Thermalito Afterbay

Afterbay Hexagenia Madness

by Matt
Hexagenia Limbata

The Hex are the world’s second largest mayfly and they have the reputation of bringing big fish from the bottom to feed on top. Hexagenia are native to North America but have established populations all over the world. These mayflies are burrowers that require a specific muddy substrate in order to thrive and reproduce. For this specific reason, the Hex are only found in abundance in certain bodies of water. In California, the most popular and famous Hex hatches happen on the Fall River, Lake Almanor, Butt Valley Reservoir, and the lesser known Thermalito Afterbay. Hex have also been recently sighted on Lake Davis.

Thermalito Afterbay
Granted that it is only my second year fishing the Hex hatch, I still have a lot to learn. The first time I floated out to try my luck this year a lightning storm rolled in just before the sun went down. The waves started to whitecap from the wind and once I heard the lightning I was out of there.

Whitecaps Are No Fun

The second time I went out was on a nice calm evening, perfect for floating and fishing. The only downside of the night was that the weather that day had reached a scorching 100 degrees. This made the hatch start later at around 9:00pm and end at around 9:30. Not very much time to fish it successfully especially since I had planned on throwing dries.  Usually the night starts sporadically with fish keying on emergers coming up, but because of the heat all the bugs hatched at the same time. This made it difficult to target rising fish because there were so many bugs in such a short amount of time. I might have thrown 15 casts out before the hex turned into mosquitoes. One minute I was covered in hex the next I was covered in mosquitoes. The water temperature was too warm for trout to be cruising around the shoreline looking for food. My guess is that the fish that were eating the hex were pike minnow, bass, and carp.

So you can’t get any landlock steelies to eat a hex because the water is too warm… What do you do? You fish for the warm-water species! On the second night before I launched, I saw a bunch of warm-water species, bluegill and bass, just sitting around the rocky bank waiting for a hex to fall into the water, like dogs waiting for food scraps to fall off the table. Now I see why the bank was devoid of hex spinners. This was a good opportunity to catch something before the hatch.

While I was fishing my hex dry around the bank, I heard and saw a big splash. Hopping from rock to rock, I got into position and threw my dry near the area. I stripped and twitched my dry towards me a bit to imitate drowning hex… Splush! The fish sucks it in and fish on! A nice 2# bass!

Hex Eating Bass

The following day I took the afternoon to fish for the bass again. One good thing about fishing hex dries is that they only catch the big fish, the dinks couldn’t even get the hook in their mouths. I fished the hex dries like frog flies stripping in my line aggressively to make the fly chug water. This turned the bass into predator mode and they hit the fly hard.

And On A Bugger

In about 4 hours, I caught two and lost a big one in the rocks. A ton of fun! The Hex are coming off right on time on Butt Valley Reservoir and Lake Almanor. Hopefully all these summer storms roll out and the hatch is amazing. I’m looking forward to fishing more hex!

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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