Feather River

Exploring the Feather River

Wild Feather River Beautiful Coloration

My long weekend has come to an end and my last adventure was exploring the Feather River Low Flow at White Gate. The road to White Gate wasn’t as bad as it looked. My old Camry did pretty well despite some ups and downs of the road. I had originally planned to go to Paradise Lake but I opted out because it was suppose to be windy. I’m glad I didn’t go.

Feather River
Mac from Fish First fly shop in Chico is a super cool dude for showing me some spots that were good for steelheading. It can be a challenge and downright dangerous to try and wade across a river where you don’t know the depth. Mac showed me the place to cross and I did it with relative ease. Once I got to the other side I was met with a good riffle where I hooked two and landed one of the most beautiful steelhead I’ve caught so far. I didn’t catch anything the rest of the day but I did explore some potential areas to fish in the future. I was met with some tricky wading, slippery rocks, swarming mosquitos, and awesome wildlife. The water was a really low 424 CFS at Gridley and areas that could have held steelhead didn’t hold any, at least any that wanted to take my fly.

Beautiful Wild Feather River Steelie

After I finished fishing the Wildlife Area I decided to go looking for a steelhead dinner. I fished around the hatchery and didn’t catch anything. I hit the pools, run, and riffles but couldn’t get into any fish. I was waiting for an evening caddis hatch but didn’t see any fish rising despite the few bugs that were out. I’ll have to figure out where and when the major hatches happen and catch them soon.

Trout season opens this Saturday and Manda and I might hit up Deer Creek. She is sick right now but hopefully she gets better so she can catch a few.

Ellis Lake, Feather River

April Is My Spring Fishing Peak

Bigger Feather River Chome

I’m hoping to start posting more often to keep track of my awesome adventures. This weekend was a three-day weekend for CSU Chico and I found some time here and there to wet the line and the results were fantastic.
I fished Ellis Lake and the Feather and had some great takes.

Ellis Lake
Amanda and I stayed the night at my parent’s house because we had just gotten back from her CSET testing. I forgot to pack my reel and had to use her Windriver Cabelas outfit. I personally don’t like the outfit very much as it feels very flimsy but a rod is a rod.

I bought myself a stream thermometer seeing as information is the key to success. I checked the temperature to see if the bass were around and it checked out at around 60 degrees. After researching a bit online, prespawn is around 55 degrees and the spawn is 60 degrees. The weather this past weekend was rainy and cold and the Sierras got some snow which was a bit unusual this late in the spring. I didn’t have a lot of success on the lake but I did get a few takes on some gills and a catfish. I saw for the first time a damsel nymph swimming to shore, probably getting ready to hatch, cool looking bug. I was hoping to get some action on this small crawdad fly that I’ve been working on but clousers seem to be the answer this weekend. Hopefully the weather warms up fast, so I can start getting into some great fishing.

Ellis Lake Cat

Feather River
The Feather was great on Monday and I was lucky enough to have the river all to myself. The weather was overcast, the rain had just finishing falling, and the water was up which is perfect timing for steelheading. I started out fishing the runs and hooked a Sac sucker on a BWO nymph.

Sucker Love

A game warden came out to check on things which is my first experience with them on this section of the river. He was a nice guy and we chatted for a few minutes. Its great to see wardens out doing their thing

I moved to a popular riffle where gear anglers usually fish. There were birds everywhere eating BWOs but I didn’t see any opportunities to throw dries. I was able to hook several fish this trip but only landed a few.
Although I’ve fish the Feather a lot, I have never taken a fish home from there. Today I was out looking for dinner and after hooking a few small fish and a few big fish I finally landed one that was just right.

Winner Steelhead Dinner
Feather River Wild Native

I am keeping track of the weather and this weekend is looking good. I am planning on fishing Pine Creek, a slough of the Sac River, hoping to hook into some bass from the float tube. April is one of best months to get out there and catch some fish.

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