This has been a great spring on the Lower Sacramento, plenty of fish taking small flies! The flows are now up to a nice 7000cfs+. Makes for a much easier drift without scraping the bottom so much. Riffles that have been dried out during the winter are now working again. Of course the closure of the river at Cypress Street Bridge means little or no boat traffic leaving the Posse Grounds Launce site.
There have been some strong mayfly hatches as well as caddis. I really don’t predict that the so called “Mothers Day” caddis will come to much this year due to the lack of caddis lava. But that doesn’t seem to affect the rainbows all that much; they are hitting caddis imitations with great gusto now and then. The egg patterns are still effective, as they are most of the year. PT’s are working well, particularly in the smaller sizes. Remember that the small PT’s are good imitations for the Blue Winged Olives, so the hot spots to use this as well as the time of day to fish them are generally different than the caddis imitations. BWO nymphs tend to be active for several hours before emergence, so you should start fishing them for a while before the hatch starts. On the Lower Sacramento the hatch generally, but not always, starts around lunchtime. If you are snagging on some moss then you are in the right place since this is BWO habitat.

I have been trying the newer Maxima Fluorocarbon as tippet for a little while; I must say that I am very impressed with it. It’s much less expensive than Gmax for example. Has high knot strength and is flexible. As with all fluorocarbon, make a good knot and use plenty of spit to lube it before tightening it. I have only been using the 0.009inch instead of 3 or 4x, as I say, it’s very good, but only time and long term testing will tell.

If you are a member of a club them please remind the committee that I am available to talk on a variety of Fly Fishing related topics, I will include boating safety as one of those. Please call me if you are interested. My fees are modest and really only cover my expenses.

I specialize in "Drift Boat Trips" on the Lower Sacramento river which is in beautiful Northern California.

I can give tuition to novices and coaching to the more experienced.

My Drift Boat is a 20 foot Fishrite which can fish up to three persons, it is one of the largest around and is very comfortable to fly fish from.

I have equipment available for you if you need it.

Fishing on the Lower Sac is normally best done with a indicator. I usually supply my own patented design. See Indicators under Equipment Menu.

The fish on the Lower Sac can be very large, Rainbows up to 10lbs, although my clients have landed one or two of these fabulous fish up to 13lbs.

The Lower Sacramento river is open year round and fishes well every month of the year.

There are not only Rainbow Trout on the Lower Sacramento River, but numerous Steelhead at times.