News
ENLARGE
The Labor Day holiday is fast approaching. It marks the end of summer and the advent of fall fishing. Fall is such a good season for fishing that I want to usher it in before the official equinox on the 21st.
Labor Day is the traditional start to steelhead fishing at the mouth of the Klamath River. They move in and out of the estuary with the tides. Despite the warm river temps some salmon and half-pounder steelhead move up river in August. As the water cools more fish run up river.
Coincidentally, a week ago the flows on the Trinity River were raised from 450 cubic feet per second to 2,650 cfs for the Indian Boat Dance at the Hoopa Reservation. The flows were stepped back down to normal by Thursday. This flush of cool water lowered the temps from 71 degrees down to a low of 66 degrees at the mouth of the Klamath. This brought a surge of salmon and half-pounders into the lower river.
This increase in flows moved the fish in the middle Trinity higher up the river. Tim Brady from Dragon Fly Outfitters in Weaverville reported an angler bringing in two bright king salmon. He was fishing with roe near Junction City on Friday. He hooked 5 salmon and only landed two. As the Klamath – Trinity system cools down the fishing will improve. A good flushing rain will bring it on rapidly.
The Feather River near Oroville has seen an increase in steelhead action. They are mixed in with a good number of jack salmon that have been arriving in the last two weeks. Craig Bentley of Huntington's Sports, has been fishing early in the day in the low flow section. He reports catching steelhead on Berkeley Trout Worms in pink. He has been drifting them in the riffles from first light until 8:30 when the bite shuts off. Salmon fishing is closed on all Sacramento Valley rivers.
Frank Rinella from the Nevada City Angler floated the Lower Yuba River late last week. The river has been lowering from the 2000 cfs summer flows. It has been heading for 900 cfs by today Sept. 1. These flows will be continued into the fall spawning season. Frank noted that there were two techniques that were working well. One was to cast grass hopper patterns tight to the bank where the depth was sufficient to hold fish. The other was to fish nymphs like a Bead Head, Flash-Back Pheasant Tail under an indicator. The best water for nymphing was deeper slow runs.
All fishing is now prohibited above the Highway 20 Bridge. This is to protect the salmon spawning areas during the fall. There were no fall run salmon in evidence last week during Frank's drift.
Eagle Lake near Susanville has been fishing well in the early morning hours. The water temps peaked around Aug. 1 and are slowly falling. Currently, the south basin is 67 to 68 degrees. The migration to the upper basins will get underway once the temps break through the mid 60s.
The trout have been feeding on tui chub minnows. The larger fish have been biting at 10 to 20 feet deep at first light. As the day gets brighter they will descend to the 35 foot depths. By 9 a.m. the catching is over. At dawn there will be surface action for the small trout that were planted this season.
When boated the trout have been burping up tui chub minnows about 2 inches long. Find schools of chubs and you will be close to the trout. Doug Wilmes, Bottom Line Guide Service, has been trolling flies in green, olive and brown. His best locations have been Shrimp Island and the rock pile below Eagles Nest.
Davis Lake has similar water temps to Eagle Lake. Ed Dillard guided clients Monday through Thursday last week. He has been trolling 12 to 16 feet deep outside the weed lines over deep water. His most productive lure is the copper redhead Dick-Nite in size “0”.
He has been averaging four to five fish per hour. The typical trout have been 12 to 14 inches. These have grown from the 8 to 10 inch length last spring. The cocopod infestation is abating. Ed says that about 10 percent have a lot of them on their skin.
Scaling of the fish removes these parasites. When cleaning the fish Dillard says the most common stomach contents are insects, followed by snails and then small crawdads. The number of snails has increased noticeably this season.
The Truckee area lakes have not been fishing well, with the exception of Jackson Meadows. Stampede has a lot of kokanee visible on fish finders at 40 to 60 feet, but the fish have lockjaw. You can scratch out a few fish from the deepwater areas but limits are hard to come by. My sources suggest an early morning trip to Boca as the best possibility for kokanee. Try by the white cliffs or the corners of the dam. Jackson Meadows has been the best trout producer in the area all summer.
Denis Peirce writes a weekly fishing column for The Union and is host of “The KNCO Fishing & Outdoor Report,” which airs 6-7 p.m. Fridays and 5-6 a.m. Saturdays on 830-AM radio. Contact him via e-mail at dpeirce@theunion.com.
Red Bluff Diversion Dam salmon count for the most recent three days =
Aug. 27, 2009 = 36
Aug. 26, 2009 = 36
Aug. 25, 2009 = 18
June 15 to date 2009 = 1,376 salmon
May 15 to date 2008 = 4,313 salmon
* The 2009 salmon counts began June 15. The 2008 salmon counts began on May 15, so there will be a major disparity in spring run salmon totals. The main part of this run comes in early. Due to budget considerations the fish counts will not be available daily and “The Union” will publish the most current data available. We are printing the salmon counts at Red Bluff as an indicator of the valley salmon run in general. Salmon fishing on the Sacramento River is closed until November.
