Baum Lake, Hat Creek, Pit River

Fish Camping Party At Cassel Campground

by Matt

This year has been another high water year which has put a hamper down on my outings. The Yuba River hasn’t come down since February and it seems like every time I have the opportunity to fish the weather doesn’t cooperate. I’ve been spending most of the year fixing up the house, reefing, and taking care of my kids during my days off. The few times I’ve been out to wet the line I didn’t feel like I was missing out on much. Now that summer is here and the spring runoff is on it’s way out I can finally get some real adventures in.

My cousins from Fresno who also like to fish were getting the itch to get into some real fishing as well so we planned a two day overnight trip to Burney. Being from the Central Valley they find themselves limited in their choices on where they can fish so I was hoping this trip would be one to remember. This would be their first time venturing up north and with my knowledge of the area we were going to fish the hell out of it.

We had planned to fish Baum Lake for the majority of the stay but kept open the option of visiting Hat Creek or the Pit River if Baum Lake wasn’t fishing well. We made camp at Cassel Campground which is the best campground to use as a homebase for fishing the area. The mosquitoes were out in full force this trip and we all ended up getting over 15 bites despite smelling like DEET the entire trip. The weather was nice but I didn’t pack enough blankets. The lows got down to about 50 degrees which woke my brother and I up at 3am and left us unable to sleep comfortably the rest of the first night. We made an impromptu trip to Burney Sporting Goods the following day for some nice fleece blankets and slept fine the next night. The campground host was a bit overbearing but I did appreciate him taking his job seriously. Overall the camping itself was fine.

After setting up camp we geared up and headed out to Baum Lake to do some fishing. We were all on the water at around 3:30pm. My brother and I were in the Seaeagle Stealth Stalker and my cousins were in float tubes. Baum Lake is usually a bit slow from about noon to 4pm so I told everyone not to expect stellar fishing until a few hours. My brother and I floated down to the dam switching between the two of us who was fishing and rowing. We caught a few fish along the way but nothing the quality that I usually find. I worked the deep channels that we discovered and I was surprised to find little to no action in the areas where the fish would usually hold. We all met back up at around 6pm and shared our reports. Everyone had caught fish but they were all in the 10″ range. I told everyone that this was a bit unusual as the fish are usually bigger and hopefully we will catch some nicer fish tomorrow morning.

My cousins kept a few of the fish they caught and we cooked them at the campground. We all forgot to bring salt and pepper and I recommended that they season it with the ramen that they had packed. Some of the best camping meals I’ve had have been improvised with random ingredients pieced together. The fish turned out great.

The following morning we were out on Baum Lake at 7:30am. There were already a few people fishing before us and as the day progressed I had never seen so many cars in the parking lot at Baum Lake. I was in a float tube this time and was working a stretch that I always had luck at. I was nymphing my typical Baum Lake rig; a pheasant tail with a zebra midge dropper. I caught two small fish and at around 9am I started noticing fish rising all throughout the lake. I could tell by the rises that these weren’t very big fish and tried to ignore them but my nymphs didn’t seem to be working anymore. The fish were rising for a trico spinner fall. I reluctantly switched to a dry fly and caught a few more fish before the rising slowed down at around 11:00am. We met back up at the the parking lot at 12pm and shared our reports. Again we all caught fish but no one had caught anything exceptional.

We packed up and went back to camp to have lunch. I suggested we check out the Pit River for better quality fishing. The Pit River in my opinion takes a different mind and gear set to fish safely and successfully and we did not come prepared.

The Pit River was flowing at 340 CFS below Lake Britton. We were on the Pit at 3pm and fished at Ruling Creek access. The Ruling Creek access is probably the easiest access on Pit 3 as it is right along the road. We didn’t have wading staffs so we grabbed the best sticks we could find. The Pit always fishes well and I was catching fish left and right. The fish were much more quality than the Baum Lake stockies that we were catching but as the Pit dictates it was a pain to get around the river.

As we made our way around the Pit I hooked a nice fish that was using the current to try and break me off. I made the mistake of following it downstream to try and land it and during the chase through slippery boulders and rough current the stick that I was using as a wading staff broke. I ended up on a small island about 20 feet away from the bank. The fish eventually broke me off and as looked around to get an idea of where I was a sense of dread hit me. On both sides of the island I was standing on were rapids too dangerous to try to cross and they both emptied into a deep pool below. I tried to walk upstream a few times to backtrack but without a wading staff I couldn’t get good footing without slipping. I was stuck.

