Hex, Lake Almanor

Almanor Hexing With a Poorman’s Sinktip

by Matt
Next To Canyon Dam

Lake Almanor is home to one of the biggest hex hatches in California. The hatch revolves around the time of the summer solstice and usually starts to dwindle down by the second week of July. This summer has been a hot one with triple digit temperatures hitting in early June. The very warm temperatures and severe drought this year make fly fishing for trout, which are coldwater species, a dangerous C&R game due to their inability to recover after being landed. My trip to fish the Hex hatch at Lake Almanor this year was a bit of a bust for trout due to the temperature but it was good for bass.

The hex hatch all over the westshore but the most popular hexing spot on Almanor is Geritol Cove near the canyon dam. A float tube or any other watercraft is necessary to fish the hatch as the fish like to hold in deeper water.

Geritol Cove

I arrived at Almanor at 3pm and was greeted with 90 degree weather, a slight blessing in comparison to the 100 degree temperature in Chico. The cove was planted with small stockies which were biting like crazy. Bank anglers were all over them. The water was a bit too warm here and in hindsight I should have driven around the lake to find cooler water.

Almanor Stockie

This trip was a great stillwater fly fishing experience. Although I arrived to the lake with a game plan in mind, I had a few good opportunities to change up my rig and learn how to be
successfully fish a stillwater. Stillwater fly fishing is almost the complete opposite of fishing streams, rivers, and creeks. Often intimidating to the average fly angler, fly fishing stillwaters can reap big rewards because big fish like to live in lakes. A lot of anglers will tell you to effectively fly fishing stillwaters you need to invest in several lines and rods. Shenanigans!

Multiple lines and rod are a luxury which many cannot afford. To me what I found were key in my success this trip were (Rio) versileaders or (Airflo) polyleaders; both the same products coming from different companies. Also known as a “Poorman’s Sink Tip” these types of leaders are basically monofilament lines coated with a compound that makes the leader either float or sink. In practice, once connected to your floating line they are used as a sink tip for getting your flies at the correct depth where fish may be holding. In addition to their sinking abilities, polyleaders are also cheap at an average of $12 a leader and last forever if you clean and put them away after use.

Small Collection of Polyleaders

After pumping my tube, setting up my rod, and getting into the water, I immediately got a take from a little stockie. It was a good start to the day. Hours passed as I kicked and twitched my flies around the cove looking for a bite. The two flies I had on, a hex nymph and woolly bugger, were catching a few small fish here and there. After floating around the cove with no big takes, I kicked myself near the dam where I could see fish about 20ft from the rocky bottom. It was here were I had the most takes and caught the most fish but nothing worth bragging about.

Nice Almanor Smallie

As the day progressed more anglers started showing up and by sunset we were all ready in anticipation for the hatch. During the last 30 minutes of light, I had three nice takes but only managed to land one. The key to getting a fish on was to adjust the depth of where you were fishing. Deep nymphing the first part of the hatch then gradually moving up as more bugs started to come off seemed to work very well. Much better than not hooking anything subsurface last year. The hatch ended with the best smallmouth that I’ve caught so far about 12″ and quite the fighter. All-in-all it was a good trip. Although no big trout were caught, it was just nice to figure out how to fly fish stillwater better and gain more confidence doing so. Now I can at least say I kinda know what I’m doing.

Big Chico Creek, Hex, Lake Almanor, Sacramento River, Thermalito Afterbay, Tiechert Pond

Shad, Hex, Frogs, Smallies, and Great Memories

by Matt

Summer has arrived and with that comes the legendary hex hatch. I’ve been fishing a lot since graduation and have gotten into some pretty nice fish these past few weeks. Even in a drought the fishing has been pretty nice, I hope it stays this way until we get some water. Here is a huge report of what I’ve been up to!

Hexagenia Limbata

Sacramento River:
The shad run is still running but the numbers have dwindled down a lot since mid May. I actually had the opportunity to fish a slow run outside of Chico a few times before the crowds started to arrive. I caught a few and boy are they fun to catch on a fly, so many jumps! I came back a few times to find that the same spot was completely full of people thus finishing my season for shad. No combat fishing for me thank you.

Chico Sac River Shad

Hex Hatch – Almanor & Afterbay:
This year is my first time fishing the hex hatch and damn it is amazing. I invited a buddy of mine who has never fished the hex hatch to tag along. Although he didn’t catch anything except a small panfish, we both realized that nothing beats fishing at dusk for big fish that will rise for a dry. I caught a big squawfish and steelhead at the Afterbay as a practice run for the ultimate hex hatch in Almanor.

Landlock Steelie
Giant Squawfish

After work, Amanda and I drove straight to Alamnor to try and catch the hatch. Although I didn’t have any success nymphing in the early stages, I manage to redeem myself by catching a fat 18 incher on a dry fly. There were several old timers out there cheering me on after I hooked and landed my first brown and that’s a memory I will never forget.

First Brown

Tiechert Pond
When I first arrived there with my float tube and saw how weedy the pond had gotten I told myself, “I will either catch nothing or catch the biggest bass of my life.” I came pretty close to catching the biggest bass of my life. I floated around throwing frogs all over the place and didn’t catch anything until sunset. There were two other anglers throwing frogs from the shore that managed to hook into some big bass. One of the anglers caught an 5-6 pounder which pissed me off cause it was the only water that I wasn’t able to cover before he got there. I hooked and landed a 3-4 pounder later in the day on a frog fly but that was it. I floated there the next day hoping to catching that big fish. I didn’t get her but I managed to hook into some nice size bass. It felt good catching fish on my tube because everyone else was on the bank. There was a huge advantage in paddling around like a duck in heavy weeds throwing frog flies to where the fish were rising.

Frog Eating Pond Bass

Big Chico Creek
The lower part of this creek is a biological disaster. It was probably once prime salmon spawning territory hundreds of years ago, but now it is an invasive species throw down. There are bullfrog tadpoles that get huge because of the lack of predators and a bunch of smallmouth that most likely devour a lot migrating salmon fry in the creek. As one of the few undammed tributaries of the Sacramento River in the valley you would think DFG would take better care of it like Butte Creek. What ever the reasoning, it doesn’t really matter because the smallie fishing there is great. I must have caught over 50 fish in a day on the same fly with visual hook ups 90% of the time. Its a good place to just hang out and catch a bunch of fish, especially if your using an UL fly rod.

Big BCC Smallie
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Keep Calm and Fly Fish™