Ryan has mad skills...I fish with him all the time....This is a sweet deal....For those of you who want to learn the yuba this is the perfect way to get 2 years worth of knowledge in one day...Or float the sac and tug on a bunch of fish....either way RJ is a top guide in nor cal.You wont be let down.
   mx19

The Lower Sac is blowing up. The caddis hatch is in full swing and the fish are chowing down on various prince nymphs and rubberlegs. The last week I have really been focusing on the Anderson to Balls Ferry section of the river. This is one of my favorite sections during the early spring. I am excited for this week coming up with all of the warm sunshine in the forecast. This week there should be great caddis and pmd hatches on the river. Get excited because I think the nice weather of April is finally here.

On Monday I had two newbies on the water on a half day trip. Both of these guys caught on to the techniques of indicator nymphing very quickly. These two newbies blew me away when in 5 hours of fishing they had landed 20 rainbows and only lost 1. I don't think I have every experienced this landing ratio even with the most veteran of anglers. Needless to say I was very impressed. I guess the hook setting techniques that I teach actually do work.

Another memorbale time I had on the boat this week is when I was able to take out Ted and his grandfather Stacey. I think it is so cool how generations can bond together through the sport of fly fishing. There was some major joy between these two guys when Ted landed a 23" rainbow. This is his biggest rainbow ever on a fly rod. Needless to say after this fish was landed there was a celebratory drink of whiskey between grandfather and grandson. One thing I love as a guide is the ability to bring people together in a memborable experience in the boat.

For those of you guys interested in doing some short notice fishing I will take $100 off March 31, April 1, and April 12-14. Hope you guys are getting some fishing in!

Tight Lines!

This last week I have been bouncing back and forth between the Yuba and Lower Sac Rivers.

The Yuba has been fishing really well. I have been on the river a couple of times in the last week and both days we did really well nymphing. The dry fly fishing has been really spotty with limited hatches on the lower river. One of those days that I was out there with my clients was magical. It was one of those days that you live for on the Yuba. We hooked 35+ fish and two of those fish were fresh spring steelhead. We landed one clipped steelhead that was 18" and then lost a HUGE hen that was estimated at 8-9 lbs. I was so bummed when we lost that fish. Up to this date this is hands down the biggest fish I have had a client hook on this river. I guess that is what keeps you coming back. The other day we had was really solid with 20 rainbows hooked. The hot bugs have been stones, march browns, pmds, and small baetis patterns. Like most Yuba days if you are patient and methodical it seems like you can force feed them.

The Lower Sac has had some major changes in the last couple of weeks. There have been two major flow changes on the Lower Sac. Each flow change has dramatically changed the color of the water. The clarity on the Lower Sac before the flow changes was about 4-5 feet in the upper river. Now the clarity of the water is back to 2 feet. The water looks like it did back in the late part of February. Needless to say the off color water has been affecting the fishing. Most days right now we are landing around 20 rainbows. So the fishing is still solid but it should be better than that in April. You know we have a special river when a tough day out there we are working hard to land 20 fish. You gotta love the Lower Sac. If the flow of the river stabilizes this week expect the clarity to improve and the fishing to pick up again. Right now the hot bugs are the rubberleg and yellow micro spawn. The last three days on the Lower Sac there has not been a hot small bug.

For those of you looking for a discounted guide trip I will take a $100 off a trip on April 27, 28, & 29.

Fish Hard!

The Lower Sac this last week has been really good. The flows have stabilized around 8000 cfs and the fish are on the grab. This is a beautiful time on the river. Good weather, lots of fish, and consistent hatches. Lately the river has been fishing the best from the morning until about 4PM. It seems like the whole river really starts to shut down in the afternoon. The later you fish in the day the harder it is to get those fish to eat. Most days I have been focusing on the water between Bonnyview and the Barge Hole. The upper parts of the river continue to fish well so there have not been a whole lot of reasons to go down river. Probably by next week we will start checking out the lower stretches down by Bend.

This last week there have been good PMD hatches from about Noon until 2PM. I had two days this week where we boated 35+ fish. Pretty darn good for the middle of May. These are more numbers that you would expect in March and April. The hot bugs of late have been the rubberlegs, yellow microspawn, Mercer's PMD, and the tan Fox's Pupah. In the middle of the day they want that PMD and they switch to the caddis later in the day.

One really cool thing that happened to me yesterday is that I had a client named Linda hook and land a 23" wild steelhead on the Sac. This is the latest that I have ever seen a steelhead on the Sac. Prior to this fish I had caught one on May 3 of last year. Even though the fish was a little snaky looking it really fired me up. It is good to see that the Lower Sac steelhead population is holding strong.

For those of you looking for another discount I have a couple of days in the next three weeks that I am trying to fill. So I will take a $100 off anyone wanting to fish May 19, 26-27, and June 4. These are my last days open before I leave to guide on the South Fork of the Snake for the summertime.

I hope everyone is getting some fishing in. Get ready for some dry fly stories.

