Tag Archives: Sacramento

Upper Sacramento Brown Trout Tapes Out at 27? (or, Why We Officially Hate Wayne Eng)

December 17, 2009

Local fly fishing guide Wayne Eng used to grow so depressed when the Upper Sacramento River closed for the season, we considered confiscating his belt and shoelaces and placing him on suicide watch.

Now he gets to fish the Upper Sacramento all winter long (which is good, because it runs right by his home), and Wednesday, he was very, very happy the fishing season extends year-round. Why? Here’s 27 great reasons…):

Bigger than life? Wayne Eng's 27" Upper Sacramento Brown Trout

Bigger than life? Wayne Eng's 27" of Upper Sacramento Brown Trout happiness.

That’s an Upper Sacramento Brown trout which Wayne suggests taped out at 27 inches. That’s two-seven, Undergrounders. On a river not exactly known for its populations of monster brown trout.

He caught it on a (ta-da!) black woolly bugger – at a time when the rain and snow melt were just starting to drive higher flows and murk the water a bit – an awfully good time to go headhunting.

Still, these kind of fish have a tendency to appear in the winter, and you’re often left to wonder exactly where the hell they were all summer.

Hiding at the bottom of a deep pool? Living the high life in Lake Shasta? Lacking a hideously outsized government research grant more information, we’re not sure.

But at least we know the things exist.

See you at the fly bin, Tom Chandler.

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Fly Fishing the Upper Sac’s BWO Hatch (or, Are Trout Capable of Deceit and Revenge?)

December 13, 2009

You can’t ascribe human terms like “revenge” or even “manipulative bastards” to trout, but you damn sure can experience those feelings when you’re fishing for them.

One day you arrive late in the hatch and the trout show themselves just long enough to let you know they’re down there, but they stop eating even as the blue-winged olives continue to float by.

Wayne Eng contemplates vengeful trout on the Upper Sacramento

Wayne Eng contemplates vengeful trout on the Upper Sacramento

“Too late” you think, and the next day you head back (only much earlier), and you and your friends catch the exact same number of fish as the prior day, and this despite experiencing the entire BWO hatch instead of just 20 minutes of it.

As you stand there in water that is only barely liquid (water temps at the Upper Sac’s Delta gauge registered 36 degrees that morning), it’s not hard to think you threw the trout off balance for a few minutes by showing up early, but they recovered quickly and sulked on the bottom.

The result?

Day One Party Wide Trout Count: 3
Day Two Party Wide Trout Count: 3

In what has come to be a regular occurrence, the BWOs of “deep” winter are actually larger than those that hatch in the fall. The early bugs are #20s and #22s, but the bugs now look like perfect 18s, though some have much larger wings (I’m told the females have bigger wings).

Raine picked this cripple out of the film. Poor cripple...

Raine picked this cripple out of the film. Poor cripple...

With air temps hovering around the water temperature, fly fishing the Upper Sacramento would normally offer fly fishermen few chances at trout but excellent odds on frost bite, but through the miracle of modern gear, I was a toasy, happy camper the whole day.

Yes, it rained. Yes the BWOs are now a size 18. Yes, I was warm.

Yes, it rained. Yes the BWOs are now a size 18. Yes, I was warm.

Last year I became a convert to the fly fishing soft shell, a remarkably lightweight jacket that’s achieved widespread acceptance among mountaineering and active types for its ability to keep the wearer dry even during high-output activities.

It’s an ideal choice for many situations, but this, my cold-weather Undergrounders, wasn’t one of them.

In truth, something warmer was called for – a Patagonia Micro-Puff jacket I got last year, but rarely wore on account of it being a little too warm.

The last week – with us experiencing temperatures in the low single digits and my time on the river making a weekend in a deep freeze seem tropical by comparison – I hauled it out, and was happy I did.

Lightweight, water resistant and damned warm, I’d marry it if I wasn’t already married (and let’s face it, the relationship would fall apart in the summer), but in terms of keeping me warm on the river, it was perfect – even to the point of being compressible and light enough to stuff in a vest back pocket.

It's winter - time to break out the prototype Raine quad hollowbuilt

It's winter - time to break out the prototype Raine quad hollowbuilt

As for fly rods, it’s oddly true that fishing tiny bugs on tiny tippet on the Upper Sacramento in the winter demands more rod than you might imagine.

