Ted Fay Report

Pictures from the McCloud show it has cleared up nicely and is fishing.

Loyal, even if somewhat poky, field scout Mark added a comment that his fish all took an October Caddis dry, with the caveat that he only fished for a short period of time. Something about not getting to the water until 3 o’clock was mumbled. But he redeemed himself with three nice pictures to show us the river.

No rain is in the forecast and all the local waters are getting over their bad attitude because of the large volume of water that fell  from the sky in previous weeks. 

Upper Sac flows are 689 at the bottom and in town has dropped to what appears to be normal levels.

Next ten days look good for an outing. Mid 50’s to maybe low 60’s for Dunsmuir and a few degrees colder on the McCloud.

October Caddis are still around and the fish are still eating them. Water is cold so you are not going to see summer time fish activity, but they still gotta eat.

McCloud at Ash Camp 11/24/25

McCloud at Ash Camp

McCloud at Ash Camp

Ted Fay Report

An angler was kind enough to send the shop a photo of the McCloud River. As I understand, this was taken last week-end 11/15/2025-11/16/2025

Ash Camp on the McCloud River

Ted Fay Report : November 16, 2025

First, a bit about this report.

Rick Cox, excellent local guide and bakery fan (see photos in previous reports), is retiring from this task. Thanks to Rick for many helpful reports!

I'm Steven Bertrand, mostly retired from a long career guiding on the local waters.

I am not on the water as much as I used to be, but I do hear things (and sometimes they are true). So I will put out a report when I can.

Conditions around Dunsmuir :

Upper Sac:

Rain, lots of rain. River is up, flows at the bottom (Dog Creek, where the gauge is) are at

1,314 (11/16 18:00), that is a bit big, you can find fishable spots but they are widely spaced.

Last time I was on the lower river (again Dog Creek) was before the latest rain storm but the visibility was fine, a little tint but not enough to bother.

In town has no gauge but it looks to me like the 600 to 800 range, big,

Very few fishable spots, you are gonna have to look for them.

River here in town has a bit of color but is still OK. I would say about 2-3 feet of visibility.

Conditions are changing rapidly due to heavy rains which have made the Upper Sac unfishable at times. Call The shop for the most recent info.

October Caddis are still around but not very active with all the rain. Fish have not really ever got on the drys well this year, but it could still happen. Often we get great October Caddis dry fly action around Thanksgiving.

Better action has been had on a smaller size 12ish caddis dry.

Nymph-wise, size 12-14 Birdsnests has been working.

Before the river got so big the lower river winter BWO hatch was happening but it was sparse. About noon to 3ish can find fish rising to the bugs if you are lucky.

Size 18 BWO with an occasional 16 (there are two different BWO’s in the winter hatch) .

Lower McCloud:

I have not been over there since the latest off-color event but river visibility went to about 2 inches last weekend, a friend went over there a few days ago and said visibility was still poor, he called it about 4 inches.

So I expect the Lower McCloud is unfishable.

Upper McCloud:

No recent reports, but past history suggests it should be OK,

A couple of anglers went over there Friday, I asked them to call the shop if it was off-color or high and I did not hear back. So I am guessing it is OK.

Random other places:

Mid to Upper Klamath reports have been poor.

Trinity reports have been great but heard it slowed down a bit in the last few days,

probably fishing pressure, also heard it was very busy over there.

Baum Lake is reported to be fishing well.

McCloud Reservoir and Lake Siskiyou are reported to be fishing well for boat anglers.

Thanks for reading this:

Steven