Fished the McCloud on Thursday at Ah-Di-Nah and Friday on the nature conservancy. Fished the Upper Sac Saturday at Soda Creek and Sunday at Pollard Flat. The reports sure were misleading....everything said Caddis and Golden Stones. I think I saw 5 stones in 4 days and very few caddis. Lots of mayflies though.
We caught a ton of fish every day on both nymphs and dries but not 1 of them was photo worthy. The biggest fish was 12 inches. On Friday at the McCloud conservancy we did not see any hatch at all even at dark. That is a long drive on a dirt road for the kind of fishing we experienced. It's a beautiful area but to me not worth the drive to get there when we have better fishing much closer and easier to get to.
The Upper Sac was fun but all small fish, average was probably 6 inches. We did pick up fish all day on both nymphs and dries but only in the pocket water, nothing in the seams or riffles. A hi-vis spinner I tie was the killer fly. We had a few grabs on stimulators but the fish liked the mayfly dry way better. PT's, HBI's, Fox Poopahs and a birds nest work well sub-surface.
It's always fun to be on the water fishing but the size of the fish was disappointing.
seems the farther up stream on the upper sac you go there is more fish but smaller size. the lower you go on the river there seems to be less fish but larger. i fished dog creek for a couple of hours friday eve. caught one 16" on a gold stone nymph and my boy caught a little five incher on a e/c caddis dry.
Sounds like you had some fun up there Packrat. Sounds like you are using some version of Mercer's Profile spinner... Great dry fly cross between a parachute and a spinner. Is the Mc Cloud still muddied up? Some of the best fishing up there requires an old 4WD that you don't mind scratching up....
-- Edited by Otter on Monday 19th of July 2010 08:22:39 PM
The McCloud is running pretty clear now, better than what current reports are saying. I read 3-4 foot visibility just before we left but it was much better than that. The fly pattern is called a hi-vis spinner, basically a spinner but then you wrap a hackle in front of and behind the wings and trim it flush on the bottom so it sits flat.