I flagged down my brother and told him about the situation. They tried to float down a new stick several times but the current wasn’t working in our favor. I told them to drive back to the campsite and grab a rope that we were planning to use as an anchor rope for Baum Lake. I kept calm by fishing the spot I was stuck in while waiting for my brother and cousin to return. After hooking several nice fish and sitting around contemplating my life my brother and cousin finally made it back. The plan was to tie a rope around myself and tie the other end to a tree to have them pull me in case I slip. Unfortunately the rope that I had asked them to retrieve was too short to reach me. I thought at that point maybe my fly line would work. My cousin had the idea of throwing me a new stick while tied to the end of my fly line so that I would be able to pull it in if it doesn’t float near me. This idea worked and I had a wading staff to work with while I tried to make my way back.

I had been reading the water for a long time after my brother and cousin left. There was a tailout that I was planning on walking across to get back to the bank. The danger zone was in between a rock that split the current one way into the deep pool and one way to the bank. I had to at bare minimum make it past that rock. I tied the fly line to myself and told everyone the plan. I got into the Pit and slowly made my way towards the bank. The new wading stick was a tremendous help and I made it 90% of the way before I lost my footing as they grabbed my hand to lift me when I was near the bank. After a bit of a struggle fighting the drop of the tailout they were able to pull me onto the bank. We all let out a sigh of relief and agreed that that was enough adventure for the day.

We fished Hat Creek one evening and it wasn’t as great as I had hoped it would be. We first started around at the powerhouse and I was able to hook a good +18″ fish that broke me off. A PMD hatch happened at Carbon Flat but we only had about 20 minutes before it got too dark. I rose and hooked a few fish but didn’t land any.

The last day of our trip we fished Baum Lake for a third time with the mindset of limiting out fish to take home. I fished from a float tube and worked my way from the Crystal Lake outlet all the way down to the fallen trees. I didn’t hook a single fish on my nymphs and another trico spinner fall started at around 9:45am. I switched to a dry fly, limited out with my five, and kicked my way back to the parking lot. In total we caught 12 trout that morning to take back home. Unfortunately for a third time none of us hooked into any thing big although I did see a few large trout hanging out in the deep channels.

The fishing overall was good, everyone caught fish but it was a quantity over quality trip this time around. I learned my lesson on the Pit River that in the future I won’t go without a wading staff and will consider wearing a life vest for extra insurance. We all had a good time and hopefully we can all make another trip in the future.

Hat Creek, Pit River

Autumn Days In Fly Fishing Country

by Matt

October is the June of the fall; both months mark a transitional period between seasons and mark the peak of fish activity. The weather in October can be fantastic with cooler evenings and comfortable afternoons. This year the cooler temperatures didn’t hit until halfway through the month which was unusual. Nevertheless I took advantage of my time off work and dad duty and made a trip up to fly fishing country to fish some of the finest trout water in California. My plan was to explore new waters on streams that I’ve fished in the past: the Pit River at Pit 5 and the riffle section of Hat Creek.

I’ve been dreaming on getting on the Pit River again for quite some time after learning how to euro nymph. The pocket waters on the Pit are some of the best I’ve ever fished. Every spot that looked fishy had a fish in it. It didn’t matter if the spot was too small or too large if you threw a fly in it you would get a fish out of it. I’ve only fished the Pit twice and most of my time was spent on Pit 3 below the dam. I’ve read a lot of about Pit 4 and Pit 5 having bigger water and bigger fish so I decided to check Pit 5 out to see if these reports were true.

Pit 5 is the last and furthest section from Pit 3 before the road turns away from the river only to cross it again at Big Bend. The drive took a little less than an hour from Pit 3 to Pit 5. I made camp at Madesi access in the evening in preparation to fish the Pit the following morning. I was looking forward to testing out some of my backpacking gear that I wasn’t able to play with during my Kern River trip. The nights low was 35 degrees and I felt confident that I would be able to survive the night in my bivy, sleeping bag, and sleeping pad. I was feeling somewhat comfortable until I woke up at 3am too cold to sleep. The sleeping bag that I brought was too short and not warm enough. I had already prepared for failure earlier by setting up my car as a backup shelter and shivered my butt off attempting to throw all my sleeping gear into my car as quickly as I could. I slept fine the rest of the night. A chilling reminder to test all gear before heading out too far into the backcountry.

The following day I didn’t start fishing until 9am. I wanted to give the sun some time to come up above the backs of the mountains to help warm up the river before heading out. Most rivers fish well early in the morning but when temperatures are near freezing the night before it’s always good to give the river some time to warm up so that the bugs can start moving and the fish can start feeding. I started below the Madesi parking lot and made my way downstream.

