords,
14 Soft Hackle PT
8 Oct Caddis Pupa

Purple flys have been working recently on the Sac so maybe the Mac too.

Purple Frenchies and Brush Hogs

https://www.driftlessangler.com/esto...died/brush-hog

if you are a tier try tying up a few purple rubber legs just for fun.

[ICE]

Thanks Steven!

[mattv-mcfly]

I just got back from fishing there for the first time. Clarity was good and the catching was good. Fish were taking rubber legs and BWO flies but mostly on the mayfly. I was using an iron lotus that outfished the stonefly. I fished the conservancy for about 8 hours and got maybe 2/3 of the way in before calling it a day. The McCloud feels sorta... overrated? I wish someone told me that brown trout only make less than 5% of the catch rate. I don't know man it's a long drive for me.

[WLREDBAND]

Agree with most everything you said. Been FF CAL for over 50 years, and it's pretty safe to say, that if it's talked about extensively on the interweb, there's a good chance it's overfished and over rated. The challenge is finding those places that are NOT discussed widely on the interwebs, but those are few and far between but they do still exist.

I just got back from fishing there for the first time. Clarity was good and the catching was good. Fish were taking rubber legs and BWO flies but mostly on the mayfly. I was using an iron lotus that outfished the stonefly. I fished the conservancy for about 8 hours and got maybe 2/3 of the way in before calling it a day. The McCloud feels sorta... overrated? I wish someone told me that brown trout only make less than 5% of the catch rate. I don't know man it's a long drive for me.

[mattv-mcfly]

Agree with most everything you said. Been FF CAL for over 50 years, and it's pretty safe to say, that if it's talked about extensively on the interweb, there's a good chance it's overfished and over rated. The challenge is finding those places that are NOT discussed widely on the interwebs, but those are few and far between but they do still exist.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that shares this opinion. The McCloud was the last of the most popular fly fishing rivers in California that needed to fish. All the pictures of the McCloud are of big brown trout but they are way more elusive out there than advertised. The guides probably know which holes they're in but the average visitor most likely won't find any. I can name a handful of places that will give better odds on big browns. I don't know if this is typical of the McCloud but I found the wading to be equal to the Pit with rocks covered in snot. If I wanted snot rocks I would have just fish the Pit at least it's easier to get to and the fishing is 10x better.