A three weight sounds like the right piece of equipment, but the trout on this particular stretch are wary, and you regularly find yourself laying out long leaders and long casts, and my mainstay in the winter has been a strong 8.5′ 5wt, in this case a prototype Raine hollowbuilt quad that he loaned me for testing and forget to take back.

Let's Raine's not reading this...

Let's hope Raine's not reading this...

Whenever I fish it and he’s around, I cringe, wondering if he’s going to remember and ask for it back. It’s not as if I don’t have other rods capable of doing the same job, but again, this one works real well, and only a fool would give that up.

At some point, you tend to settle in with the gear that works for you – and I’ve been that way roughly since I moved up here more than a decade ago – but every once in a while, you check out the new stuff and see if the state of the art has advanced (instead of the state of the industry’s marketing), and in the jacket world, it appears it has.

That’s coming from a guy who still mostly fishes bamboo and fiberglass fly rods, which suggests I’m a lot more interested in staying warm than I am in generating high line speeds. (Of the two, I know which is most useful on my river.)

Still, in the end, fly fishing the Upper Sacramento in the winter isn’t about gear or even catching a lot of trout.

It’s about practicing a sport in conditions where hope is your biggest ally, and the trout and the bugs often act like they’re out to drive you mad.

See you on the river, Tom Chandler.

I could pretend I went for the painted effect, but the pic just wasn't that sharp...

I could pretend I went for the painted effect, but the pic just wasn't that sharp...

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Reality TV Show Follows Game Wardens Around Underground’s Home Turf

November 24, 2009

Any Undergrounder who badly wants to be on television might want to commit a major wildlife-related crime in Northern California right now – it seems a reality TV show is being made about Northern California’s game wardens:

Reality TV show will track the adventures of California game wardens – Sacramento News – Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Producers of the hit reality television series “Deadliest Catch” are filming a new show featuring California game wardens and their increasingly difficult struggle to protect the state’s environment. Shot as wardens chase real crimes throughout Northern California, it’s due to air late next year on the National Geographic Channel.

Original Productions, the Burbank company behind “Deadliest Catch” and other gritty reality shows, began filming about two weeks ago. Locations include many areas in the Sacramento region, from the mountains surrounding Lake Tahoe to remote sloughs of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

A film crew was on hand Saturday as wardens descended upon the home of a North Highlands man suspected of having wounded a Sacramento River sea lion with a shotgun blast.

I’m not a huge fan of reality TV (though I would enjoy watching a pair of wardens kick the crap out of the asshole who shot the sea lion), but this is the Underground’s home territory, and it will be interesting to see who’s doing what to which species.

And I want to dispel the rumors suggesting this show will feature Wally the Wonderdog poaching a sizable lamb roast from the kitchen counter. That really happened, but unfortunately, Fish & Game weren’t on hand to legally punsih the now-fattened Sausage Dog.

See you in the hoosegouw, Tom Chandler.

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My Absolutely Final Closing Day Post (I Promise. Really. No More Fly Fishing Reports From Closing Day. Truly)

November 17, 2009

OK. I lied to you.

Last week’s trip to an alpine stream wasn’t my last of the general trout season, but then, after my flyfishfromhome.com post, let’s face it – you’d be a fool to trust me anyway.

Lumpy ice buildup reflects last warm sunlight of the day.

(Clearly, I intend to toy with my readers again, so, you know, deal with it, suckas.)

In fact, the only reason you know I’m not fabricating this report is because I admit I got skunked – the kind of admission no self-respecting, self-promoting outdoor writer would make if he didn’t go fishing. (See the logic?)

That’s the Underground: We’re all about the Truthiness, except when we’re not.

You’ve been warned.

Oh Yeah, the Fly Fishing

Though some enlightened Upper Sacramento winter fishing regulations mean I’m never far from a Quality Fly Fishing Experience, it’s hard to ignore California’s general trout season closer.

Last week, I thought I’d staggered through the last trip of the season, but on Sunday, that little nagging voice on my shoulder (the one that wears waders over its cloven hooves) told me there was still time.

So I went fly fishing. On a tiny stream I fished for the first time earlier this year.

Why?

I guess because I’m a deeply tortured individual, suffering at the hands of my my own wader-clad personal demons.

(Frankly, how much weirder could it get?)

Fortunately, I get to deal with the voices right on the stream. And though that stream is apparently fishless (as if all the little trout had been airlifted out for the winter like some kind of trouty theme park) – it’s still damned nice.

The mountain wasn't too hard on the eyes either.

