Posts tagged: fly fishing the pit river

Pit River Road Closure Information (Fly Fishermen, Pay Attention)

June 18, 2009, by No comments yet

Those who fly fish the Pit River regularly will no doubt find this road closure information interesting (forwarded to us via Curtis Knight of CalTrout):

I suspect many of you have been hearing rumors about Pit River road closures and other activities in the Pit 3,4,5 area.  I placed a call to PG&E to get some information.  Here is what I know starting with a little background.

The Pit 3,4,5 project when through relicensing and a new license was issued in July 2007.   A new flow regime was negotiated—new summer baseflows beginning in no later than July 2010 will be—Pit 3:  300 cfs, Pit 4:  375 cfs, and Pit 5:  400 cfs.   I heard Pit 5 would be the first to get these new flows in November or December 2009, the other two reaches in 2010 by July 2nd.

Current construction work on the dams is to retrofit the outlets to meet new flow standards.  PG&E is also applying to FERC to put new turbines at Pit 3 and Pit 4 outlets to generate power off of the increased flows from the dam outlets—though this is just getting started.

I attached the Pit 3,4,5 license from FERC. It is a bit dense but it has the entire flow schedule and additional terms and conditions.

In regards to the road closure my understanding is that car traffic over Pit 3 dam will be closed from July 6- December 1.  From Pit 3 dam to Pit 4 dam at least one lane will be open at all times. But the road will be closed at Pit 4 dam, so if you want to fish Pit 4 or 5 reach you have to access from Big Bend up.   Road closures are in place while road improvements are done—my recollection is the Forest Service wanted more turnouts for safety.

According to the Forest Service, campground improvements are not scheduled until next year.  I don’t recall the extent of those but I recall there were not major.  One issue CalTrout and TU made clear during the relicensing negotiations is that our constituents generally liked the rugged flavor of the Pit River and drastic improvements to campgrounds, trails, and access points were not necessary.  Still, I think the agencies are identifying this once in 40-year opportunity to have PG&E to pay for some long-needed upgrades.  But it needs to be done in way that doesn’t ruin the Pit River experience.

Upper Sacramento, McCloud Rivers Offering Great Fly Fishing (plus, Special Bonus McCloud Flow Data)

June 2, 2009, by No comments yet

In keeping with the Underground’s tradition of delivering far more than our motley crew of followers could dream of, we’re not only throwing a favorable fly fishing report your way – but we’re also passing along information of a new flow monitoring station on the McCloud (at Ah Di Nah).

Yes. It’s a twofer Tuesday.

Upper Sacramento is (shuss) Fly Fishing Well

The Upper Sacramento River is busting out, with reports of evening hatches (and good-sized trout) filling the clandestine, whisper-encrypted airwaves that reflect the “don’t tell anybody, but…” communications between locals, guides, and the visiting fly fishermen.

Flows on the Upper Sac are wholly wadable and will remain so. The fly fishing’s good.

Time to fly fish.

And don’t forget to spend a few bucks in the area while you’re up here (see the Undergrounder’s Human Refueling Guide here).

The McCloud

The McCloud’s in great shape, and in fact, you can read flow data from Ah-Di-Nah online. That’s great news for fly fishermen trying to make the difficult “go, no-go” decision (Houston, we have a flow problem).

There’s really no need to hype the McCloud’s fishing here; this world-famous, soil-your-waders-gorgeous river is the most popular in the area, and it’s not as if the within-driving-distance Undergrounders need much urging.

It’s fishing pretty good. We’ll leave it at that.

The Pit? I haven’t heard. It was easily the early-season champion among the area’s three rivers, and I’d expect it’s still going good – the heat hasn’t yet gotten too bad.

River Flows Online (also on the Underground’s Link page)

Upper Sacramento River flows (at Lake Shasta)
McCloud River flows (at Lake Shasta)
New! McCloud River flows (at Ah Di Nah)
All Calfornia’s CDEC flow stations

UPDATE: CalTrout also wants PG&E to publish dam release data as part of relicensing effort; we’ll update you if that comes online.

(Now stop looking at flows, and start fly fishing)

See you on the river, Tom Chandler.