The River Goes Up And Down. The Fly Line Just Rolls On

The Upper Sacramento’s flows are yo-yoing up and down, and we’ve entered the stage of winter where uncertainty turns fly fishing into a local’s game.

The flows ran well over 6,000 cfs after last weekend’s warm storm, and while they’re down below 3,000 cfs, we’ve still got a lot of low-altitude snow just itching to melt.

Morning hoarfrost on my porch railing

When the low-level snow melts — the majority of the flows enter the river via the tributaries — you can still find decent fishing by running way upriver, or by searching out those few fishable-at-high-flows nooks even friends don’t tell each other about.

Later in the year — as the higher altitude snow starts to melt and Lake Siskiyou begins to spill over the dam — the real runoff event begins, and because that’s flowing from the top of the river, your fly fishing options are deeply reduced.

The difference between the two runoff events isn’t always clear, though I recall the big runoff event always seemed to start two days before the season opened in late April.

That may not be strictly factual, but I am willing to say it always seemed that way.

Life was hard in the old days.

The Dunsmuir Visit

I got a good look at the river while I was in Dunsmuir working on the Trout Underground’s Ancestral Home (back on the market, kids). Frankly, it looked high, but in pretty good shape.

Because I’d rather be casting a bamboo fly rod than working, I also stopped by Chris Raine’s rod shop where — with his hip issues largely behind him — he’s got a dozen bamboo fly rod blanks in the works.

One of those rods was his prototype 8.5′ hollowbuilt quad, derived from one of his best-selling tapers — his 8′ 5wt Upper Sac Special.

I wasn’t expecting much; the Upper Sac Special is a hex (a six sided rod), and his new 8.5′ is a quad, and the hex/quad and 8′-8.5′ conversions are hardly straightforward.

Still, the prototype was pretty damned close. I think the 8.5′ prototype was best as a 6wt and maybe the upper half could go a hair thinner, but most astonishing was the lack of weight in the hand.

You don’t buy hollowbuilt bamboo rods because they’re lighter (they usually are, but it’s about the casting action), but the prototype was very, very light in the hand, especially for a rod that threw a DT6 a good 65 feet without any histrionics.

The fly line just kept unrolling, and the only real barrier to this being the cosmic 8.5′ 6wt was the close-up casting. I think he’ll get it right.

No, the taper’s not quite ready for prime time, but the next one will be, and my mission at that point will be to distract Raine (”look, over there — away from this just finished rod“) and steal the thing.

It’s not foolproof, but it’s a plan. Man’s got to have a plan.

My other plan is to get the hell out of the house and do something later this week. I don’t know if it will involve trout or skis (or both), but you’ll likely hear about it here.

See you on the river, Tom Chandler.

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