Sadly, I lack any pulpish Man v. Trout action sequences to fill out my word count thrill my readers, so I’m going to voice a few observations about fly fishing small streams on cold season closers:

  • When it’s cold at home, it’s colder on a tiny stream that’s spent the last couple thousand years digging its own tiny gorge, where cold air presumably settles in large quantities starting mid-November.
  • That cold thing? It means you need a warm jacket, and there might just be an icy glaze on the rocks.
  • That ice thing? While those Patagonia Riverwalker “sticky rubber” wading boots are the perfect small stream wading boot (they’re like rock climbing shoes on the boulders), they (important note to self) don’t function well on ice-glazed rocks. In fact, they don’t function at all.
  • That cold & icy thing? It’s a small problem when the trout are eating, but it turns out that trout don’t eat as much when the water’s cold. So it gets to be a big thing.
  • That eating thing? It turns out (and I should have learned this last week) that trout in small streams don’t really eat dry flies at all when it’s really cold and icy, and in fact, they don’t seem much interested in small nymphs or streamers either.
  • That 7′ 3wt Diamondglass fly rod I never fish? It’s actually pretty stunning on a stream this size.

Plan B

With the trout not eating and the wrong battery in my slowly dying digital camera, the Wonderdog and I fell back to Plan B; we hiked up the tiny river gorge to see what was up there.

See, in addition to screwing with my readers, I derive happiness from looking for places to fly fish that other people maybe haven’t fished lately, and this stream offered that potential, though in part because its trout are tiny and the fishable spots rare.

Still, the Wonderdog and I did bushwhack our way up a particularly steep stretch – which contained zero worthwhile holding water – stepped out on a ledge, and found something interesting waiting for us:

Next year? I think so...

Let’s hear it for Plan B.

The Big Finish

In the end, a pair of trout too small to hook threw themselves at my fly, so no fish were harmed in the making of this fishing report.

Wally the Wonderdog – not exactly built for rock hopping – suggested he’d been badly harmed by a criminal lack of dog treats, but then, he says that pretty much every trip.

He’s consistent, if not agile.

In an odd, long-term-thinking kind of way, it makes sense to close out this season with a trip dedicated to finding places to fish next season.

It’s also telling.

Some have suggested I don’t always keep my eyes on the horizon – that I’m more grasshopper than ant.

Yet I’m already looking ahead to next year, suggesting I’m more of a grownup when I’m playing than when I’m acting like an adult.

See you next season, Tom Chandler.

Orvis Fishing Reports

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California Fly Fishermen Have Until Monday to Comment on Wild vs. Hatchery Fish

November 13, 2009

Rubber trout shouldn’t disappear entirely, but let’s put ‘em where they won’t hammer healthy wild fish populations.

That’s especially true on free-flowing rivers capable of supporting healthy wild trout populations, where managing for wild trout is healthier – and much, much cheaper (this includes the Upper Sacramento).

Until the 16th, California anglers can weigh in on California Fish & Game’s Draft Environmental Impact Report on stocking and hatchery operations (via the Trout Unlimited site).

Let Fish & Game know what you think about wild fish vs hatchery fish (and I’m guessing the fleet-fingered among you could do it under a minute).

See you at the online form, Tom Chandler.

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Another Step in the Underground’s Ongoing Wading Boot Test

November 6, 2009

It’s tempting to suggest that the new “sticky” rubber wading boot soles are revolutionizing the industry, but that’s only really true in a marketing sense.

While the new rubber soles seemingly offer evolutionary potential – studded rubber soles could ultimately replace felt/studded felt, largely for economic reasons – the standard sticky rubber probably won’t replace anything anytime soon.

My recent October Caddis trip found me wearing Simms’ new StreamTread (Vibram rubber soled) Headwater boots, while Older Bro wore one Korkers Guide Boot with a plain “Kling-On” sticky rubber sole, and one with a studded rubber “Kling-On” sole.

Korkers were made for testing

I quickly discovered the plain, un-studded Simms soles worked… OK.

Well, not really.

I didn’t fall.

But I did skid. And slide. And skate.

The same soles that performed surprisingly well on the fairly flat-bottomed-but-snotty Rogue River failed miserably on the Upper Sac’s angular streambed.

Step on a rock that angled downward, and my boots were sure to follow.

