Feather River, Horseshoe Lake, Middle Fork Feather River, Truckee River

Windy Days, Fun On The Feather, and Truckee Love

by Matt
Begin the Truckee River Canyon

It’s been pretty windy with the spring wind starting to come in, but its learn to fish the gusts or don’t fish. The wind is my friend… unless its blowing at 30 MPH. Casting and feeling the take can be difficult with the wind blowing your line and rod around but there is still good fishing to be had. The Feather River, Horseshoe Lake, the Middle Fork of the Feather River, and the Truckee River were some of the places I spent this week fighting the winds.

Feather River
The steelhead are around but I think we need a weather system to mix up the water a bit. Thursday morning I hooked two. Swinging flies on my switch rod with a 10ft Rio spey sink tip was the name of the game for this trip. The first fish I hooked felt like a snag on the bottom but once it started moving… holy crap that’s a fish. The fish came unhooked within 10 seconds so there’s the first one lost, hopefully I can get more shots at fish today.

The next fish I hooked made a good run and once it stopped its initial run I started to play the game. Please don’t come off, please don’t come off is what I kept telling myself as I started to strip in some line. The next thing you know the fish comes off. I let out a big sigh. Damn it… I stripped in the rest of my line and checked my flies to find a scale of the fish I lost. Haha. It was probably a snagged fish. The rest of the day I didn’t get a single nibble. That’s the name of the steelhead game folks.

Horseshoe Lake
Manda wanted to take a walk in
Upper Bidwell so I had some time to fish the lake. The day was windy and
it made casting a bit of a challenge. I made a new fishing buddy while
fish the lake that day. He looked like a 4th grader, was using a
spinning rod, and would follow me everywhere I went. After I hooked a
catfish he watched as I played it and landed it. His sister came over
and took a picture of him with the fish I caught which I thought was
funny. I gave him some tips about fishing the lake and left after Manda
got back.

Later in the week I decided to wet my line at the lake
again. When the wind blows from the east, the fish bite the least. Not
unless your using bait I guess. Using my
awesome fly fishing senses I saw that the wind was blowing from the east
that day and then it clicked, today is going to be tough one.
Looking at the water on the
surface, it kind of looked like the water didn’t know where it wanted
to go. I fished for a couple of hours and didn’t get any takes. There
were a few bait anglers out catching some cats but most of the fish they
caught looked like the average cat out in there. I commend them for
releasing the fish though. Once the fish learn to stop eating the liver
bait, that’s when they start getting big.

Horseshoe Cat

Feather River Middle Fork
The stretch between Portola and Blairsden opened this Saturday. Manda and I ventured to Clio to fish around the canyon. I’ve never fished this section so it was a good adventure. We hiked, piggybacked, and bushwhacked around the river but nothing looked fishy enough and the water was brown from tannin. I fished a little but overall it was just a good hike.
The water level this year is bad low. The lower section which opens up the last Saturday of April should be looking a lot better though. I have a feeling it’s going to be a short season this year.

Beginning of the Canyon

Truckee River
After the Middle Fork disappoint I saw a sign that said Truckee was about 43 miles away. After the okay from the girlfriend, we headed off towards Truckee. I’ve driven past the Truckee River before but never had the chance to fish it. Seeing the Truckee River again was like love at first sight and this time I finally had the chance to make my first move. The water is very unique and holds native browns, rainbows, and whitefish that all have the potential to get trophy size. The Truckee’s wild trophy sized fish are the products of a well-managed river. The river is open year around which means an endless opportunity to fish. The locals are very protective of the river and they should be with such an amazing fishery.
We fished a little bit outside of Hirschdale. The water looked amazing, a good flow and green tint. The only downside of the day was that it was pretty windy.

After high sticking tight lining a deep run I manage to land my fish Truckee fish. A beautiful 16” trout. The rest of the day I targeting browns but wasn’t able to hook any.  After testing the waters I can truly say I fell in love with the Truckee.

First Truckee River Bow
Middle Fork Feather River

A Bit of The Feather River’s Middle Fork

by Matt
Middle Fork Carp

This weekend Amanda and I went home to check on her parent’s place while they are vacationing across seas. I had planned out the weekend for the Middle Fork Feather River for Saturday evening and Lake Davis for Sunday morning. After reading some of the reports I opted out of Lake Davis for a different section of the Middle Fork near Portola where there were reports of good carp fishing. I figured I can fish and catch trout year around so lets try the warm-water fishing before its starts to slow down.

Middle Fork Feather River
The flows are low and the water is still a bit warm despite the cooler nights that we experienced when we were up there. I arrived at my destination around 5:10pm, just in time for the sun to be off the water. Fishing the mouth of Nelson Creek with my 2wt, I had a few line rippers and several smaller fish. I lost more than I landed but still had a great time exploring the river downstream. The fish were only eating nymphs.

10” MF Trout

The average size was around 8″ – 10″ and the biggest I landed was a 12″. I never seem to be around the Middle Fork at the right time of the year. I’ve seen pictures and heard of some big 20″ fish in that river.

Upper Middle Fork Feather River
Rumor has it that carp live somewhere in the Middle Fork but I have never known where. Most of the river is freestone trout water but there is a long section in Portola that is stagnant silty marsh water. The water was pretty cold for carp water but they were still cruising and feeding all over the place. I came prepared to be skunked as carp are often selective and spooky, but these carp were way easier to catch than carp from other waters I’ve fished. Unfortunately these Middle Fork carp didn’t throw me into my backing but instead went dead weight in the weeds after a few runs. I had to wade all the way into the water to net them. After catching two and missing a whole lot of others I decided to call it a day after the wind starting picking up.

As we were leaving a Mexican family had arrived and were hiking to find a fishing spot. The older abuelo gentlemen asked if I had caught any. I told him I caught two carp and he asked me if I released them to which I replied yes. He acted out being upset in a comical fashion, throwing his hat on the ground after knowing that had I released the fish. Before we got too far he caught up to us and asked how big the carp were. I laughed and gestured “this big.”

Second Carp
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