Sacramento River

Shad Are In Town

by Matt
Thumbs Up For a Bend Rod

Monday evening on the Sac marked the first day I finally found some shad this year. Although I missed more than I caught, I managed to land 3 nice lookin shad on my switch rod before calling it a night.

There were a lot of bank anglers combat fishing a distances upstream from the Washout. Luckily, I found a nice spot and pretty much fished the entire evening next to one guy until another showed up. Flies outfished the typical green grub rig.
I’ll definitely be getting out there more now that they are here.

Swinging for Shad

There was one shad I kept for eats. My last and most previous experience of eating shad was basically just eating a bunch of bones. After food processing and frying it up, I was able to make sorta like a breakfast fish patty with no bones. It was pretty good. The taste is similar to catfish but more flaky and fishy.

The following evening I went out and gottem again! All quick-release but the take is the only thing that matters.

Deer Creek

It’s Beginning To Feel A Lot Like Summer

by Matt

Now that the streams are open I’m planning to hit a few places that I’ve never had the pleasure of fishing. Hopefully I can get to Hat Creek, Mill Creek, McCloud, and the Upper Sac before the summer is over. It’s going to be an interesting summer with the water levels this year.

Horseshoe Bobber Cat

Horseshoe Lake
I’ve been hitting the lake a lot and have been catching quite a few fish. On one of my few trips, I snagged a carp in the afternoon which tells me they are in the shallows. One of my highlights was catching a catfish that broke off the line from a previous angler. The fish broke off the bobber which was floating around the lake until I was able to snag it with my fly and bring it in. It was strong 3-4# fish; no wonder it broke off.

Unfortunately the fish was gut hooked deep and I couldn’t remove the hook without pulling out its insides. I just cut the line and hoped for the best. People often forget that this is a catch-and-release lake!

Deer Creek
Deer Creek is where I spent my Sunday and the fishing was still as good as it was before. For some reason the fish here have gotten smaller and smaller; probably the lack of water these past few years? Nevertheless they are there and everywhere. There were a lot more caddis out this time as the water has gotten a lot warmer. I wet waded the entire day so the water is not ice cold. During this trip I fished the upper portion of Deer Creek for the first time and it wasn’t great. It was a pretty cool little stretch though, less mountain freestone stream more spring creek style.

Little Deer Creek Trout
1 … 114 115 116 117 118 … 150

Keep Calm and Fly Fish™