Chandler Returns to River. Trout Unwelcoming.
By Tom Chandler on Sep 18, 2006 in Fishing Report, Fly Fishing, Upper Sacramento
It’s been several weeks since I dipped my toes in the Upper Sacramento River, and frankly, the trout could have been a little happier to see me.
On Sunday evening, myself, Chris, and New Underground Photographic Subject Victor ran downriver - a move calculated to offer us the greatest amount of cover should we fail to catch fish.
That’s Victor, the last of the sunlight, and smoke from a campfire. Almost made up for the irritatingly uncooperative fish…
Chris has been doing well upriver in my absence (apparently he didn’t receive the memo directing him to stay the hell off my water while I was gone), but I had an irresistible urge to see what was happening midriver - a section I don’t often fish in the summer.
It’s hot there, and the hatches can turn off pretty hard - but several midriver stretches offer good fall/winter fishing. With daytime temperatures still in the mid-80s, it’s a little early for the fall hatches, but I’ve never been one to let reason stand in the way of a bad decision.
The fishing? Tough, but not awful. Sporadically rising fish were eating what each of us variously described as a “small olive,” “#20 PED,” and “that g**damned bug.”
OK, some diversity of opinion is to be expected. What I didn’t expect was a sound spanking for my use of 5x tippet. After I moved to a #20 PED dry and 6x tippet, I got bites. Seven grabs, four hookups, two landed. Victor was top rod of the evening, so it’s unlikely he’ll be invited along again.
There were no OC sightings (”OC” stands for October Caddis, but we’re always looking to make the Underground more GenX/Y friendly).
Other Underground News
In other news, the Underground continues its Ian Rutter “Lost in Montana” vigil. The erstwhile guide hasn’t been heard from since he updated his Web site on September 5, and I for one can’t believe anyone would rather fish for huge trout in Montana instead of reading and responding to e-mails or posting updates on the Internet.
There’s simply no accounting for taste.
Also, hold onto your waders - there’s plenty more to come from the Underground, including rare, rare “how-to” information. See you on the river, Tom Chandler.
Technorati Tags: Ian Rutter, PED, photography
flytimes | Sep 18, 2006 | Reply
SERIOUS QUESTION:
How late does the Upper Sac fish with dry flies? Ya know, good hatches of baetis, Oct Caddis and the like.
Wyatt
Tom Chandler | Sep 18, 2006 | Reply
The answer - like it always is in fishing - is “it depends.”
Two years ago we had strong BWO hatches which finally tapered off in February (and this while all the other reports on the river were that it was fishing badly).
Last year, the hatches were poor, and the river was too high to fish much of the Fall and Winter. It sucked.
Since the river’s only been open to winter fishing two years (thanks to Chris Raine), we don’t have much of a backlog of information.
flytimes | Sep 18, 2006 | Reply
Thanks. I know that a question like that is hard to answer so I appreciate the response.
Jim Paznokas | Sep 19, 2006 | Reply
To be sure Ian & Charity are probably having a great time.
Ian may be waiting for “the big one” to file a report, by now he knows that his friend Tim Doyle landed a 25″ Brown on the Little River on 9/10/06.
See Little River Outfitters for details & pictures.
JPaz
Tom Chandler | Sep 19, 2006 | Reply
You’re probably right about Ian, but what right does he have to cause worry and concern across the entire blogosphere?
For all we know, he could laid out in a ditch somewhere. Or been taken by aliens.
It’s this kind of thing that keeps me up at night, worrying. Always with the worrying…