Pit 5 fished as amazing as I thought it would. I wasn’t wrong remembering fish in every spot that looked fishy. Most of the fish I caught were about 10″ – 12″ with a few bigger fish at about 14″ – 16″. I was euro nymphing with my Echo Shadow II 3WT which I had extended to 10’6”. Fly patterns that work best on the Pit River are dark nymphs and rubberleg stoneflies. I experimented with a self-tie streamer jig I dubbed the “Thingamajig” that was a mashup between a sculpin, stonefly, crawfish, and baitfish along with a dark lord attached to the tag end of my double surgeon’s knot. Most of my fish came off the dark lord but my biggest fish came from the thingamajig. I had lost count of all the fish I caught and guessed that I had caught at least 30 fish before I stopped fishing at around 4pm.

I believe that the Pit River below Lake Britton is the greatest trout stream in California. The only setback is that it is extremely difficult to wade. It’s been awhile since I’ve been on the Pit and I romanticized how the wading was tough but also fun. I had fun catching fish but didn’t have nearly as much fun trying to get around the river. I tripped a few times and got a little wet but thankfully I didn’t go swimming. With the tough wading and great catching it’s amazing how much time you can spend on a short stretch of pocket water. I fished for 7 hours straight and found that I only traveled about 1000ft downstream from where I started. After my experience on Pit 5 I can’t say that Pit 5 fishes any better than Pit 3. I was expecting bigger fish but didn’t really hook into anything huge. I think I’ll stick to Pit 3 from now on since it’s closer, easier to access, and the fishing is just as good.

I had originally planned to fish Pit 3 the following day after Pit 5 but opted out because I didn’t want to wade challenging waters again. With my adventure on the Pit River completed it was time to head over to Hat Creek where I was determined to learn how to be successful on the riffle section below HWY 299.

There’s about a mile of water between HWY 299 and a weir that separates Lake Britton and Hat Creek. A quarter of it is spring creek water until it hits a point where the creek becomes gradient and slopes all the way down to the weir. I’ll admit that the first time I visited the riffle section of Hat Creek I wasn’t very thrilled to try and fish it. I’ve been in so much love with the spring creek section of Hat Creek that fishing the riffles didn’t feel right to me. The riffle section is skinny water made of up riffles that look too fast for fish to comfortably hold in. It wasn’t until I learned how to fish this section that I realized how wrong I was.

Fishing reports were saying that high sticking a rubberlegs was getting the job done on Hat Creek so I rigged on a rubberlegs with a BWO nymph and starting tight-line nymphing my way through the skinny riffles. It wasn’t long until I hooked a fish and another and another. I had figured it out. I ended up hooking about a dozen fish within a few hours including a chunky trophy bow that I had only heard of existing but have never seen.

The following morning I started Hat Creek on PH riffle using the same rig that I fished with in the riffle section and immediately started getting into fish. I’ve never had very much success fishing PH riffle thinking that the water was too skinny but I learned real quick that this was not the case. I caught over a dozen fish in PH riffle with the biggest being around 10”. After covering most of PH riffle I decided to venture downstream to the spring creek section to find rising heads. I found a few fish rising but nothing consistent enough to trick into eating a dry. I was hoping to find a BWO hatch midday but didn’t see anything hatching. I was off the spring creek section at around 1pm and drove down to the riffle section.

As soon as I arrived in the parking area I was grateful to find that I was going to be alone. It was a beautiful autumn day, the leaves were changing, the mountain chickadees were calling, and not a single human in sight. The fishing was phenomenal and I had a double digit fish day before the sun set over the mountains. I learned what type of water the big fish liked and was able to predict where they were going to be after finding my first two. I was fortunate enough to hook and land several this visit. Landing these big Hat Creek rainbows was extremely difficult due to the woody debris and gradient of the creek. The riffle section of Hat Creek is essentially a waterslide with much of the water rushing downstream through several riffles. If you hook into a big fish and it decides to head straight downstream there’s absolutely no stopping it. Pull the opposite direction to try and lead them upstream and you’re sure to pop the hook out of their mouth. To land most of these magnificent fish I had to do some chasing into softer water where I then positioned myself downstream to scoop them up. I had one fish dive into a deep log jam where I somehow managed to carefully pull it out without breaking it off. A long-handled net definitely helped and I think I’ll be carrying one from here on out.

October is truly a great month for fly fishing. The pocket water on the Pit was both challenging and full of fish and I now know that big fish exist within Hat Creek. I still have a few spots on Pit 3 that I need to explore and I hope to someday hook a big fish on a dry in the spring creek section of Hat Creek. I can’t wait to return to fly fishing country.

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Keep Calm and Fly Fish™