If the Vibram-soled Simms wading boots are destined for wide market acceptance, then they’ll do so on the back of one of two things:

  • Massive growth of fly fishermen accessing easy-wading rivers (like the Rogue or Bitterroot)
  • The liberal application of Simms Wading boot studs

The Korkers Story

The Korkers Guide Boots were seemingly tailor-made for this kind of testing; the soles are interchangeable, so it was easy to stick a studded rubber sole in the left boot, leaving the plain “sticky” rubber sole in the right.

The results were (by now) predictable.

The lack of grip offered by the plain rubber sole made the right boot immensely unpopular with novice wader Older Bro, and in truth, you could actually see the difference when he waded.

His right boot didn’t stick, and his left boot did.

OK.

This was sorta expected.

Wading Boots, So Far

I’m slowly but surely working my way towards one conclusion: For general, all-around use on freestone rivers, most anglers will want to add studs to their “sticky” rubber soled boots.

Straight sticky rubber might work fine on easier rivers, and if I fished the Bitterroot exclusively, plain rubber would be enough.

And yes, for small stream work, you’ll have to pry my Patagonia Riverwalkers – the only truly “sticky” rubber soles of the lot – from my cold, dead feet.

I’ve gotten along OK on the Upper Sacramento with my plain rubber Patagonia boots, but on steeper freestone rivers like the McCloud (hard wading), and the Pit River (got insurance?), plain rubber could earn you an eventual trip to the ER.

What’s Next?

The Underground’s fulltime Wading Boot Engineer stayed up all night and added studs to the Simms boots, and the Korkers will soon be sporting one felt sole alongside the studded rubber.

As I said before, studded rubber might prove a worthwhile replacement for studded felt purely on longevity and economic grounds, but first it has to deliver near-studded felt grip.

That may not be all that difficult; my old Weinbrenner studded rubber boots worked well enough to become my everyday boots, and the new rubber soles should (hopefully) deliver better grip than those.

In other words, more to come. Stay tuned.

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A Note On The Passing of Someone’s Father

November 6, 2009

Wayne Eng and Myrna Rae have housed, fed, or (in Wayne’s case) guided probably half the fly fishermen who regularly frequent the Upper Sacramento, and with sadness, the Underground notes the passing of Myrna Rae’s father.

Best wishes to them both, and we hope Myrna returns home soon.

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The Fly Fishing’s Hot on Upper Sac, McCloud (At Least According to Cheesy Emails)

November 5, 2009

The fly fishing? About as good it usually is later in the October Caddis hatch – when the fish are used to seeing them and enough of the hummingbird-sized bugs are dying to make it interesting.

Even if the fly fishing goes to hell, there's always something to look at

Even if the fly fishing goes to hell, there's always something to look at

Unfortunately, Older Bro and I ran into a bunch of cars in the parking lot, and plenty of fly fishermen on the river (and yes, one real asshole), and while we got plenty of eats in a few of my Secret Big Fish Spots, things slowed dramatically when we fished used water (which was most of the evening).

Still, the Upper Sacramento’s fishing very well – and rumour has it the McCloud’s going even better.

As proof, I offer this clearly sympathetic email from an Undergrounder, who was out fishing while I was wrestling soiled diapers off the Littlest Undergrounder:

BWAH, HAH, HAH!!!
fish, big fish. Lots of em…..
Big black noses, sucking up caddis dries….
Big, jumping hot fish…
Best night…ever. I was THERE!!!
and you…..BWAH, HAH, HAH!!!!!

As always, I’m warmed and comforted by the love and support of the Undergrounders, though as the above email writer will soon discover, I know people – people who carry power tools in the trunk of their car, yet don’t build things.

(Then again, in Day 71 of the Underground’s Home Contractor Hostage Crisis, that pretty accurately describes our contractor too)

Naturally, the usual caveats apply whenever I suggest the fishing’s good:

  • The fishing could become un-good tomorrow
  • I could be lying (changing diapers makes me cranky)
  • You might not be a good fly fishermen
  • I might not be a good fly fishermen

Helpful Hint: Everyone’s throwing stimulators, and while they work, they don’t offer the best hooking percentage. Consider a pattern that sits a little lower in the water, and bring a handful so you can replace the chewed, soggy mess on the end of your line.

Helpful Hint #2: leader selection is important when you’re throwing short casts with a wind-resistant fly. Micro-drag isn’t a big issue, and shorter leaders throw much better, so…

More to come (and soon) – including a short summary of our latest wading boot test. It went – sadly – about as expected.

