Tom,

Ha, I was also fishing and hiding. Mostly hiding.. Caught nice rainbow and lost big one. Confirmed that the stoneflies are indeed Skwalas. Caught some mature nymphs and a couple of adults. The adults were a little smaller than Skwalas I collect on the Yuba and other West Coast waters and in Montana. The two I caught could have been males as there is some sexual dimorphism. I honestly haven’t checked their sex yet. There was quite a few Skwalas emerging. Was actually impressed with the number and diversity of the invertebrate community. Number and diversity is a big deal.

Had a great day.

Ken W. Davis
Aquatic biologist
Wildlife Survey & Photo Service

Hey Tom,

Forget to mention, Terry Imai and I went up last Friday and fished. We arrived about 11:30 I walked downstream from the boxcar, about 1/2 way to the gauging station. The temp was about 70 (tshirt weather) and all sorts of bugs were hatching. I ran into Ken Davis who was doing a little bug sampling. There were sulfur/PMD mayflies (quite large), caddis, and a pretty decent stonefly hatch, sure looked like skwalas. Used a green stimulator with my own modifications, and brought four fish to the net between 14 and 17 inches. Lost a much bigger one who ran me almost to backing and broke off on rocks (what I get for using 6X tippet). I then walked back up by the boxcar and fished in the run behind for awhile, late, and caught another on a size 16 tan caddis. He was 14 to 15 inches. All were rainbows, except the one I lost, I am unsure what he was.

Rob Brushia

I was up at the club today with Ray Olmo from noon until 2:00.   The flows have been running at around 250 CFS for several days.   We started out behind the boxcar and saw some really nice rainbows rising up & down the run.

We started out with a Tarantula with a Pheasant Tail Flashback (PTF) #18.   Not much luck so I changed the PTF over to a #14 Parachute Adams.   A few casts and Ray hooked the  beautiful rainbow below.  Great fight.  Ray did a great job of landing him.  I got to take the picture.

Tom Bartos

Below is a tip from Toms Simms which I am posting to help you during this time of the year.  Even if you don’t tie flies you should check out the link to get  a look at how the fly looks.

Tom

I saw a number of small, dark stoneflies when I was on the property Wednesday. I’ve seen them many times before, but have never tried to imitate them. I caught one and estimated it as a size 18-20. The wings were a dark, dun color and the abdomen was also dun-colored with a lighter segmentation. The fly on the following link should do a good job of imitating the natural.

Video Source:
http://flytyer.wordpress.com/2010/02/27/little-black-stonefly/

Tom Simms

We have been blessed with six weeks of constant low flows at a time when the Browns are spawning, There have been numerous reports of large browns hitting on the Turk Tarantula. Brown’s on a dry Fly? It just doesn’t get much better than this. The last three days there has been constant flows around 450 CFS. For me this is the ideal flow for fishing. Great access, lots of great water and stability which makes fish happy and hungry. I hope you all have had a chance to get up to the club during this time. If not you need to get up there and do some fishing. Even a hour or two makes for a great day of fishing. There are so many great places to fish with these flows that it is downright hard to make a decision where to fish.

On another note, the new license conditions call for Oxbow Dam being primarily used to moderate the flows during the Oct through March time frame. This 500 CFS constant flow is what I am hoping we will have in the future. This will be a huge improvement to the river habitat , environment and to us anglers. Hopefully we can get PCWA & PG&E to start implementing this part of the new license ASAP.

Tom

I fished with my 12 year old son Clay today. We hiked down beyond the cathedral. There were both medium brown caddis and October caddis hatching from 4:30 pm on. And there were a lot of them. Best hatch I’ve seen at the club, of any type, since the march browns this spring — actually better.

Clay hooked a pretty good sized fish on an orange stimulator. After a nice arial and a couple of runs it stopped short about five feet from shore. I kept telling him to swing it over to me so I could net it. And he kept saying “I can’t!” Thinking he hooked a monster — and I could just barely see it beneath the surface, because it was obscured by the glare — I took a few steps toward it. That riled-up the fish and he wriggled off the hook. What happened was that the nymph that was tied about 4-5 feet behind the stim got snagged on a rock, and the fish couldn’t move except a little side-to-side.

The rest of the fish we caught took size 16 parachute BWOs.

Clay says he wants to fish more. Cosmo is a happy dad. I think he is going to get his own Tenkara rod too.

Can’t wait to hit the club again.

I was up at the club Tuesday & Wednesday with Pete Thompson, Ron Thomas and their guests to spend some time fishing and sharing a wonderful time at the club. Fishing is always fun, but spending a night at the club with friends is real special or priceless as they say in the commercial.  We fished between the lower Gray Eagle pool and the large pool above the Cathedral. The attached pic cover much of the area.

There is a deep pool below this pic that takes a turn and smashes into the Cathedral wall.   As we spread out I decided to fish the area in the middle where the side channel enters the main river.   There is a big flat rock about 15 feet out,  just below where the side channel enters,that I decide to climb and fish from to get a better view.   With the water low I was several feet out of the water and had a good view of the bottom.   I was fishing my standby Tarantula (see pic), with a BWO 16 below about 2 feet.

