The North Fork of the Feather River was absolutely hammered by rockslides this year. The Feather River canyon was closed the majority of the year and each time it reopened it was closed a week or two later due to more rockslides. This most recent reopening in the beginning of May has been the longest the Feather River canyon has been opened this year.
Construction is now underway on repairing HWY 70 through the canyon and there are 5 stops before getting to the Greenville Wye: 1. Short light near Scooters 2. Major construction at Cresta Rest Stop 3. Major construction at Rock Creek Dam 4. Major construction at near Twain 5. Moderate construction near Greenville Wye. The construction is be completed by 2025.
I’ve explored about 75% of the special regulation section between Belden and Cresta Powerhouse and have been itching to fish the remaining 25%. There’s a lot of good water in this section and finding where the money spots are is tons of fun. The flows below Rock Creek dam were at 470 CFS making it safe to explore.
The rainbow trout found in the North Fork are wild descendants of steelhead and share many traits with their ocean-run counterparts. A good North Fork rainbow trout specimen is hard pulling, high jumping, and shaped like a football. Living in the North Fork of the Feather is not an easy task, massive flows, warm summer temperatures, and ravaged by multiple fires, these trout have adapted to all these conditions and continue to thrive.
The fishing on the North Fork of the Feather was great, quality over quantity. The fishing wasn’t too difficult but it did take a lot of effort to find the fish. Fishy spots will hold fish most of the time but the fish density is relatively low. I explored more of the Tobin area and found that although there were some good fish to be caught in the plunge and pocket pools the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze. I feel like I’m pretty good at boulder hopping but even this area was a bit too much for me. The giant granite rocks are slippery and the deep pools look like they can easily drown a person. This section is not for the faint of heart and I personally won’t be fishing it anymore in the future.
This year has been another high water year which has put a hamper down on my outings. The Yuba River hasn’t come down since February and it seems like every time I have the opportunity to fish the weather doesn’t cooperate. I’ve been spending most of the year fixing up the house, reefing, and taking care of my kids during my days off. The few times I’ve been out to wet the line I didn’t feel like I was missing out on much. Now that summer is here and the spring runoff is on it’s way out I can finally get some real adventures in.
My cousins from Fresno who also like to fish were getting the itch to get into some real fishing as well so we planned a two day overnight trip to Burney. Being from the Central Valley they find themselves limited in their choices on where they can fish so I was hoping this trip would be one to remember. This would be their first time venturing up north and with my knowledge of the area we were going to fish the hell out of it.
We had planned to fish Baum Lake for the majority of the stay but kept open the option of visiting Hat Creek or the Pit River if Baum Lake wasn’t fishing well. We made camp at Cassel Campground which is the best campground to use as a homebase for fishing the area. The mosquitoes were out in full force this trip and we all ended up getting over 15 bites despite smelling like DEET the entire trip. The weather was nice but I didn’t pack enough blankets. The lows got down to about 50 degrees which woke my brother and I up at 3am and left us unable to sleep comfortably the rest of the first night. We made an impromptu trip to Burney Sporting Goods the following day for some nice fleece blankets and slept fine the next night. The campground host was a bit overbearing but I did appreciate him taking his job seriously. Overall the camping itself was fine.
After setting up camp we geared up and headed out to Baum Lake to do some fishing. We were all on the water at around 3:30pm. My brother and I were in the Seaeagle Stealth Stalker and my cousins were in float tubes. Baum Lake is usually a bit slow from about noon to 4pm so I told everyone not to expect stellar fishing until a few hours. My brother and I floated down to the dam switching between the two of us who was fishing and rowing. We caught a few fish along the way but nothing the quality that I usually find. I worked the deep channels that we discovered and I was surprised to find little to no action in the areas where the fish would usually hold. We all met back up at around 6pm and shared our reports. Everyone had caught fish but they were all in the 10″ range. I told everyone that this was a bit unusual as the fish are usually bigger and hopefully we will catch some nicer fish tomorrow morning.
My cousins kept a few of the fish they caught and we cooked them at the campground. We all forgot to bring salt and pepper and I recommended that they season it with the ramen that they had packed. Some of the best camping meals I’ve had have been improvised with random ingredients pieced together. The fish turned out great.
