I decided to leave the nymphing to you guys today and headed up to the Sierras and my favorite stream. It was a beautiful day and I never saw another fisherman. I seemed to have trouble landing fish today for some reason. I landed 20, but probably lost twice that. Before you get too jealous, my largest was a 10 inch brown, with a lot in the 6-8 inch range and few really small ones.
I think part of my problem is that I can see the fish as they go after the fly and tend to set early, so I may not be getting them hooked solidly enough. I lost my best fish of the day (probably 12-13 inches, so a dink by Putah standards) with a quick hookset. I saw this fish ease up toward my fly a couple of times and then drop back down, so he was obviously smart. I tried a couple of different flies and finally got him to take a parachute adams, and in my excitement, pulled the fly right out of his mouth! You would think after 4 years of fly fishing I would quit doing that.
Anyway, although water levels are a little low, the water temp was 56 degrees, which is just right for trout. If you get a day to head up, I highly recommend it.
Hey Chemdoc, where approx. in the Sierras were you? I love spending time up there whenever possible. The size is smaller but the environment is just right and the action is almost always on! When you see 6-8" fish all day hooking a 12-13" makes it seem like a monster!! And you'd be surprised at the size of trout I have seen (and caught) in some tiny Lake Tahoe tributaries early in the season. Probably holdovers from spawning. Charlie
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"when you put your hand into a flowing stream you touch the last that has come before and the first of what is still to come" -DaVinci
Hey by the way Phil I was just thinking about the problem you were having with hooking fish. You have probably heard this but the "god saves the queen" concept works well for me. I don't really say that or anything but when I see the take I wait till the fish actually turns around with the fly and begins to swim down, then I set sideways instead of directly up so my fly doesn't come whooshing into my face or a bush if I miss the strike. I got really good at this fishing small bugs for smallmouth this summer and landed a few real pigs as well as quite a few little sierra trout! Charlie
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"when you put your hand into a flowing stream you touch the last that has come before and the first of what is still to come" -DaVinci
Thanks for the suggestion Charlie. My buddy Andan mentioned the same thing. I get into the nymphing mindset where you have to set at the first sign before the fish spits out the fly and I am applying the same approach to dries. I am afraid that the fish will spit the fly as soon as it realizes it isn't food, but it sounds like that isn't the right approach. I'm going to get back up there and try the patient approach to see if I can improve my success rate.
Theres nothin like heading out at the crack of dawm for a fishing trip in the sierra's. Been a few weeks and I'm fiening for a trip. I'll take 6 or 8 inch wild sierra trout any day over a few larger fish on a water like putah, putah is good for a quick fix but there's just no comparison to sierra fishing. I like the fast action fishing of catching small trout all day long on a variety of fly's both nymphs and dries. I'll admit as far as dry fly fishing, I do the same thing, I'm lucky to hook 50% of the rises I get, probably less, I always set to early, I also tend to do this if i can see the fish I am casting to with nymph's. Thats good advice chuck I'll try that next time i'm lucky enough to get a trout to rise to a dry.
Just got back fishing the N Yuba, stayed at the Lure Resort in Downieville, there are nice cabins to rent right on the river, my wife and I must have landed 50 trout each over a few days, I am new to dry fly fishing, since I mainly fish Putah, what a blast...saw a black bear who walked around the resort all day...what a beautiful Place....the water is crystal clear and I noticed you have to use stealth to catch right away.....also first time I used a wooly bugger ...it was like a magnet...nice to fish in such pristine country!
Hey zpomp, how was the size of the fish there? I have been thinking about going up there all summer but I keep putting it off for some reason. Might have to go check it out next weekend for some fun on dries! Also what sizes and patterns worked for you guys? Charlie
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"when you put your hand into a flowing stream you touch the last that has come before and the first of what is still to come" -DaVinci
hey whata up geys im new to the forum i was up on the n yuba also last weekend and had great days on drys also also lots of small trout on pt nymphs in the am i go up thereat least once a year i stay at union flats its 12 miles passed downieville and its a great little camp ground i love it up there and i rarely see very many fisher men also if your up there try checking out packer lake iv never coughten any fish there(im not much of a still water fisherman) but iv seen some mosters rise up ther
i also saw i variety af mayfly up there that im not fermiliar with they had pale bodies (but not as yellow as a pmd) and were much larger than most pmds maybee size 14 or maybee 12 at least as big as a green drake i saw them on the lakes and the river from my understanding hex hatches mostly occer on still watters maybee someone can help me with this
if your goin up ther to camp bring a propane bbq because burning restrictions are in place no bbq or fires (unless you want to pan fry your tri tip like i did)also bring some eh caddis 18 with tan bodys worked very well
Hey Chuck, If you go to lureresort.com it has a link to the local guide, and it lists the flies, the elk hare caddis #12 worked the best. Also the town is less than 5 min from resort, there is a hardware store right there with all the flies you need...you will have a blast ..also check out the camping cabins..you got to byo sleeping bags and stuff but it only cost 65 a night....Tight lines ><>
I love fishing the Sierra's because I'm not the best at reading streams and I find them to be very easy to read. If you are heading up to the Yuba, take the time to explore some of the tributaries. Fish are smaller, but a blast and if you go far enough up you will get into brookies.
I have had good luck fishing the different forks of the Yuba with a dry fly on top of a dropper. Gaudy attractors and hoppers this time of year should work well I think.
Also, you can get into some big Brown's in the canyon runs, but they are a bid difficult to access....
