The Upper Sacramento’s sub-par BWO hatches are finally lighting off, so naturally, I’m getting out of town.
Timing, it seems, remains a weak point.
Blurry image, pretty trout. It’s the Upper Sacramento, Winter BWO edition.
Since there’s a plane waiting for us – and the downcanyon drive to Redding will be a slow one due to snow – this will be short.
On Thursday, an old friend and I headed for one of my midriver dry fly runs, arriving to the spectacle of a medium-sized BWO hatch already in progress.
A sight like that creates a jarring mix of emotions; you’re irritated you didn’t show up sooner while you’re simultaneously trying to get dressed and rigged before it’s over (which seemed to be 2:30 or so).
I got five grabs, hooked three, and landed one (the blurry pic above) – a nice 16″ Upper Sacramento winter football.
Intriguingly, the small olive parachute didn’t do any business at all. Instead, a Roy Palm soft hackle emerger and Quigley Cripple got the job done – a not-that-surprising reality given how many adults floated downriver unmolested.
Catching trout on the Upper Sacramento in winter means typically catching trout a bit bigger than the rest of the year, and one of the fish I lost ran me around at will, my 8.5′ 5wt Steffen fiberglass rod bent to the water.
It was an impressive display – one that ended when the fish decided he’d had enough and took off like a freight train, wrapping my leader on a rock.
We never did see the fish, but he was likely bigger than the 16″ speciment by at least a couple inches.
Hot damn.
Meanwhile, back on the Mountain
While I was poking around on the river, the L&T was climbing up Mt. Shasta and skiing her way down, and because I (again) stuck a dying battery in my camera (yes, someday I’ll learn), I’m stealing one her pictures to pad the report.
That’s Avalanche Gulch behind the L&T’s sunglasses.
More to come about this trip – including my test-flight of a pair of Patagonia’s “Sticky Rubber” wading boots, which seemed to grip better than my old studded rubber Weinbrenners?
Why am I trying new wading boots? Simple – my high arch is falling and my foot is lengthening, so suddenly all my sport shoes are getting a little short.
This, I think, is old age.
See you on the river, Tom Chandler.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Tom,
I thought my vision was just starting to clear up after a few too many egg nogs last night, (well, maybe it was all the brandy I added TO the egg nog that was the problem) but I’m not seeing any pictures with this post. (Just the captions.)
(P.S. The only olives I typically see are in the bottom of my gin & tonic.)
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hey Tom,
Must be hard, having to choose between a dry fly and an emerger pattern. :{(
Any Olive trying to break the film around here would need an Ice Auger.
Come on Global Warming. Where are ya when I need ya ?
Larry Swearingen
Fort Wayne, IN
New Hoosier
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TC, have fun on the flight. Hoping for the water to drop here some (lots of run off after the last valley snow fall) But the BWO’s are showing and may have to check out the upper run. Steve is on his way up Monday. (yes Steve I know what day it is now). See ya when you get home.
David
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Wannabe: Internet Explorer? Seems like a bug with my blog editor (or IE7), but look now and see what you can see.
Larry: The hard part was leaving after stumbling on the olive hatch. I won’t be back until Sunday night, so assuming no pyschotic breaks in the weather, I could get back on ‘em next week.
Roberts: Cool.
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Yes, I do have IE7 (I just don’t know how YOU know) and yes, the pictures are there now. Thanks.
One more thing. I appologize I have not been with you since day one.
I gather your significant other goes by the nom de plume of “L&T.”
May I inquire as to what that stands for? “Lovely and Tremendous?”
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Lovely & Talented. It’s just faster this way.
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not bad good looking bow can’t wait untill i can get back in the water. every thing is FROZEN in nh
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I’d say it’s time for a trip south – Ian in Tennessee tells me the Smokies are still fishing well, and I’ll bet the small streams are similar to what you’re used to in NH. Or maybe it’s just time to buy an ice auger…
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Tom… [i]“Roy Palm soft hackle emerger” ??[/i]
I have a weakness for soft hackle patterns. Got a dressing or photo? URL?
Thanks. That is a beautiful fish. Really.
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Mike: I’ve been using soft hackles as emergers for years, though it turns out Roy Palm apparently invented the biot-bodied BWO emerger some time ago. I found the recipe in Ed Engle’s Excellent “Tying Small Flies” book, and here’s a picture of a beat-up one:
I use some kind of trailing shuck, biot body, dubbed thorax, and dun hen hackle (if you get the whiting stuff, it’s like dry fly hackle). The goal is to have a fly that sits right in the film, and if you’ve got a picky fish going, dabbing on a little Frog’s Fanny floatant adds a few bubbles to the fly, which trout sometimes find irresistible.
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Thanks, Tom – the photo doesn’t show up, but I found a recipe for the fly on the web. Have some dun hen stuff and will give it a shot.
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Should show up now.
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