Spent three days camping and fishing the silver fork american river this past weekend. Fishing was ok, They just planted so I caught a ton of em on pretty much anything I threw, Took about 20 mins. to get a limit for the barbacue. After that I fugured it was time to get away from the easy access areas and start some real fishing, Averaged about 5 wild fish per day all were about 8 to 10 inch rainbows, Bueatifully colored fish in that river. Most fish were caught on a bumble looking fly I got at the upper sac. a while back, Forget what its called, Been fishing this same fly alot for several trips now, I dread loosing it ! Didn't have much action on dries, One evening there was a huge hatch of what I think were the largest mayfly's I have ever seen, Kinda light brown with REALLY long tails. Overall a fun trip, Not to far for a day trip from the bay area. Although theres a road next to most of the river for several miles, Access can be pretty tough if you want to get away from the easy spots that get fished out, Lots of rock climbing, Steep hills, And sore muscles for me. LOts of fun as always. Only question now is were to go next
Sounds like a good trip Captain. Did you get into one of the campgrounds? I went to the Silver Fork today to fish dries. I caught a lot of small fish, the largest 9 inches, mostly 6 inchers, but it was still a lot of fun. What size are the planters they put in the river? Mine were definitely not barbecue size.
The water is so clear that I could see every fish as it came up for the fly. Of course, the downside of that is that I tended to set early at first, anticipating the strike and you have to careful not to spook the fish. I did have a number of refusals, so I probably should have tried nymphs. I watched a nice fish come up from under a rock as my fly drifted by and then head back down. He did the same thing last Saturday when I was up there. I will either need to use a nymph or be very stealthy and try to find just the right dry.
I am curious to know what nymphs you used. I know the good ones for Putah and the Upper Sac, but am not sure what the best choices are for Sierra streams. As to dries, I caught most today on a size 16 parachute Adams. It seemed to generate much more interest that the caddis patterns I tried.
I stayed at the silvaer fork campground, was pretty empty all weekend. The fish were planted right at the bridge above the campground, As of tuesday afternoon there were still a ton of em in there, I caught a bunch of em on a red san juan worm and a bumble bee looking wetfly. You can stand on the rocks and look down and literally see dozens of em. I stayed with the usual nymphs, Prince's, p.t, hares ears, copper johns for the wild fish. I did see a few large stonefly shells on the rocks, but didnt get any hits with a stonefly nymph. I didnt quit make it to caples creek but i did go pretty far up that way, My opinion is theres better water farther downstream away from the campgrounds.