Tight Lines!

See you in 6 weeks.Tell bonnie I like french toast, eggs and hash browns for breakfast....Bernie's going to set  me up with some secret fly's.....
   steven

Well the flows on the South Fork are slowly decreasing. There is still lots of water coming out of Palisades Reservoir with the current flow at 21,000 cfs. The upper part of the river has a nice emerald color to it with about 4-5 feet of visibility. While the lower river has about 2 feet of visibility. The visibility at this point in time is not a problem. What is exciting is that the bug life is starting to pop. We are seeing more Salmon Flies each day. There are PMDS and Sallies everywhere and the Green Drakes are just starting. Things are getting really exciting out here.

I was able to get in 6 days of guiding this last week and the entire river is fishing fairly well. Things are not on fire yet but we are days away from things blowing up. Most days we are boating around 25+ trout. Big fish this week was a great 22.5 Inch Brown caught by Craig Brummell from South Bend, Indiana. I guess you could say that he has the luck of the Irish. We are doing lots of nymphing on the banks and in the riffles. But Yesterday we hooked around 15 fish on dries. Caught a few fish on pmd emergers, salmon fly adults, and some golden patterns. The hot bugs have been pink pmds, lightning bugs, chernobyl ant, and the salmonfly club sandwich. Probably by next week we will be throwing dries all day. Well at least I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

The South Fork is starting to get a little tough. The hopper fishing has not been that good as of late and the fish have wised up to the big bugs. Just not enough big bugs flying around to get those fish to look up. Pretty crazy for the South Fork where the big bug is dominant. Lately the ticket has been throwing small PMD patterns on the riffles, banks, and foam holes throughout the entire day. If you get lucky enough to have some decent rods in your boat then you can have some stellar days throwing these small flies. But this is much easier said than done. Trying to cast two size 18 PMD's on the bank and find them, get a decent mend in, and not sink them is tough on any angler. However if you can get a decent drift these fish will eat them every time. Forty fish days are not that uncommon if the PMD hatch comes off.

The other option is to use the infamous lightning bug under an indicator. There have been some really nice 20-22" fish caught this week while nymphing with the lightning bug. But then who really wants to nymph when they come to the South Fork. I personally have been leaning to throwing the smaller flies. That is probably because I stare at indicators so much back home.

Just to keep all of you informed I will not be out here on the South Fork that much longer. The first of September I will be coming home to California and resuming guiding back on the Lower Sac, Yuba, Feather, and Putah Creek. For those of you that want dates for the fall then you need to contact me ASAP as they are almost gone.

I hope that you guys are getting some good late summer dry fly fishing in.

Fish Hard!

No worries on the comments. It just makes me laugh that some people assume I am a bad guy trying to steal business. Greg and I have been friends from way back in the Fly Fishing Unlimited days in Vacaville. Greg and I use each other as a resource for extra guides. A couple of times a year Greg calls me to help out with some of his clients. The majority of my year I spend up near Chico and Redding and that is what I call my home waters. So through our friendship and networking Greg allows me to post stuff on the Lower Sac, Feather, Putah Creek, and South Fork.

I hope you are getting some fishing in on the creek.

I have been on the Lower Sac three times this week. I have forgotten how different the guiding aspect is out here in California as compared to Idaho. A lot different when you are fishing with indicators as compared to little dry flies floating down the bank. The other thing that I had forgotten was how hot these Lower Sac rainbows are. We are so lucky to have such a huge resource and such a phenomenal fishery as the Lower Sac. I am positive if you tied a line between a Lower Sac rainbow and a South Fork of the Snake fish then the Lower Sac fish would drag the Snake trout up and down the river.

Anyhow.....back to the fishing. The upper part of the Lower Sac from Posse down to Anderson was really good. Each of the days we were hooking 40+ rainbows. The first day they were all over rubberlegs and caddis. While the other couple of days the hot bugs were pheasant tails, caddis pupahs, and micro mays. These fish on the upper drift have gotten fat and strong this summer. All of those Lower Sac bows look like little fat footballs. Pretty darn impressive.

The word on the Lower Drifts is that the fishing has been pretty tough. Most days as of this week guys were catching between 15-20 trout. A few steelhead are starting to show up but not in any great numbers yet.

Expect the fishing on the Lower Sac to just keeping improving over the next six weeks. For those of you looking to get some dates in for prime steelhead/trout fishing on the Lower Sac then the days are getting limited. I have November 4-5, 9-10, 12, & 21 (Saturday) still available.

I hope you are all getting some fishing in.

Tight Lines!

I am looking to book Thursday, November 5th. For anyone who is up for a last minute discounted trip on the Lower Sac or Yuba I will do a full day trip for $275. This is $100 off the regular price for the trip. You pay the half day rate and get an extra 4-5 hours of fishing for free!!! Email me ASAP at ryan@rjsflytrips.com if you are interested. Hope you guys are getting some fishing in.

