Golden, golden… gone…
By Tom Chandler on Jul 11, 2006 in Fishing Report, Fly Fishing, Upper Sacramento
I’m being dramatic in the headline; the golden stone bite isn’t gone yet, but last night it was a pale shadow of what it had been. I’d clobbered them last Wednesday night; Steve Bertrand enjoyed a similar experience Sunday. Could be the Goldens have slowed dramatically, but we might also be looking at the effects of hotter temperatures than normal.
Steve and I headed upriver from Prospect in the late afternoon; it was hot, and Upper Sac regulars earn no extra credit points for correctly identifying the Upper Sacramento’s coolest spot (outside the river itself) on a hot day:
Shocking photograph of never-before-seen Mossbrae Falls on the Upper Sacramento.
We still caught fish on the stones - and the slightly cooler weather might bring that bite back a bit - but eventually we figured we’d fall back on the evening mayfly hatch for our entertainment. While the mayfly hatch underperformed compared to the night before (again, maybe the heat), Steve and I found working fish in a couple of the reliable evening spots, though it was mostly dink-o-rama. My best was a 13″-14″ fish that came off after a minute of kicking my butt in the current.
Nice to see that some things don’t change.
The forecast calls for slightly cooler temperatures the rest of the week, so hopefully the bite will pick up to pre-meltdown levels. If not, you can always sit and stare at Mossbrae Falls for a few hours.
The ever-present pressures of deadlines mean no Underground Entertainment today, though the online world as a whole is looking like it’s entering the summer doldrums. We’ve got a ways to go before that happens up here, and my next adventure could easily include an alpine float tube trip. They can be big, big fun. See you at the cool spots, Tom Chandler.
fish4trout | Jul 11, 2006 | Reply
I fished near Castella on Sat night and saw more Golden Stones than I had ever seen. I went to the same spot Sun evening and there were hardly any. Glad it wasnt just me.
lostintejas | Jul 11, 2006 | Reply
TC, I want a copy of that pic - 1024×768, with the underground text/logo/motto on the right bottom corner in the dark water - below the spray, above the rocks (so as to not be covered by my taskbar or unsightly icons.
PUHLEEEEZE?
Mossbrae is, for me, an icon what I left behind…
rriver | Jul 11, 2006 | Reply
I had a bad night. With the “super leader” I spent more time getting my fly out of the blackberry bushes then fishing, though the problem was I think because I was using the 6 wt after fishing with the 3 wt for a week. I did catch 3 fish, if added together would be an 18 incher. It was ugly.
- rriver
TC | Jul 11, 2006 | Reply
Gus,
Give me a day or two to get to it. I’ll offer it as a download to anyone who wants it…
dambruos | Jul 11, 2006 | Reply
How much does elevation change the hatch outlook? It seems to me that if Ney Springs is 1000 feet higher in elevation than, say, parts of Dunsmuir, then the hatches would happen with just a little delay, and the “dog days” would come a bit later. Did I make this up? (I need a fly fishing “myth busters” book to correctly identify all my bullsh** for what it is.)
Oh, and fyi about an earlier debate: my “Adult October Caddis” patterns were actually more amber than orange (at the suggestion of good ol’ TC last fall). I just thought it was amusing, given the unequivocal title of the fly, to think of the October Caddis as the REAL sleeper hatch of July. I need to get out (and fish) more.
See you in Berkeley, Will
TC | Jul 12, 2006 | Reply
Elevation as a factor of habitat quality would certainly affect things, but the differences in elevation most of us are citing aren’t huge. Water temperatures would vary a lot more due to distance from the dam.
Certainly, the hatch diferences between the top and the bottom of the canyon are significant, though it seems that it rarely works exactly the way you think it should.
Two winters ago I did (finally) latch onto the idea that killer dry fly water was really the product of quality bug habitat upriver.
In other words, some really good looking runs kinda sucked because they lacked great bug habitat immediately upriver.
rriver | Jul 12, 2006 | Reply
The hatch flies upriver to lay eggs, otherwise the hatch would be gone (in the Ocean), so the hatch is moving up river. Does the hatch start at the top or the bottom, meaning up or down river. Logic would say down to up but I don’t know. How does it work?
- rriver
Heddon17 | Jul 12, 2006 | Reply
Tom,
Your trip to the Prospect-Mossbrae Falls section sounds about identical to mine on Saturday evening…….
That section of the river seems to be a bit of a wildcard in terms of intensity of hatches due to all the micro-climates in that section. That section may possibily contain more micro-climates than any other.
rriver,
The hatch does start at the bottom of the river and works it’s way up to the top.
The golden stone hatch starts out at the bottom and since the adults are long lived as far as aquatic insects go, they will move upstream a couple miles or so each day.
Caddis do this too since they can live up to a couple weeks after emerging (I think).
Not sure about mayflies since they only live about 24 hours or so after emerging.
Brian
rriver | Jul 14, 2006 | Reply
I found a new steelhead holding spot dry fly fishing last night, but I could not get the fish to rise. It was a beauty, black and silver, about 7 lbs. Again after a caddis, but would not take mine. An almost impossible lie, between the bank, and a log parallel to the bank, with the kicker being a branch sticking up from the log that would catch your fly line if you let it drift too long. Of course the fish held on the down stream side of the branch, just a foot or so below. How do fish know these things? It would be a spot a fish would lay in, after it looked around the bank discussing it, getting different opinions.
- rriver