Fly Fishing the Upper Sacramento in Winter… Barely Winter…

I was sprawled on the picnic table in front of Wayne Eng’s house, sun on my back – thinking about napping in the 58-degree weather – when Wayne apologized for taking so long to get ready for our fly fishing trip on the Upper Sacramento.

“Save yourself,” I mumbled. “Go on without me.”

“Get your ass up” he said. “We’re going fishing.”

And thus, a fly fishing trip was born.

In the afternoon light, Wayne's last trout - colorful to begin with - lit up (click the image for a 1440 x 900 pixel version)

With much of the country blanketed in sub-freezing temperatures, those living near Trout Underground/Man Cave World Headquarters have been enjoying unreasonably warm temperatures – some days approaching 60 degrees. (Coincidence? I think not.)

While we could damn sure use some snow, I’ll probably find myself laboring behind Satan’s Snowblower soon enough, so in the spirit of opportunists everywhere, you go fly fishing while the fly fishing’s good.

Wayne and I ended up on a good dry fly stretch of the river, where Wayne personally witnessed a decent BWO hatch – and yes, rising trout – only a couple days before.

Wayne Eng fly fishing away. It’s been warm, but some snow remains.

Observations like that excite me; some people crave powerful illegal drugs, others accumulate power and expensive cars, but I’ve got a thing for rising trout. Sadly, the universe knows this, so while conditions were almost identical to a couple days ago – and the weather had been stable – the BWOs didn’t show, and neither did any rising trout.

Sometimes, the Universe sucks.

Still, the low-on-the-horizon light was gorgeous, and anyone who can’t embrace the reality of fly fishing in winter – wearing only two thin layers – needs more help than this site can provide (“lie down on the couch, and tell me about your fishing childhood…”).

Without risers, Wayne and I plugged away for a while, then headed downriver a bit, where I fired up the Pentax Optio digital and Wayne went nymphing.

A half hour netted him two fish – the biggest a chunky 14″ Upper Sac Rainbow, complete with color.

See? The rainbow trout just went pure color in the late afternoon light.

I popped a few more frames, tied on a woolly bugger, and we headed back upriver, where I quickly caught a wide-shouldered 15″ rainbow, and Wayne proceeded to get three more from an upriver run – two of which were gloriously colored in the golden afternoon sun (it was a daylong “Magic Hour” out there).

Earlier in the day, we’d stumbled Ted Fay Fly Shop owner Bob Grace, who pretty much confirmed what we’d discovered – the fish really hadn’t turned on until mid-afternoon.

A rare Bob Grace sighting (at least when he’s not behind the counter at the Ted Fay Fly Shop).

It was bracing to catch trout in that final flurry, but the old say about “it was just great to get out on the river” was true. I won’t pretend it’s been a hard winter (so far), but cold is cold, and the warm sun not only contributed Vitamin D by the truckload, it just plain felt good on bodies used to being swaddled in layers of fleece.

The river doesn’t wash away all our sins, but water’s a solvent after all, and any time spent in moving water lightens the load in some small way.

The Pesky Details

The day was a study in contrasts; Wayne strung up one of the best fly rods of all time – the Sage 389LL. And while I wanted to believe I’d hit a BWO hatch (I had a glass 5wt in the truck if I did), I pulled my Orvis 9′ 6wt Zero Gravity streamer rod out of the tube, and after fruitlessly casting a dry for an hour, ended up tying on a streamer anyway (the Underground’s streamer fly rod mantra: Longer, Stronger, Warrantied).

My ongoing review of Patagonia’s Insulator soft shell remains stalled; it wasn’t cold enough to wear the thing, much less the Micro-Puff insulated jacket still hanging in the Trout Underground/Man Cave.

The Patagonia “Sticky Rubber” wading shoes did get another workout, and while the jury’s not wholly in, I remain pleasantly surprised by the results. I would have told you an un-studded rubber sole wouldn’t function on the Upper Sacramento, but so far, the results are pretty good.

They don’t grip as well as studded felts, but my feeling is they’re better than the Weinbrenner studded rubber soles – and absolute dynamite on dry rocks, where studded felt can get downright dangerous.

So far, so good – Patagonia’s “Sticky Rubber” wading boots are light, comfy, protective and grippy. More to come.

Lightweight yet supportive, I am willing to say the Patagonia Riverwalkers would make an excellent hike-to-fly-fish-a-small-stream boots, but more testing is needed on the big river.

Plus, with Simms, Patagonia and Cloudveil all planning to release new Vibram rubber sticky soles soon (with very different sole patterns), the rubber-soled wading boot will evolve yet again.

See you on the river, Tom Chandler.

Technorati Tags: Fishing Report, fly fishing in winter, rainbow trout, upper sac, upper sacramento river, wading boots, wayne eng

Tagged as: Fishing Report, fly fishing in winter, rainbow trout, upper sac, upper sacramento river, wading boots, wayne eng