Feather River, Yuba River

Shad Colors Starting To Show

by Matt
Poorman’s Tarpon

Summer is around the corner. How do I know? Well, the American Shad are in town. Unlike the coming of the salmon run in the fall, the coming of the American shad run is shrouded in mysticism.

Once every year when the cottonwood trees bloom…

Feather River at Star Bend

The American shad shares many similarities with California’s native steelhead. They both come in chrome, fight hard, taste great, and are fun to target. The biggest difference between the two is that one is easier to eat than the other.
The legend of the Micmac Indians tells that porcupine was discontented and asked the Great Spirit of Manitou to change him into something else. The Spirit responded by turning the creature inside out and tossed him into the river where it now had the new existence as a Shad.
Filleting an American shad is like trying to perform amateur surgery but if you can get some good meat out of them they taste like an anadromous catfish.

It’s no secret that the Feather River’s Shanghai Bend is one of the most popular places to fish for shad. The structure of the bend is a great spot for anadramous fish to hold as they make their way upriver. During a quick visit to the bend about a week ago, I saw a few gear anglers hook into some chrome shad. It was great to see the fish there but the water that they were holding in was near impossible to fish on a fly. Would it be possible to find these fish in a more fly rod friendly area?

I decided to take a chance this week. Despite rainy and off-color water conditions on this particular day, I was able to hook and land a big strong hen that almost got away. This marks my first shad from the Feather River.

FR Shad

Before I moved, the Sacramento River outside of Chico was my shad spot.
However now that I am in Yuba City, I have to find new spots to fish for
shad. Luckily both the Yuba River and the Feather River hold shad and
are only a few minutes away.
I will be exploring both rivers to find less pressured spots as the run continues. Early in the season is usually when anglers combat fish for shad in the more popular spots. The fish are still trickling in but once they get here it’ll be on. These chrome domes will keep my line tight until the flows on the Yuba go down.

Yuba River
The Yuba is at 2,700 CFS which is much more fishable than 3,000+ CFS. I was able to find three pissed off and jumpy fish before attempting to catch the evening hatch. In the evening I saw a few fish rise but unfortunately there wasn’t enough surface activity to have a enough fish looking up. No fish landed this trip but finding them was the next best thing.

Quite Flats…
Ellis Lake, Little Truckee River, Truckee River

The Deer Creek Tradition

by Matt
Fish On Deer Creek

Every year during the trout opener I visit where it all began. Years ago when I first picked up a fly rod, there was a time when I went troutless for four months. Despite catching a lot of warm-water species, I struggled to hook the species that created the outdoor sport of fly fishing. I’ll never forget the first time I hooked my first trout, a beautiful four inch dink on a 6WT rod.

Tehama County Gem

Deer Creek is a special place. Many anglers that I’ve mention Deer Creek to have told me that this creek is where they first learned how to fly fish. With countless numbers of small rainbows that will literally eat anything you throw at them, this creek is one of the best streams in Northern California where you can learn how to fly fish. It’s not uncommon to leave the creek with over fifty fish caught and released within a day, all on dries!

Deer Creek Tranquility

This year the creek is running a little higher than usual. As a matter of fact, the current flows are the highest I’ve seen the creek in over four years! More water means more happy fish.
Nymphing Deer Creek is typically the best tactic until the water warms up in late May. No need for an indicator here, tight-line that shiz because it’s way more fun than watching a bobber all day.

Big Fish for Deer Creek

My dries were not working this opener. After a fishing a few spots where I knew fish were, I switched to a nymph rig and finally caught them. This was interesting because the water is fairly shallow making it easy to pick off bugs on top, however they weren’t making the effort to rise. The water wasn’t terribly cold but it just goes to show how important it is when trying to figure out what’s working. Bugs were flying around everywhere. I saw march browns, green drakes, caddis, midges, and even a salmon fly.

Big Mac Bug

Tight-line nymphing produced the most fish. The good ole copper john plus pheasant tail dropper did the trick.

Truckee & Little Truckee
I spent some time on the Truckee and Little Truckee this week as well… and got my butt kicked. Skunked like a punk, not even a single bump all day. I saw some very nice browns where I was fishing and although I didn’t catch them, it was cool to see a Truckee River brown in real-life. I’ll get them next time.

Truckee River Grand Canyon

Ellis Lake
The spring crappie bite is on at Ellis Lake. Every other cast is producing a nice pan-sized crappie on a strip-strike. After catching a few on the main lake, I fished the northern lake where I ran into a gear angler who told me, “Someone caught a 20” five pound crappie at Ellis Lake the other day.” I call BS on that. When I got home I checked to find that the world record for a black crappie is five pounds. Either Ellis Lake is growing some monster mutant fish or someone is spreading fishing stories. The biggest crappie I’ve hooked there have been the typical mama 14”ers

Fun fact: Bluegills fight harder than crappie.

Have a Crappie Day!
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Keep Calm and Fly Fish™