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!
Ellis Lake

Lotsa Fish To Catch This April

by Matt

April is one of the best months to be a fly angler. Both warm-water and cold-water species are active which means you can target either species effectively. Ellis Lake has been my hot-spot where I have been fishing for largemouth bass. I also tried fishing for stripers on the Feather but was reminded how boring and unproductive bank fly fishing is for this species.

The largemouth in Ellis Lake are pressured all year around which makes them quite finicky and difficult to catch. I find that in the beginning of the spring when the fish are in spawning mode, the best tactic seems to be drop-shotting flies that sink very slowly. Being able to fish weightless flies gives me a huge advantage over the gear guys.

Finding the right fish was the key to hooking up. There were some fish that were more willing to eat than others. Most of the fish I caught I’m guessing we’re males because they were smaller than the big girls that I found; they are always a good fight on a 3WT though. The fat females that I saw came up to my sinking fly but just as soon as my heart started pumping thinking the bass would bite, they swam right pass my fly.

Despite catching no true biggies, largemouth bass are 100x more fun to fight on a fly rod. Every bass I hooked jumped and pulled as hard as they could. Jumping largemouth bass are hard to come by on a spin or baitcaster rod because it takes 10 seconds to land them. Good luck trying to haul in a pissed off largemouth on a fly rod. Let them fight.

Bluegills and carp were also out on the lake with the latter begin nearly impossible to catch. It’s tough to ignore 10# – 20# fish that are cruising the bank just below the film. I found some tailing carp but after throwing my fly box at them, no takes, none, nada, zip.

I found that windless days in the afternoon are the most productive time to catch these largemouth. For some reason they are less likely to bite as soon as the sun hits 5pm. It is also interesting to note that the bass out in Ellis rarely eat reaction flies like clousers in the spring. The bluegills and sunfish tend to become more active during the low light hours eating just about anything you throw at them.

One day after work this week I tried to find some striper action. From social media it seems that they are being caught all over the Feather and targeting them would give me an okay chance at hooking one. After trying for a couple of hours using clousers and covering all the water that I could, I can conclude that I hate striped bass fishing from the bank. One day when I have a boat I will focus on catching these black and whites but for now I will leave them be. Instead I caught a little smallmouth.

1 2

Keep Calm and Fly Fish™