Last Thursday I fished Lake Siskiyou from a float tube, finding myself in possession of a nice tan and relaxed attitude, but little else.
It was gorgeous and sunny and warm, and operating under the assumption that no time on the water is entirely wasted, I did walk away with some material for an essay on float tubes (plus the knowledge I picked the wrong place to fish, proving that while education is always enriching, it’s not always productive).
Saturday’s trip to the Upper Sacramento River delivered better – even though I got skunked again. In fact, it’s likely the pictures were the best part of the trip, though fishing with Wayne Eng is never boring.
The story? Rain. It rained steadily all day, and though rain rarely shows up well in photographs, you get a sense of the water falling by looking closely at the surface of the river:
Wayne Eng - not being made of Alka Seltzer - likes rainy day fly fishing just fine.
Keeping the trip interesting was the fact that Wayne’s an inveterate tinkerer, so his baseline is the stuff he knows will work, and once it does, it simply becomes a point of departure for trying newer (often weirder) things.
It also makes him the perfect guy to pound on a new rod & reel combo sent to the Underground for testing (more on that soon).
Flows on the river hovered over 2000 cfs, but the color was good, which means there were places we could fish and hope to do well, though your wading options definitely narrow when the flows go up.
The tributaries were pumping out a steady volume of water, which makes them look like bona-fide trout streams on their own, though flows plummet later in the year and they acquire the patina of streams filled with small fish – places that would offer great fishing if only they were fed by higher, wetter mountains.
Warning: Small tribs on the Upper Sac may appear larger than they are (in spring)
Fly fishing during those long, grey, rainy days can turn you into a prune, but to a photographer, the hyper-saturated blues and greens of the river are worth it.
Sadly, it appears that the Underground’s Best Photographic Friend on the majority of his fishing trips – my trusty, much-battered Pentax Optio W10 – maybe nearing the end of its photographic existence.
Apparently no longer waterproof, it’s also exhibiting some worrisome problems with the focus, and I get the impression I’m living on borrowed time (from a visual perspective).
The Fishing Report
The Upper Sacramento was running high, though not unfishably so (about 2200 cfs at the delta). While you can always hope for a BWO hatch on a wet day, Wayne and I saw nothing even remotely resembling a BWO, suggesting my prior thinking is probably right – the BWOs don’t last all winter. (I’d guess the hatches fall apart sometime in mid-February.)
The streamer pattern I threw looked great, but requires more testing before it’s unleashed on the universe.
In fact, I fished the streamer most of the day (with zero results), while Wayne managed to nymph up a pair of nice fish using the “test” rod/reel combo.
Both fish were nice but not in the “holy crap” class of trout you sometimes encounter in the winter, and yes – the Underground was there to capture the action of one of Wayne’s conquests with this stirring, Bullit-esque action sequence:
Drifting... drifting... wait for it...
Hookup!
OK, maybe it’s not so stirring. Maybe it’s not exactly Steve McQueen in a Mustang. Maybe it’s not even an action sequence, but damnit – without multi-million dollar special effects, we’ve got limitations.
Still, the result wasn’t all bad – another pretty Upper Sac rainbow trout.
Not bad for two minute's work (assuming you ignore the hours that went before and after)
The final result? The fishing wasn’t great, but the testing sure was; the Undergrounders will soon see final reviews of the Patagonia soft shell and “sticky rubber” wading boots – both of which needed a little extra rainy day testing.
Even with all the waterproof gear available to us, you often walk away from a rainy day on the river sloshing like washing machine, which belies the mental clarity you gain when all the sounds (and sharp edges) around you are muted for a time.
See you on the river, Tom Chandler.
Speaking of your always-great pictures, I sent you an email yesterday that was just too raw for this space. Well, not so much “raw;” more of a half-baked message.
I noticed the person fishing is situated on their knees.
Barton usually requests a similar pose of me but I tell him not until he’s the one doing the paying.
A. Wannabe Travelwriter(Quote)
It’s a shame that the Pentax is on it’s way out. It takes great pictures. I really need to get out and fish the Upper Sac, and your blog is making the possibility of me looking for teaching jobs in California seem more appealing by the day.
With that said,some of my favorite days fishing have been spent in the pouring rain. For some reason the salmon on my local rivers seem to gorge or almost anything in a good downpour.
Anyway, not a bad fish by any standards, love the colors.
Benjamin Rioux(Quote)
Nice pics, I have been thinking about buying a Pentax for the fly trips, as well I was pondering the Xacti for vid sequences…I tell you, I have been skunked on the upper sac more times than I care to recall, enviro-disasters never help fishing, yet I am hopeful it raised some ecological awareness of the value of this beautiful area…
Glassy&Rising(Quote)
@Wannabe: We’ll have none of that here.
@Benjamin: You won’t find too many jobs in this county – the unemployment rate is probably nearly 20% by now.
@Glassy: The Pentax has suffered a great deal of abuse and keeps on ticking, so it’s hard not to recommend it.
Tom Chandler(Quote)
I fished the Kern in the rain about a month ago; loved it. Standing in the middle of the river with the rain pouring down, perfectly dry.
I have a Sony that I’ve used on the river a lot. Last year it took its third dunking; it’s not advertised as water proof. Really thought I’d lost it when, after several days, I couldn’t get it to focus, and the flash wouldn’t work. Thought it was done. Last month I pulled it out to see if I might get it repaired. It seems to work fine now. No need for any repairs, and it takes good pics. Guess it just had to have a longer drying out period.
But I gotta say, Tom…those pictures are beautiful. The richness of the color is amazing. Do you use an adjustment to the color setting in the camera? In the computer? Lemme in on the secret…puleeeze.
Kentucky Jim(Quote)