Fished the Upper Sac last week. The fishing was good. The fish were hitting Caddis dries in the evening and a variety of nymphs during the day. The best fishing was above Conant and Sims. If you take a hike the fishing gets better the farther you hike. The best fly was a new fly I picked up at The Fly Shop in Redding. It is a tan caddis that looks like an x-caddis, except the body is foam. It floats like a cork and the fish love it. Let the fly swing and drown and the fish think its an emerger. Also stopped off at Putah last night to float above number 1. Picked up four fish to 20". All of the fish were on a size 20 micromayfly. There was a fire across the street before I arrived. It burned up quite a bit of the hillside.
I fisshed the upper sac. a few weeks ago, What a great river. I tried the conant area, only got one fish there but it was my largest at about 15 inches. Actually found the best water right in the town of dunsmuir at the dunsmuir city park.
Yes Captain that river is a great place to fish. You never get bored of looking up at Castle Crags and Mt Shasta. I managed to land my biggest fish above Conant as well. The fish took a size 8 black bug. I don't know what its called but it is just black thread with a copper wire ribbing and a soft hackle. The fly works well on many rivers with fairly high flows. Swing it through the riffles and hold on for the big grab. The place will probably be packed this weekend.
I stayed at castle crags as well, I agree its pretty awesome scenery. I made the mistake of camping across the highway at the river front sites, Man those trains are hella loud, But I was about 20 feet from the river. A fly that was recomeneded to me at the flyshop in dunsmuir was something that closely ressambled a hilton (A steelhead fly) but a little bit smaller about size 8. The amount of insect activity was pretty good most of the time I was there, Its amazing how many nymphs and larvae that are in that river. Cant wait to get back up there a little later this summer. So many rivers yet so little time !