Tight Lines!

Well..... it has been awhile since my last fishing report. So I thought that I would get you guys some good info on what is going on in some of our valley rivers. Needless to say the fishing the last couple of weeks has been extremely inconsistent. You get one good day of fishing mixed in with a couple of hard days. Which is really typical of the fishing during the post egg bite in the middle to the end of November. I have to admit though that after six weeks of really good fishing it felt like I was getting beat up out there. Guess that is part of the game. So what is going on exactly?

Lower Sac: The Lower Sac has been up and down over the last couple of weeks. It seems like good days right now on the Lower Sac you are catching 25+ trout and the bad ones you are barely scratching double digits. There have been several days in the last week where we have only landed 10-15 rainbows. Pretty darn tough for the Lower Sac. It doesn't seem like one drift is doing any better than another. I have floated from Posse to Bonny, Anderson to Balls, Barge to Bend, and Red Bluff to Los Molinos in the last couple of weeks and all of the drifts are fishing about the same. Of course the upper drifts have bigger trout on average but the lower drifts are giving shots at steelhead. The hot bugs of late have been Hogan's S&M (16), Black Micro May (18), King Prince (16), and the Rubberlegs on lower drifts. Expect the fishing to improve about the middle of December when the winter salmon show up and the baetis start to hatch. This time of year the more clouds and even a little sprinkle is the best. Stay away Sunshine!!!

Yuba: I have not been on the Yuba over the last three weeks because of trips on the Lower Sac and Feather. So I dont have tons of current info for you guys. Talking to other guides it sounds like the fishing on the Yuba has gotten tough as well. Sounds like small bugs (Hogan's Military May, Hogan's S&M, PT's, Gidgets, etc.) in the flats have been the ticket. Still a handful of fish eating eggs behind any late salmon. Expect lots of people there in the next week as the river opens up above highway 20 bridge. Fishing should start to improve on the Yuba in the next couple of weeks. If you get lucky to have a rainy day watch for huge hatches of baetis getting those fish working on the surface. Gotta love trying to find small dries admist the falling rain.

Feather: The Feather has had a dismal year. I did about 5 trips over there during the middle of November and the fish we just not there. It seems like this year the fishing in the spring time (March & April) was better than the fall fishing. I the 5 trips I did there we only caught a handful of adults. Most days we ended up catching between 4-6 half pounders and a stray adult here and there. But none of the adults that we got were really big fish. There should be some fish continuing to trickle in for those of you who really are searching out some steelhead. The best bugs are going to be eggs, pts, Hogan's S&M, Olive Dirty Bird/Birds Nest, Hogan's Red Headed Step Child, etc. I am pretty much done with the Feather until the upper stretches open on January 1.

For those of you interested I am once again offering my $100 off guide special on Dec. 4th, 7-10th, and 13th. You get a full day trip at the half day cost of $275.Email me ASAP to get in on one of these winter specials.

I think that is about all of the info that I have. Hope this helps some of you find some fish that are willing to eat. The goal is to work together to find those grabby fish.

Fish Hard!

For those of you interested I am once again offering my discounted rate on a guided fly fishing trip for the Lower Sac or Yuba Rivers. Pay the half day rate of $275 and get a full day of guided fly fishing. This is a savings of $125.

The days that I have available at this special rate are below:

January 8 (Fri.), 10 (Sun.), 12-13, and 18-19

There are lots of big rainbows to be caught on the Lower Sac. Fishing from Posse Grounds down to Bonnyview has been really good as fish fill up on eggs and baetis. The Yuba has been good as well. Most days hooking 15+ rainbows and getting about an hour of solid dry fly fishing in.

Let me know asap if you want to book any of these last minute dates.

Get Excited! This warm week of February has started our spring fishing. Yesterday I was fishing in shorts. Gotta love California. This means that in the next month things are going to be getting silly on the Lower Sac. If you want to fish the caddis hatch on the Sac then plan on it happening for the fourth year in row during the month of March. I know that there will be more cold weather to come but once those caddis start moving every warm day from here on out is going to be banner.

The last three days on the Lower Sac have been really good. Each of those days we boated 30+ rainbows and lost many others. The reason that the fish have gotten so grabby is due to the spring caddis hatch that is coming off in the middle of the day. The hatch actually doesn't start until about 1PM, but it seems that those fish really start to turn on about 10AM. The fishing is really consistent during the hours of 10AM-3PM. Yesterday for instance we boated 19 rainbows by lunch and 18 rainbows after lunch. The hot bugs have been various prince nymphs in size 16, rubberlegs, and yellow micro spawn. I have floated from Bonnyview to Anderson and Anderson to Balls Ferry and it seems that both sections are fishing equally as well.

For those of you looking for dates in March I only have 6 availabilities still open. March 2, 19 (Friday), 20 (Saturday), 23, 30-31. Let me know if you would like to book one of these prime time dates.

I hope you are all doing well.

Tight Lines!

Saturday, March 13, 2010