Ted Fay Report: Wednesday June 10, 2009

 

Water Level 650 CFS and dropping

Water Clarity Normal

Water Temp Good

Fishing Good

Hatches late afternoon to late evening

Pinks (16)

Golden stones (8)

BWO (14)

A Few Green Drakes

Brown Caddis (12)

 

 

Coming into prime shape. Lots of bugs out. Pinks are the main mayfly hatch in the Upper River . I have not been hitting the lower end of the river much so I have no reports for that area.

Golden stone hatch is limping along right now. I suspect the weather is having a big impact Scattered showers in the afternoon and cooler than normal temperatures have slowed the hatch down a little. Still there are goldens out there and you can have good action with induced-rise dry fly fishing with a size 8 Stimulator all day long.

Seeing a few Green drakes on the water but I have not encountered a fishable number of them yet.

Flows are still a bit higher than normal (650 CFS this morning), but the river is very fishable. Some of the heavier pocket water is not yet accessible, but most of the river is fine.

 

 

McCloud:

 

I have not been on the Mccloud much recently so the reports I have are hearsay only. With that qualifier, I would say that the mcCloud is fishing well. Same bug mix as on the Upper Sac.

Golden stones and Pinks, plus a random selection of other bugs. The cooler cloudy weather we have right now should produce some excellent dry fly action on the Mac. Reports are that the river is getting pretty busy on the week-ends but mid-week is not too bad. The rainy weather is keeping some of the fisherman off the water.

Bring your rain gear and give it a try.

 

Pt River :

No recent reports. I just heard Pit 5 is bigger than normal because Kosk Creek is running high.

No reports from Pit 3 and 4.

 

 

 

Ted Fay Report: Saturday, Nov. 1, 2008

UPPER SACRAMENTO

Water Level 1750 CFS and climbing
Water Clarity Off Color
Water Temp Good
Fishing Slow to Fair
Hatches Mid day to early evening
BWO
October Caddis
Tan Caddis (14)

Rain, Rain, Rain. Well, we are having our first big storm of the season. River has come up quite a bit and reports are that the Lower end of the river is Off-color but the water thru town is still OK. Soda CReek area last night had a little color in it but it was still very fishable.

THe october Caddis are out in numbers but as usual it is a bit hit or miss as to the fish being on them. I have had a few session of fishing the big drys, but I have also seen many days where the fish just were not on them.

Batis nymphs have been the most constant pattern to use.

 

McCloud

Still very high. FLows are over 1,000 at the gauge and about 650 at Ash Camp. I have heard of a few people hitting the conservancy water and picking up fish, but it is definitely challenging fishing conditions.

Forget wading much of anything, most fishing will be from the bank or just a few steps out.

Currrent estimate from PG&E is that the river will return to nortmal flows on 11/07/08

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ted Fay Report: Thursday, July 3, 2008

UPPER SACRAMENTO

Water Level 250 CFS
Water Clarity Normal Water Temp Getting warm (mid 60's Lower river mid 50's upper)
Fishing Good
Hatches late evening
Pale evening Dun's
Little yellow Sallies
Mahogany Duns
Calibatis (mid day hatch very light)
Caddis
Midges
Pinks (almost over)
Golden stones (mostly over)

I can't believe it's been a month since my last report. River is low and clear. We are rapidly approaching what we call the dog days pattern. fishing is best early and late, while mid- day can get a little slow. The one thing that saves the mid-day is the Calibatis hatch. These gray size 16 mayflies come off the river around 1:00 to 2:00. unfortunately the Upper Sac does not have a real strong population of Calibatis. Primarily a still water bug, there are a few in the river and it is a hatch that you should watch for, but it is kinda hit or miss action. Also typical of the dog days pattern is a very late evening hatch. Some days the hatch does not get started until after 8:00 PM. Also the evening hatches are getting a bit spotty. some spots some evenings nothing happens. I have not had a chance to get down and check it out, but the mid to lower river evening Caddis hatch should be starting. Again is is usually a late evening hatch, but it can bring up some really nice fish to the surface. It is also about time to start using midge patterns. Up to this point In the year I have been using mostly size 12 and 14 nymphs but as we get into the hot parts of the summer, small midge patterns start producing better. Size 18 and 20 black and green midge patterns.

