Deer Creek, Horseshoe Lake, Sacramento River

Busy at Work, Busy on the Water

by Matt
Scenic Deer Creek

This week has been one of the longest and oddest weeks I’ve had in a while. The kiddos at school were acting up, I was sick Wednesday morning, there was a flash thunderstorm Thursday, and the fishing was pretty off.
Although the fishing was sort of difficult, I spent some time at Horseshoe Lake, Sacramento River, and Deer Creek catching a few here and there.



Horseshoe Lake
I’ve been wetting my line at Horseshoe a couple time this week in hopes of finding carp. I caught a cat one day and got skunk the next two trips. Monday I fished with Patrick, a friend from the fly shop, and he had all the luck that evening. Patrick says he’s never caught anything on a fly at Horseshoe but that evening he landed a good 4# bass and a nice cat while I caught the skunk. It was nice to see someone else catch some fish on a fly out there besides me for once. I fished the lake a few more times to be skunked again. It must be those darn east winds. The fish were scattered all over the lake and were very off this week.

Splish Splash

Sacramento River
I want to catch a shad. Its still a bit early for them to be in Chico in numbers but it never hurts to try. Although no shad were caught I did manage to catch a small hatchery steelie on the swing with a soft hackle. Its weird that there are trout out there because the water is pretty warm.

Washout Trout

Deer Creek
One of my favorite things about Deer Creek is that when I’m fishing, the majority of the time I’m fishing alone in the tranquility of nature. No one is ever on the water when I’m there. I made plans and opted out on going Saturday opening day because it was a bit too cool around 60 degrees. On Sunday the temperature range jumped up to a nice 70-75 degrees just as predicted. It was time to head up to Deer Creek for the first time this year. While I was there I saw hatches of midges, march browns, and a few caddis; bugs were pretty much everywhere.

Fish of the Day

My day started below Red Bridge where I fished my usual holes. I must have caught about 30+ fish on dries this trip. It feels good to get some action back on the 2wt. Although most of the fish were around 5-7” no nymphing was needed. Usually I start catching the 10”+ bigger fish as summer rolls in.

Salmon Smolt
 

After fishing the catch-and-release section, I fished above the Upper falls to catch some dinner and ended up with 3 pan-sized fish while releasing a ton of smaller ones. Overall a great productive day.

Deer Creek, Ellis Lake, Horseshoe Lake, Yuba River

Sometimes You Win and Sometimes They Win

by Matt
Yuba River Bow 16”

Summer is coming to an end and fishing has been pretty good. I’ve been fishing here and there catching some and losing some. I often never get skunked but I will admit that I enjoy it when I do. Fly fishing is challenging and each aspect of your presentation is important. If the fish aren’t taking then your doing something wrong and need to adjust your presentation. If you go all day without a single take then the fish have won for the day. That is one of the reasons I keep coming back to bodies of waters that are difficult to fish.

What I liked most from transitioning from spin fishing to fly fishing is that I can feel like I did my best to try and catch fish. With a fly its all about presentation and fighting the fish properly. Make a single error and the fish is gone. Throwing bait or tossing lures all day just isn’t fun and once you hook one it takes about 30 seconds to reel them in. You can’t appreciate the power and fight of the fish. Although there is some skill in gear fishing I just find it boring. But that’s just my opinion.

Yuba River
The more I return to this river the more confident I get in my skills of fishing it. The Yuba is super technical water and requires perfect presentation and knowledge of the river’s hatches. I fished the river two days before and hooked one on a foam hopper and a nice 16-18” on a nymph but I couldn’t land them. Today broke my record of catching trout for the summer. My biggest fish was a 16” bow out of the three I caught. The fish were taking mayfly and stonefly nymphs with no indicator. A little bit of thunder and lightning made the day a bit more interesting. Waving a fly rod back and forth is just asking to get hit by lightning. These Yuba River fish are the hardest fighting bows in California, patience and skill is required to hook and land these powerful fish. They fish like steelhead and fight like them as well. A day with a single bow on the Yuba is a good day spent.
 

Beware the clouds

Deer Creek
Manda and I hit up the creek for my birthday. I missed a couple of big fish but the fish there are still hungry and the water below Red Bridge is still pretty nice for the summer almost being over. The fish were a bit finicky but good fishing nonetheless.

Birthday Trout

Ellis Lake
Beside my brother losing a piece of my rod… We had a contest on who can catch the smallest fish as the big fish were not biting. Nick won with a LMB fry. We also had a turtle come up to us wanting to be fed. We hooked a bluegill and tried to feed it but it didn’t get a good enough grip and lost its food. Bluegills all day though. Lake is weird.

Baby Bass

Horseshoe Lake
Clooping carp get my adrenaline pumping. I spent hours trying to get one to take my fly but nothing worked. I was so frustrated that I just left and googled how to catch clooping carp on a fly. I think I’ll use some scent on my flies the next time I get out there and see how that works for me.

I’m ready for steelhead season to start. Hopefully I’ll do better this year since I understand the fish and the river better. Summer is almost over and its been pretty rad.

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Keep Calm and Fly Fish™