Good Fishing vs. Fishing that is Good

It's been a little stressful lately. Yeah, there is actually stress involved in the fishing trade. Truthfully, nothing is wrong. The month of May can be a slow month for the guide business. It's been slow in the past. So, in light of the current economic climate, I worry more. I think "Maybe this is the beginning of the end"? Or "No one wants to go fishing anymore". To put the economic crisis in perspective, it could be worse! Our rivers could be blown out, polluted and devoid of fish. They aren't. We have great water. Good fishing is going on right now and anglers are coming from far and near to fish the waters of Northern California all through June. Just June. Why June? One reason is there is water in the form of snow run off. The other reason is the weather is comfortable. The rivers and lakes are lined with blooming flowers, green grass, shady trees and insect hatches are thick. So, that makes for good fishing. Right? It depends. June offers blue skies and comfortable weather, that’s for sure. Visually, the late spring/early summer fishing experience is great! Relaxing. So, the fishing is good! Yes it is! The whole idea of standing in a river, casting a fly, birds singing, puffy clouds overhead is the perfect example of a fishing experience that I would call great. But then there’s good fishing. Even great fishing! Good fishing is good numbers of hook ups, big fish, and beautiful fish. Yes, of course there is in May, June and July great fishing, but, I say this with some reservation.

So much is in transition right now on our waters. Rivers and lakes have just come out of winter slumber. Aquatic plants are starting to develop and grow. Rainbow trout are either off spawning or just returning from spawning. Some trout are skinny and week. Insect hatches provide replenishment for these fish. From June through July, they grow and regain their strength and optimum size. Water conditions are fluctuating on Nor Cal trout streams from May through July. Were the water is high and swift due to run-off, the fishing conditions are less than stellar. Were fishing and water levels are good, they usually won't be for long as snow run-off subsides and summer temperatures warm the water to unfavorable levels for the trout. So, the trout leave and find cooler, oxygenated water as summer closes in. In June/July every week there is a new insect hatch that the trout key on. One day the fish are on caddis, the next salmon flies, then golden stones. If they are eating midges, well, that can make for some tougher catching than we wish for. I can’t leave out fishing pressure. If there are trout in run X of the Pit River, there won’t be as many next week because the fish will move after they have been fished over for a day or more. This process plays out on all trout streams. Some runs will fish great for weeks while others will fall to pressure after a day. Trout adapt to conditions and if they can’t, they move. Spring and early summer produce concentrated fishing pressure on many trout streams. Let’s face it, it’s a great time to get outside and go fishing…for everyone! Power House #2 on Hat Creek is a classic example, fishing it’s best just after the opener and tapering through spring. PH #2 offers excellent access and is a perfect piece of water for trout. The trout that reside in this riffle get pickier and pickier as the fishing season progresses due in part to the large numbers of anglers that wade in and fish. About good fishing in spring and early summer; it happens on Hat Creek when the Salmon Flies are dropping off the willows, into the river where large brown trout and rainbows wait under over hanging branches. Fall River has the Hexagenia hatch lasting June through mid July when many quality rainbow trout eat giant mayfly dun imitations right off the surface. Davis Lake has the damsel fly bite that offers up trophy rainbows. Calibaetis hatches on Lewiston Lake offer more big rainbows. The upper Sacramento will be at its best in late June when golden stones, caddis, mayflies and salmon flies provide food for some of the hardest fighting rainbows anywhere. The McCloud gets going in June, sometimes earlier, with stonefly, brown & grey drakes, caddis, yellow sallies and aggressive rainbows and brown trout. I can keep going and going! There is a lot going on and it’s all changing by the day and week. What an angler hears or reads about spring fishing today has certainly changed by tomorrow. So how can an angler narrow down a fishing trip planned for when there is more than just good fishing, but when the likely hood of really great fishing is happening? I’m talking about days when the hook-ups are insane! When the catching is just plain silly! When we can go home after an epic fishing trip!

