Big Bugs on the Upper Sacramento: Attack of the Green Drakes

I’m under the gun and have to put some words on paper for my clients — or face the sale of my entire bamboo fly rod inventory to pay my beer bill.

With that in mind, you’ll understand why I’m going to bypass all the normal taunting (I live, here, you don’t neener neener…) and get right down to the Reader’s Digest version of Sunday’s fishing report.

First, the bugs:

Yup, we found some Green Drakes. But the #12 Drakes, not the huge ones.

These weren’t all the bugs, but they were the bugs the fish were looking for, at least until late evening, when a wave of caddis came off along with a few #18 PEDs.

The Pink Alberts that were so much in evidence farther upriver? Nada.

Second, the fish. Or, one of them. There were plenty of others, some pushing the 18″-19″ range (yup).

My first fish; a 14″ landed just as the sun went behind the trees. Beauty, eh?

Then there were the flies. Once Steven Bertrand and I saw the first Green Drakes in the air, we dug into our fly boxes.

Oddly enough, I went with a green humpy that matched the color of the Green Drake photographed above.

Oddly enough, it worked. It worked pretty well, in fact, and worked better the more it got chewed up.

A green humpy after getting chewed by many fish. Bad fish.

Almost everyone’s familiar with Bob Quigley’s “Quigley Cripple” emerger pattern, which was born from the inspiration provided by a shredded humpy, which caught more fish than the trim, new version.

Essentially, what you’re seeing above is a fly that started life as a lowly Humpy, but — after the wear and tear of a dozen or so fish — ascended to the heavens and became a Pre-Quigley Cripple.

All this took place in the presence of myself and local guide Steven Bertrand, who somehow managed to find all the bigger fish. I got a 17″, a 16″, a pair in the 13″-14″ range, and a truckload of 12″ and under fish.

No beauty here. No big fish either. Nothing to see. Move along…

Steve managed a pair in the 18″-19″ range, a 17″, and a bunch of small fish. Does it sound like the fish were looking up?

I believe they were.

OK. Maybe a few fish. But no big ones.

The drakes, of course, are an enigmatic hatch on the Upper Sacramento. Never particularly heavy, they often get the better fish looking up for a meal, and when that happens — and you happen to be on the river with a fly rod — life can be good.

Of course, I could go back tomorrow, spend the day plopping drake patterns on the same water and end up with damned little to show for it.

Of course, because I was fishing an 8′ Phillipson Peerless 5wt, I’d look more stylish doing it than you would. That’s just the way it is.

We also saw a few stoneflies (golden and salmonfly), several kinds of caddis, Grey Drakes, a couple mayflies… the hell with it.

We saw lots of bugs. If you come up to fish, bring lots of bugs. I can’t make it any simpler.

See you on the river (and soon), Tom Chandler

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