Labor Day is the traditional start to steelhead fishing at the mouth of the Klamath River. They move in and out of the estuary with the tides. Despite the warm river temps some salmon and half-pounder steelhead move up river in August. As the water cools more fish run up river.
Coincidentally, a week ago the flows on the Trinity River were raised from 450 cubic feet per second to 2,650 cfs for the Indian Boat Dance at the Hoopa Reservation. The flows were stepped back down to normal by Thursday. This flush of cool water lowered the temps from 71 degrees down to a low of 66 degrees at the mouth of the Klamath. This brought a surge of salmon and half-pounders into the lower river.
This increase in flows moved the fish in the middle Trinity higher up the river. Tim Brady from Dragon Fly Outfitters in Weaverville reported an angler bringing in two bright king salmon. He was fishing with roe near Junction City on Friday. He hooked 5 salmon and only landed two. As the Klamath – Trinity system cools down the fishing will improve. A good flushing rain will bring it on rapidly.
The Feather River near Oroville has seen an increase in steelhead action. They are mixed in with a good number of jack salmon that have been arriving in the last two weeks. Craig Bentley of Huntington's Sports, has been fishing early in the day in the low flow section. He reports catching steelhead on Berkeley Trout Worms in pink. He has been drifting them in the riffles from first light until 8:30 when the bite shuts off. Salmon fishing is closed on all Sacramento Valley rivers.
Frank Rinella from the Nevada City Angler floated the Lower Yuba River late last week. The river has been lowering from the 2000 cfs summer flows. It has been heading for 900 cfs by today Sept. 1. These flows will be continued into the fall spawning season. Frank noted that there were two techniques that were working well. One was to cast grass hopper patterns tight to the bank where the depth was sufficient to hold fish. The other was to fish nymphs like a Bead Head, Flash-Back Pheasant Tail under an indicator. The best water for nymphing was deeper slow runs.
All fishing is now prohibited above the Highway 20 Bridge. This is to protect the salmon spawning areas during the fall. There were no fall run salmon in evidence last week during Frank's drift.
Eagle Lake near Susanville has been fishing well in the early morning hours. The water temps peaked around Aug. 1 and are slowly falling. Currently, the south basin is 67 to 68 degrees. The migration to the upper basins will get underway once the temps break through the mid 60s.
The trout have been feeding on tui chub minnows. The larger fish have been biting at 10 to 20 feet deep at first light. As the day gets brighter they will descend to the 35 foot depths. By 9 a.m. the catching is over. At dawn there will be surface action for the small trout that were planted this season.
When boated the trout have been burping up tui chub minnows about 2 inches long. Find schools of chubs and you will be close to the trout. Doug Wilmes, Bottom Line Guide Service, has been trolling flies in green, olive and brown. His best locations have been Shrimp Island and the rock pile below Eagles Nest.
Davis Lake has similar water temps to Eagle Lake. Ed Dillard guided clients Monday through Thursday last week. He has been trolling 12 to 16 feet deep outside the weed lines over deep water. His most productive lure is the copper redhead Dick-Nite in size “0”.
He has been averaging four to five fish per hour. The typical trout have been 12 to 14 inches. These have grown from the 8 to 10 inch length last spring. The cocopod infestation is abating. Ed says that about 10 percent have a lot of them on their skin.
Scaling of the fish removes these parasites. When cleaning the fish Dillard says the most common stomach contents are insects, followed by snails and then small crawdads. The number of snails has increased noticeably this season.
The Truckee area lakes have not been fishing well, with the exception of Jackson Meadows. Stampede has a lot of kokanee visible on fish finders at 40 to 60 feet, but the fish have lockjaw. You can scratch out a few fish from the deepwater areas but limits are hard to come by. My sources suggest an early morning trip to Boca as the best possibility for kokanee. Try by the white cliffs or the corners of the dam. Jackson Meadows has been the best trout producer in the area all summer.
Denis Peirce writes a weekly fishing column for The Union and is host of “The KNCO Fishing & Outdoor Report,” which airs 6-7 p.m. Fridays and 5-6 a.m. Saturdays on 830-AM radio. Contact him via e-mail at dpeirce@theunion.com.
Red Bluff Diversion Dam salmon count for the most recent three days =
Aug. 27, 2009 = 36
Aug. 26, 2009 = 36
Aug. 25, 2009 = 18
June 15 to date 2009 = 1,376 salmon
May 15 to date 2008 = 4,313 salmon
* The 2009 salmon counts began June 15. The 2008 salmon counts began on May 15, so there will be a major disparity in spring run salmon totals. The main part of this run comes in early. Due to budget considerations the fish counts will not be available daily and “The Union” will publish the most current data available. We are printing the salmon counts at Red Bluff as an indicator of the valley salmon run in general. Salmon fishing on the Sacramento River is closed until November.