After a few casts upstream I decided to let the flies float into the far riffle which was about 12” to 18” deep, You can see the area in the river pic attached. It’s the lower white water area. As the flies entered the riffle I was expect a hit because it seemed like a good feeding area. On the third cast BANG!!! This large brown came up and really smacked the Tarantula. I knew I had him as there was no doubt that he grabbed that fly hard and it was buried deep into his tongue. He was strong, but I had plenty of room to play him. I tried a trick Bill Carnazzo had suggested which was to lower the rod to the water perpendicularly and start reeling. The fish came out of the fast water quite easily and I now had control of him. I waived the guys up at the lower Gray Eagle pool to come down as I wanted a pic. As they arrived the fish had tired and I was able to land him. The colors were beautiful. Pictures rarely do justice to a beautiful fish and the attached pic shared this trait. This fish made my day.

That evening the guys cooked up a great meal and we shared some fine wines and cigars. There is nothing like having a great steak and fine bottle of wine with friends after fishing the day. We sat around the campfire until midnight. As I said previously it was priceless.

With the flows down because of the annual maintenance period fishing has been nothing but spectacular. If you haven’t fished the low flows you need to get up there quick before they start up generating again. With all the extra water this year there may be a water sale to down south cities which would raise the flows considerably for a while. Hope to see you up at  the club.

After seeing a Tenkara rod up-close-and-personal last night at the club, I’m stoked to try it. The simplicity of the rod and flies is very intriguing. While a huge part of fly fishing for me is pulling off a perfect cast and the rush of seeing a fish smash your dry fly — or even better, watching the fish appear out of the depths to roll on your fly — I really do love the quiet intimate nature of short line fishing. I have to say that my fly fishing world has just been rocked.

Bob Townsend, Denny Freidig & I went up to the club to spend some time together.    We went up Wednesday and did some fishing below the campground and then BBQ’s some steaks for dinner.    On Thursday our wives came up to spend the evening.     What a great way to spend some times with friends.   There was no moon, so the stars we spectacular and the shooting stars were abundant.    Denny & I enjoyed talking and watching the shooting stars while Bob slept well into the night.   Around midnight we tried waking Bob , but he wouldn’t have it.   We headed for the cabins and left him snoring away.

If you have not seen the old Spencer Tracy movie ”The old Man and the Sea” it’s something you should do.   It’s a fabulous book by Hemmingway and made into a movie with Spencer Tracy.   If you have ever hooked into a fish that challenges every inch of your ability, it’s hard not to think of this classic.  Last night was my “The Old Man and the Sea” venture.

Bill Carnazzo & I went fishing last night downstream to the Cathedral. The Cathedral is a great place to start as it gets shade before much of the river due to the high walls. We saw some fish jumping in the pool below the Cathedral. Bill landed a few on a dry fly. I wasn’t having much luck nymphing.

We headed upstream to the large pool where we saw large fish rising. I threw out a large  Turk Tarantula Dry Fly #10  and saw a fish going for it, but backed away as the fly moved into the fast water.  A few casts later I I looked back to see where Bill was and he started yelling that a fish had engulfed my fly. He wasn’t just saying a fish took my fly, he was saying it attacked it. As I quickly set the hook I realized this was a huge fish.

He headed for the fast water and I thought I must stop him from getting into it as it spilled out of the pool. I stopped him but then suddenly it felt that the line had gotten stuck on the bottom. You know that feeling where you lift your rod and there is not the slightest bit of movement. I lifted several times and nothing. I thought he had gotten off and that I had snagged the bottom. I could see the line below the fast water and it was in a big arc which is not good. At that point I was about to give up and break off the fly when he started moving again. Now I started think of “ Old man and the Sea”. I was in a fight of a lifetime. If you have ever hooked a big steelhead you know what I was feeling.

As the fish made a “B” line towards the fast water my rod was bending to the limit. I tried changing the angle as that sometimes works in getting the fish to stop running. I didn’t want him getting in the fast water that was spilling out of the pool. Once in there I knew he would be gone. I worked him closer and he came completely out of the water about 10’ from where I was standing. My adrenalin started pumping as this brown was thick as a salmon and had a tail that must have been 6” wide.

Bill was scurrying over to me with his camera and saw him jump. The fish took off toward the fast water pouring out of the pool. My rod was bent over to the point of breaking as I tried to keep him from going over the edge. I thought about letting him go over and then chasing him down stream, but that was just asking too much. I saw the river runs through where Brad Pitt floats down the river with a fish on and I am just too old to give that a try. In my younger years perhaps. As I looked at my rod and I knew I was in deep trouble as it looked like it was about to break. Then when it looked like my rod had reached it maximum the line snapped as the fish broke off the fly. I would have loved to have landed this fish as it was definitely a trophy fish. Not that I would have kept it , but I certainly would have taken several of pics.

In the movie Spencer Tracy lands his monster fish.     In this case the fish got away. I don’t feel bad about losing this fish. He put up a great fight and I enjoyed every second of the fight. You don’t always have to win to gain a great deal of pleasure in life.

Tom