March Browns Poking Their Heads Out on Upper Sacramento River

I’m dragging together the usual outsized pile of gear for a today’s trip, so my report on Saturday’s outing will be brief.

With clouds dotting the sky, I ran downriver, searching for the March Brown hatch I stumbled on last weekend.

While I found a few — to the tune of four hookups (three to my feet) — the hatch was very light.

The smaller fish are waking up again, with all but one of my fish in the 12″ range.

The sun broke through at the start of the hatch, which didn’t help matters much.

March Brown Comparadun on my Steffen Brothers 8.5′ 5 glass rod.

The March Browns are an enigmatic hatch on the Upper Sac; the river’s often too high to fish it properly in the spring, so we’re all just feeling our way around this thing right now.

The flows are fishable, but don’t be mislead by the sub-1000 cfs number (at the delta).

Our flows are measured at the bottom of the river, so you never quite know if the majority of the water is coming from lower tribs or from the top.

I’d say — given my difficulty in wading a stretch of water I’ve successfully crossed at 1700 cfs in the past — most of it’s coming from the top.

I could write a lot more, but I’d rather go fishing instead. Hope you understand.

See you on the river, Tom Chandler.

[tags]fly fishing, upper sac, upper sacramento river, march browns[/tags]