A interesting recent addition to the wikipeadia for our local waters:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCloud_River

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramento_River

 

Wednesday June 4, 2008

UPPER SACRAMENTO
Water Level 750 CFS and dropping
Water Clarity Normal
Water Temp Good (mid 50's)
Fishing Getting Good
Hatches light, mostly mid-day to late afternoon
Pinks
Golden stones
Little yellow Sallies
Drakes (Green and Gray)
Flavs (little green drakes)

Well, it did not happen as soon as I had hoped, but the long awaited for end-of-the-snow melt is here.
River is dropping more each day and is now in very fishable condition.
Couple that with the start of the golden stone hatch and fishing for the next few weeks should be great.
If you have been holding off coming up waiting for better conditions, now is the time.
Weather is forecast to be in the low to mid 70's which I think is perfect for fishing.
We may still have a few issues with the wind. Seems like our spring winds which usually blow all thru May are gonna hang on a little longer. Just bring your 6 Wt instead of the 4 WT and you will be fine.

 

Monday, May 12, 2008

UPPER SACRAMENTO
Water Level 1500 CFS and dropping
Water Clarity Normal
Water Temp warming up (high 40's to low 50's)
Fishing Wildly variable
Hatches light, mostly mid-day to late afternoon
Calibatis
BWO
Little yellow Sallies
Salmonflys
mahogany duns

The big question this time of the year is "when will the snow melt end?"
there is no simple answer to that question. Also I tend to be a little over optimistic about when it will occur.
In a normal year it is usually over by the end of May, This year because of the lower than average snow pack it should be a bit earlier.
Joe K. has a hill on the west side of the canyon that he uses as his gauge, when that mountain is snow free the melt is about over.
As of now that hill still has a small patch of snow on it.

I watch the gauge at delta carefully, When the gauge starts showing a steady downward trend in the water levels we know the melt is about over.
Well that trend seems to have started as of May 7Th. it is a bit tricky because lower nighttime temps will slow the melt quite a bit and can fool you into thinking the melts is ending. According to the weatherman we will be having hot weather over the next few days, He says say 97 by Friday. That will be the real indicator of the status of the snow melt,

I am sure the river will come up a bunch with temps that high, but I think it will be the last hurrah, I expect by next week we should see the river start dropping quickly.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

UPPER SACRAMENTO
Water Level 1600 CFS and still rising (2000 on 05/07/08)
Water Clarity Normal
Water Temp warming up (high 40's to low 50's)
Fishing Wildly variable
Hatches light, mostly mid-day to late afternoon
Calibatis
BWO
Little yellow Sallies
Salmonflys
mahogany duns

Looks like the snow melt is getting in to full swing. We are still having unsettled spring weather. Temps have warmed up, the water temp has crawled up to 53 in the afternoons.
But remember that the water temp reading are from the lower end of the river so higher up the water is colder. Last week we were just starting to see a few fish showing interest in salmonfly dries, then we were hit with a few days of cold weather and it shut that bite off. A few days of warm weather should get the fish back on them.
We are also seeing the start of our spring winds, they will be with us for the rest of the month of May.

McCloud alert:

As part of the re licensing project they are gonna be running some test flows on the McCloud river from May 5 to May 14. The flows will be ramped up to 1,000 CFS during that period. More info about it can be found here:

http://troutunderground.com/2008/04/30/mccloud-river-facing-flow-control-studies-in-may-and-june-fly-fishermen-make-note/

 

 

Saturday, April 26, 2008

UPPER SACRAMENTO

Water Level 1000 CFS and going up quick
Water Clarity Good with a little tint
Water Temp warming up (high 40's to low 50's)
Fishing Getting better every day
Hatches light, mostly mid-day to late afternoon
Calibatis
BWO
Little yellow Sallies
Salmonflys
mahogany duns

Well, with any luck, we are mostly done with the cold weather.
The weather for the opener was very warm. This is a mixed blessing. It has warmed the river up a fair amount (the water temp hit 52 for the first time this year) and the fishing is getting much better. but the river flows are going up.
Weatherman says we will get a little more cool weather and possible rain by Tuesday.
Which could be good for next week-end. If it cools off but does not rain a lot, the river should dropped back down a bit.

Still not seeing much dry fly fishing, but will change soon.

Reports are that the McCloud was very crowded for the opener.
Word was going around that the road to Ah-Di-Na was not open. Snow drifts blocked access, and early reports were that the Forest Service was not going to plow the road, but apparently they rethought that idea and late Friday we got word that they had opened the road up. Unfortunately lots of people still ended up going to Ash Camp. Word I heard was that there were people everywhere. and the fishing was pretty slow. Not too surprising, because the McCloud does not fish well when it is crowded.

A changing of the Guard.
For the last few years Charlie Costner has been handing the guide service here at the Ted Fay fly shop.
This year the job has been passed to me. I am Steven Bertrand and I have been living and guiding out of the Dunsmuir area of the past 15 years.
Many of you may remember me from two years ago when I was working the counter at the shop.
This year I will be handling the guide business, updating this report and also working the counter at the shop on an as-needed basis a few days a week.
A bit more info about me can be found at my web site Steven Bertrand Flyfishing Guide Service