See you at the keyboard, Tom Chandler.

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Fly Fishing the October Caddis Hatch (Finally) And Our Wading Boot Test Continues (Finally!)

November 3, 2009

With only minutes to spare before older (less-better-looking) bro arrives and we head out to see what damage we can do to the trout population (hopefully in the grip of October Caddis fever), I thought I’d resurrect our wading boot test.

You’re looking at a pair of Korkers Guide boots with a studded rubber sole on one foot, and the plain rubber on the other.

Studded rubber on one side, plain "sticky" rubber on the other (courtesy my cell phone camera)

Studded rubber on one side, plain "sticky" rubber on the other (courtesy my cell phone camera)

This, I think, should prove interesting.

Next I plan to do the same with the Simms wading boots, and yes – the Korkers will eventually permit me to compare studded rubber to studded felt (these thing were made for testing).

With any luck, I’ll return (sans dunking) with pictures of big trout and a review of the real difference between studded and un-studded rubber – and some idea as to whether the Korkers studded rubber soles will cut it on the Upper Sacramento.

Naturally, all this is subjective (well, not the big trout part), but if it’s one thing fly fishermen manufacture in abundance, it’s opinions.

See you on the river (finally!!), Tom Chandler.

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The October Caddis Arrive Back In Town Before The Trout Underground (Damn)

October 13, 2009

It was late Saturday and the L&T and I were blasting our way up the Upper Sacramento River canyon – new, cranky daughter in the car seat and two barely conscious adults piloting – when the October Caddis started bouncing off the windshield (more on the trip later).

Sometimes, an unfortunate group of pumpkin-colored caddis sometimes mistake the I5 freeway for a river, forming up over the asphalt ribbon in ill-fated mating flights, and while cruel ironies are always appreciated at the Underground, I truly have little interest in seeing what an October Caddis looks like from the inside.

Big Fish on October Caddis?

Big trout on October Caddis dries? Yep, but not as often as you think...

Still, the caddis were flying, but after better than two weeks spent literally on the other side of the globe (completely without Internet access), the disconnection struck me, and I had to ask: “How did the caddis happen without me?”

The Caddis-Go-Round

The October Caddis have become a milestone event on the Upper Sacramento and McCloud Rivers; the October emergence of these amberish-colored, small-hummingbird-sized caddis often occurs in front of the year’s biggest crowds of fly fishermen (several fly fishing clubs plan outings), yet the weather – while often cold at night – is still pretty comfortable during the day.

The result are a lot of fly fishermen throwing big, big dry flies (#6-#10s) at trout, some of whom will actually eat the things in splashy, aggressive takes.

Of course, no fly fishing hatch comes without its “gotcha” moment, and what’s true is that often, the big October Caddis don’t generate much in the way of interest from the trout. In fact, it’s common to fish a #18 PED through an October Caddis hatch and catch more trout.

It’s also true – when I first wrote about the October Caddis in 2007 (”Fly Fishing the Upper Sacramento in the Fall: An October Caddis Primer“) – that the best October Caddis fishing might be found in early winter, when the bugs are dying and falling into the water.

Presumably, the trout “know” that dead bugs won’t make a last-minute getaway, and the party (as they say), begins.

Now For a Real Expert

Everything I’ve told you about the October Caddis I’ve said before (but oy, nobody listens, nobody writes, nobody calls, especially you kids with your iPods and fancy-pants phones, and hey get off my lawn).

Still, I’ve always stopped far short of claiming expert status around the October Caddis, mostly because I may have caught a fair number of big trout during October Caddis season, but never with the kind manly, chiseled-jaw confidence I have when hitting the Green Drakes of spring.

And while it seems that becoming an online commando is all the rage these days, I’m going to defer to someone who hasn’t spent the last month on kid-related stuff: Craig Nielsen of ShastaTrout.com, who does the responsible adult thing and posts real fly fishing reports while I’m over here changing diapers and ruminating on the power of bikini photographs to change our lives for the better.

Right now, it’s raining hard at Trout Underground/Man Cave/Soiled Diaper World Headquarters, and the river’s starting to come up, though the line between an unfishable river and a refreshing plug of water that turns on the trout is finer than you’d believe; at some point, both conditions may be true. (What, you wanted easy? Take up checkers…)

Simply put, I’m back, and there’s more to come, though what “more” looks like is yet to be determined.

See you fishing the October Caddis, Tom Chandler.

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