The following morning we were out on Baum Lake at 7:30am. There were already a few people fishing before us and as the day progressed I had never seen so many cars in the parking lot at Baum Lake. I was in a float tube this time and was working a stretch that I always had luck at. I was nymphing my typical Baum Lake rig; a pheasant tail with a zebra midge dropper. I caught two small fish and at around 9am I started noticing fish rising all throughout the lake. I could tell by the rises that these weren’t very big fish and tried to ignore them but my nymphs didn’t seem to be working anymore. The fish were rising for a trico spinner fall. I reluctantly switched to a dry fly and caught a few more fish before the rising slowed down at around 11:00am. We met back up at the the parking lot at 12pm and shared our reports. Again we all caught fish but no one had caught anything exceptional.
We packed up and went back to camp to have lunch. I suggested we check out the Pit River for better quality fishing. The Pit River in my opinion takes a different mind and gear set to fish safely and successfully and we did not come prepared.
The Pit River was flowing at 340 CFS below Lake Britton. We were on the Pit at 3pm and fished at Ruling Creek access. The Ruling Creek access is probably the easiest access on Pit 3 as it is right along the road. We didn’t have wading staffs so we grabbed the best sticks we could find. The Pit always fishes well and I was catching fish left and right. The fish were much more quality than the Baum Lake stockies that we were catching but as the Pit dictates it was a pain to get around the river.
As we made our way around the Pit I hooked a nice fish that was using the current to try and break me off. I made the mistake of following it downstream to try and land it and during the chase through slippery boulders and rough current the stick that I was using as a wading staff broke. I ended up on a small island about 20 feet away from the bank. The fish eventually broke me off and as looked around to get an idea of where I was a sense of dread hit me. On both sides of the island I was standing on were rapids too dangerous to try to cross and they both emptied into a deep pool below. I tried to walk upstream a few times to backtrack but without a wading staff I couldn’t get good footing without slipping. I was stuck.
I flagged down my brother and told him about the situation. They tried to float down a new stick several times but the current wasn’t working in our favor. I told them to drive back to the campsite and grab a rope that we were planning to use as an anchor rope for Baum Lake. I kept calm by fishing the spot I was stuck in while waiting for my brother and cousin to return. After hooking several nice fish and sitting around contemplating my life my brother and cousin finally made it back. The plan was to tie a rope around myself and tie the other end to a tree to have them pull me in case I slip. Unfortunately the rope that I had asked them to retrieve was too short to reach me. I thought at that point maybe my fly line would work. My cousin had the idea of throwing me a new stick while tied to the end of my fly line so that I would be able to pull it in if it doesn’t float near me. This idea worked and I had a wading staff to work with while I tried to make my way back.
I had been reading the water for a long time after my brother and cousin left. There was a tailout that I was planning on walking across to get back to the bank. The danger zone was in between a rock that split the current one way into the deep pool and one way to the bank. I had to at bare minimum make it past that rock. I tied the fly line to myself and told everyone the plan. I got into the Pit and slowly made my way towards the bank. The new wading stick was a tremendous help and I made it 90% of the way before I lost my footing as they grabbed my hand to lift me when I was near the bank. After a bit of a struggle fighting the drop of the tailout they were able to pull me onto the bank. We all let out a sigh of relief and agreed that that was enough adventure for the day.
We fished Hat Creek one evening and it wasn’t as great as I had hoped it would be. We first started around at the powerhouse and I was able to hook a good +18″ fish that broke me off. A PMD hatch happened at Carbon Flat but we only had about 20 minutes before it got too dark. I rose and hooked a few fish but didn’t land any.
The last day of our trip we fished Baum Lake for a third time with the mindset of limiting out fish to take home. I fished from a float tube and worked my way from the Crystal Lake outlet all the way down to the fallen trees. I didn’t hook a single fish on my nymphs and another trico spinner fall started at around 9:45am. I switched to a dry fly, limited out with my five, and kicked my way back to the parking lot. In total we caught 12 trout that morning to take back home. Unfortunately for a third time none of us hooked into any thing big although I did see a few large trout hanging out in the deep channels.
The fishing overall was good, everyone caught fish but it was a quantity over quality trip this time around. I learned my lesson on the Pit River that in the future I won’t go without a wading staff and will consider wearing a life vest for extra insurance. We all had a good time and hopefully we can all make another trip in the future.
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