My brother and went fishing on the North Fork of the Stanislaus River Monday evening and this morning. Fishing was pretty good considering all of the pressure that the fish got this weekend. First thing after we got there, about 3:30 pm, the bite started. I started out casting a #10 Parachute Adams under a deep, dark cut-bank and pulled out a nice 10-inch bow. It was a nice fight and it was barely hooked. I was lucky. The PMD hatch was HUGE. In one pool, my brother and I counted more than a half-dozen rainbows between 8" and 12".
I got them chasing a #8 Brown Humpy with a couple lack-luster hits then hooked one on a #12 Blue winged Olive. It was heartbreaking when I got him within a foot of me and he dove. I had stupidly stripped this nice fish in instead of reeling and setting my drag, so you can guess what happened next.
This morning I redeemed myself by landing two beautiful bows. First thing in the morning there was no surface action so I tossed a little brown Matuka (without any weight) downstream into a five-foot deep hole, I just let them sink naturally (makes for fewer lost flies here where submarine logs are plentiful) and stripped in. I probably cast three times when I got a feisty strike and reeled in a beautiful, chubby 12" rainbow. I headed up stream from the big pool and cast into some cut-banks with a #14 and #12 Bird's Nest with a single split shot and a strike indicator. Nothing was taking it, but since this is normally a pretty productive spot, I tossed in another Blue Winged Olive then a bright green comparadun and various PMD patterns. Nothin'. So I walked upstream and came upon a HUGE morning PMD hatch, but there were no fish anywhere (this section is pretty easy to spot fish in.)
I walked back to camp to find Sam getting geared up. We did a little cleaning, some journaling then headed back to the pool that produced so much heat the night before. Sam was casting streamers while I was trying to scare something up with a bead-head #14 Hare's Ear and a strike indicator. There was very little surface action still and it was getting to be kind of late for a good bite but we persisted. We could see all sorts of fish and we threw everything at them from dries to terrestrials to nymphs to streamers and only got them to chase a Matuka but they really weren't in the mood. But again, we persisted. Finally, getting desperate I started casting a #12 Bright Green Comparadun into the leaves above a little cut-bank where I had seen a fish sipping everything that hit the water. Then after over a hour of pressure on this pool, I got a hit. She was a fun fight but easily stripped in. I didn't waste time measuring it because it had taken me so long to get it untangled from my net, but it was probably 10".
All in all, it was a good trip, except that the mosquitoes were atrocious!
Tight lines!
5.29.2007
4.10.2007
What to Expect
Since this is the first post in this blog I'll just tell you what to expect.
I'm a dyed in the wool fly fisherman but during the late Fall, Winter and early Spring I go over to the dark side and bait fish on the California Delta. I started flyfishing in 2001 in Port Angeles, WA while I was active duty in the Coast Guard. I met an experienced and award winning fishing guide at a small shop in Clallam County and mentioned that I had once been a whitewater guide. He agreed to teach me everything he knew about flyfishing if I'd teach him everything I knew about running whitewater. It was a relationship forged in the cold, mossy (and sometimes altogether unforgiving) rivers of the Olympic Peninsula.
Since then, I've moved back down to my home of record in Oakdale, CA. I've taken the skills I learned in Washington like tidal fishing for 2 pound cutties or casting big obnoxious wet flies into currents from the snow encrusted banks of the Sol Duc or Skykomish for the winter steelhead runs. In California, I've spent as much time as my schedule allows flyfishing the rivers, streams, spring creeks, and lakes of the Sierras and foothills. I'm discovering new things every day, and I've been keeping a scribbled journal of my discoveries and thought I might as well publish it and have a place to share it with family and firends and hopefully gain some insight from others.
Ok, yeah, so I just want to brag. But what the heck, so can you. So I encourage anyone who has a story, wants to talk some fishing trash, or has a tip to post comments to my blog entries.
I'll also drop in some pictures like the one of my 20" trout I caught on Lake McClure (Sam will vouch for it) or the Stripers that seek out my sardines like heat sinking missiles in the San Joaquin River Delta.
Zach
I'm a dyed in the wool fly fisherman but during the late Fall, Winter and early Spring I go over to the dark side and bait fish on the California Delta. I started flyfishing in 2001 in Port Angeles, WA while I was active duty in the Coast Guard. I met an experienced and award winning fishing guide at a small shop in Clallam County and mentioned that I had once been a whitewater guide. He agreed to teach me everything he knew about flyfishing if I'd teach him everything I knew about running whitewater. It was a relationship forged in the cold, mossy (and sometimes altogether unforgiving) rivers of the Olympic Peninsula.
Since then, I've moved back down to my home of record in Oakdale, CA. I've taken the skills I learned in Washington like tidal fishing for 2 pound cutties or casting big obnoxious wet flies into currents from the snow encrusted banks of the Sol Duc or Skykomish for the winter steelhead runs. In California, I've spent as much time as my schedule allows flyfishing the rivers, streams, spring creeks, and lakes of the Sierras and foothills. I'm discovering new things every day, and I've been keeping a scribbled journal of my discoveries and thought I might as well publish it and have a place to share it with family and firends and hopefully gain some insight from others.
Ok, yeah, so I just want to brag. But what the heck, so can you. So I encourage anyone who has a story, wants to talk some fishing trash, or has a tip to post comments to my blog entries.
I'll also drop in some pictures like the one of my 20" trout I caught on Lake McClure (Sam will vouch for it) or the Stripers that seek out my sardines like heat sinking missiles in the San Joaquin River Delta.
Zach
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