It’s safe to say there are as many reasons for going fly fishing as there are fish caught.

Some days, sanity demands I get out and sweep out all the accumulated trash in my head, or just remind myself that there’s plenty of impossibly beautiful stuff going on just outside the front door.

It’s true that — while I’m fly fishing — the world recedes a bit, which is as good an excuse as any.

Sadly, I have a meeting fast headed this way, so this report will be brief, and almost wholly lacking in the nearly superhuman wit that makes the Underground a nearly household name.

Dry Fly Spring

Due to the mild winter and low waters of spring, the dry fly fishing has been exceptional; there are bugs of every size, shape and color hatching.

Golden Stone on the Upper Sacramento River
A Golden Stone (click the image for a much larger version)

Two kinds of drakes, two kinds of yellow stones, Golden stones, salmonflies, two other mayflies…. the list goes on.

After our big-fish fest earlier in the week, I was ready for almost anything, and the river didn’t disappoint.

I caught many trout on #10/#12 green drake patterns, while Steve Bertrand did almost as well using almost anything but a green drake.

Steve Bertrand, Fly Fishing Guide
Bertrand about to catch another. He’s started posting fishing reports here.

I’m not a numbers hound, so we’ll just say I caught enough fish to strip two green drake Quigley cripples to little more than a bare hook (with a trailing shuck).

Big fish of the night was a 17″-18″ I caught on a (you guessed it) green drake cripple (which usually outperforms the dry), and overall, the fish were smaller than earlier in the week, though Steve and I both got several in the 14″-16″ range.

A 14 Upper Sacramento Rainbow Trout
An easy 14 inches, this is typical of the beautifully colored Upper Sac rainbow.

With Memorial Day weekend almost upon us, the river is in perfect shape and the fish are looking up — prescriptions for a weekend of almost epic proportions.

Let’s just make sure it isn’t a little too epic; Bertrand and I walked away from rising fish because we both felt like we’d caught all we needed to, and big flies (and big hooks) are pretty unkind to the little fish that were coming with increasing regularity.

In other words, don’t be a fish hog. Me? I almost never fish the river on holiday weekends, and the backcountry is open for business. Can I pass on 19″ trout on big dries in favor of tiny alpine brook trout?

To be honest, I’m not sure. See you somewhere, Tom Chandler.

[tags]fly fishing, fishing, upper sac, upper sacramento river, green drake, rainbow trout[/tags]

Posted in Fishing Report, Upper Sacramento.