When I look back over a year of fishing, I can remember the standout days. Those epic days that I wish I could be fishing instead of replacing mangled flies that the fish just love. Ahhh, those days when we are running low on flies because the trout/steelhead have torn up all our hot flies! They happen and not just one or two…but many days a year are spent this way. When you ask? How about August? Yep. September is another one. March is in there. For Steelhead, February. I’ll explain; In August/September for example, there are no changes going on. No drastic changes to be exact. The trout are found in cold water (55-65 degrees) and cold water is limited in August through September. The trout are healthiest in August/September in some rivers because they have just spent the spring and summer eating! Angling pressure has subsided due to hotter daytime temps and limited opportunities to catch trout on dry flies. The spring spawn is over and those big beautiful trout are back in the river, in their classic holding water. Insect hatches are sparse so matching the hatch is much easier. I think that’s the key. Fly selection is always important, but in late Summer, fish can be found that will eat a good presentation of anything in a size 16 or 18. Even the sight of a big fly like a #6 will get positive feed back. It’s amazing! Moving on, a river like Fall River has finished evolving. The whole river is full of aquatic plants that hold insects and trout. The trout are not as picky because they can’t afford to be. If the fly wiggles or swims, they eat it! The lower Sacramento trout population moves into Redding due to warmer temps downstream. The bigger post spawn rainbows are done and moving downstream. Some truly amazing fishing happens on the Lower Sac in August through September. The McCloud has cold water in August/September and some really epic days on that river have all occurred in August for me. In September, there’s some fish that move up from Lake Shasta into the upper Sacramento that are steelhead like. There’s a stretch of the Pit that can be so good it’s bewildering in late August through September. But, the heat can be just as intense. It will be hot and that’s the trade off. It will be hot everyday and the fish will stay were the water is cold every day and try to eat what they can everyday until the weather starts to cool off and then they start to spread out and things start changing again.

March on the lower Sac offers semi stable conditions. Water flows and conditions dictate how good the fishing will be. All said, the lower Sac trout are upon spawning season and they are driven to eat. It’s been more than two months since they were eating salmon eggs. Hatches of caddis, pink Albert’s, Salmon flies trigger these fish to eat aggressively. This is a time of year when every fishing guide is a hero. The fishing can be amazing! And the weather can be just as amazing. Come dressed for rain or 90 degree temperatures.

February on the Trinity is uncrowded for one. So, the fish that are there can be caught by us. Water conditions are perfectly colored green. River levels are usually high enough to discourage wade fishing, so, for those of us fishing out of boats, we get to fish runs that can’t be fished in the autumn due to numbers of happy wading anglers.

When I plan my fishing trips, and they are few, I look for stability or the end of a transition and just before the beginning of another. This can be a small window of time on some rivers or a two month period like on the Lower Sac or Fall River. Because of this timing I may miss the greener days of spring and the insect hatches that go with it. I might miss the fall colors and possibly, thankfully, the crowds. I might have to endure a long hike in 95 degree temps or sitting in a hot boat. It might be really windy or rainy. The trade off is a chance at some of the best fishing action of the year. Fishing so good that it blows the best days in the spring and fall away. Sometimes I don’t get that great fishing I hoped for. That’s the chance I take. Remember, we are dealing with nature and wild fish. Nothing goes as planned.

Like the old saying goes “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink” holds ever so true for me at this time of year. In the coming month I will be asked time and again “So, when’s the best time to fish this river? What’s the best week?” I’ll say August and September. I’ll mention February and March explaining the trade offs. Most of the time I get a blank response because my favorite months don’t offer everything my guest wants in a day of fishing. My standard answer is more and more becoming “when you can get here”. But in the back of my mind, I’m answering that question for myself; my preferences say August, September, February, and March. Not every angler is alike. Some folks want nice comfortable weather with their fishing. I do too! Some want fall colors or good friends with their fishing. Some want a chance at catching fish on dry flies and some want to swing a soft hackle. And then there’s those who just want a very good chance at plain old great fishing that’s to the point. They don’t care about the heat or the cold or the wind. They are willing to chance it all for that epic day. I’ll go fishing then. Shoot for the end of a transition, when there is a window of stability for the trout or steelhead and expect grand results. Now the hard part can be defining those stable periods from one river or lake to the next. A coastal stream is very different from an inland river. Some windows are weeks long as I have said and others can be as short as a few hours when dealing with coastal rivers. Contact your favorite guide for those answers and hire him or her for the day.

-Chris