Some days you step out onto the Upper Sacramento River, bamboo fly rod in hand, and just know that bugs are hatching, fish are rising, and with the application of a little hard-won technique, you’re going to catch trout.

Perhaps a lot of trout.

This was not one of those days. What’s interesting is how that’s gotten to be OK.


I fished a new bamboo rod from Jim Reams. More dish next week.

The Watching

I’m not suggesting I’m in the twilight of my fly fishing life or that the sport’s gotten boring, but I do know I’ve given up raging against nature when it doesn’t give me what I think I deserve.

With my usual dry fly spots on the river running clear, low – and largely devoid of bugs – I spent a day last week on the very lowest reaches, looking for BWOs or midge hatches.

I didn’t find them.

On Saturday, I eased the truck down to a short, technical stretch of the upper river, figuring I already knew what wasn’t happening on the lower and middle sections – why not find out what was happening up top?

I was hoping for a decent hatch of midges, but I have yet to see a good midge hatch any of the last three winters. I’m still waiting.

The Report

On a short stretch of river that enjoys good hatches during the summer, I saw the following:

  • No BWOs
  • No Midges
  • No Rises
  • No Fish
  • One Game Warden
  • One frozen water seep

It’s always great to see enforcement on the river, and our new warden is a friendly, approachable guy, so I managed to learn where at least a few bugs were hatching on another stretch of the river (no, don’t even ask).

Otherwise, I was reduced to nymphing, which produced the following:

  • Nothing

I’m hardly The Nymph Master, but I did get enough good drifts through good slots to know that the fish weren’t particularly active.

Wayne Eng had a couple clients on the river, and for their hours of focused nymphing, they landed a single fish. Dorothy, we’re not in July any more…

The Alternatives

OK, so the river’s fishing tough (it’s been fishing tough), so when nature gives you skunks, you make… (OK, the lemonade analogy falls apart here).

You sit in the sun, cast a fine new bamboo rod (more on that next week), and enjoy the sights and sounds of winter – which include frozen water seeps and animal tracks that are largely invisible in the summer.

Another long work week looms ahead of me, but the weather has warmed a little the last week, and I have a feeling the sun might wake up the fish a little, if not the bugs.

Yes, I’ve got something in mind. Maybe midweek.

In the meantime, I have a couple interesting posts pinging around the brainpan, but then, I always have a couple interesting posts pinging around.

What I lack is time.

(If you underachievers would simply order a combined total of $1 Million worth of stuff through my affiliate links, I could focus on the Trout Underground fulltime, unleashing a torrent of written genius the fly fishing world is almost certainly not prepared for. I know you can do it.)

See you sitting on the river, Tom Chandler.

[tags]fly fishing, upper sacramento river, upper sac, fishing report, trout, nymphing[/tags]

Posted in Fishing Report, Upper Sacramento.