Lady Luck

My wife won't touch the fish. No sir, no way, no how. But she loves to fish. So we headed out to Little Grass Valley Lake to chase some German Browns. We left home at 4:00am and got to the lake just as the sun was waking up. We put in at the ramp, and I set up our rods with our go-to lures. On our first pass of the day, Nicole hooked this nice 18-1/2"  brown as our lures were running over a hump. I managed to get a nice 16" brown later, but lady luck is on a roll.

There Otter Be A Law

I think most fishermen would agree that it's great to catch fish, but often just getting out and enjoying nature is a blessing. It was like that for Rod and I yesterday. We met on the American River at 4:15, dragged the boat upstream a bit and started fishing. Besides noticing how beautiful it was on the river with 67 degree weather, we spotted another boat downstream using a motor in a "No Motor" section. As we proceeded downstream, the other boat came up through our run and then turned and headed back downriver. Well, we only got one strike in an hour and a half, but nature blessed us. Halfway through our first drift, we spotted these three otters rolling in the dust on shore. We may not have caught any fish, but watching the otters play and slide into the water near the boat was a nice surprise!

American River Steelhead

After not having fished yet year to date, it was great to have three days off and hit the American River. I called my buddy Rod on Tuesday and we planned on drifting the river Thursday and Friday. Wednesday I hit the river at Sailor Bar and swung flies for a couple hours, my first day fishing of the year. No action, but I definitely got amped for the next couple days. Thursday Rod and I started our drift at Sailor Bar about 9am and floated to Rossmoor Bar without a strike. Pretty frustrating considering we saw four other adult fish landed. After spotting lots of fish on Thursday, Rod and I hit the river earlier Friday morning, again starting at Sailor Bar. We worked the water hard all the way down to the Sunrise area until we got our first strike. Rod was on the oars, I set the hook and the battle was on! We fought the fish for about 10-15 minutes and netted her, a nice wild hen. Not too shabby for the first fish of the year! Later on we hit some riffles downstream and had luck swinging flies. The first strike I got I fought about five minutes and he finally came off in the shallows. A few minutes later I nailed a darker female in the shallow riffles above a ledge. Nice to be starting the year off with some quality fish!

Late Evening Rainbows

Nicole and I hit Lake Natoma Saturday evening for an hour and a half and SHE did really well. I got skunked, but anytime someone in my boat catches fish I'm happy. The first fish was taken headed upstream just above the walking bridge, the second headed downstream in the state record pool. Beautiful colors on the fish this time of year. The water was really low and tinted a bit green, visibility to about 6 feet. Looking forward to the water coming up a little, the fish should return to their normal spots.

Smallies In The Fall

I've heard rumblings over the years that Natoma was once a great smallmouth fishery, and I have caught them occasionally while chasing trout. But the last month they are really coming on, and the average size is surprising. The first one I got recently was 16 inches long, and had to weigh 4 pounds EASY-at least 2 inches thick at the shoulders! Nick hooked up with an even bigger 17 incher that was also quite fat. Although I am targeting the trout on most occasions, I now have a fall-back method for catching more fish. Too bad for now, the weather just got perfect for the trout bite, expect pictures soon!

Smallmouth on the Fly

Friday evening Nicole and I fished Lake Natoma. I was expecting to see a dozen novice kayakers and a couple boaters but the dock was empty. We got on the water at 7:00pm and headed upstream. I brought my fly rod out to sink some flies and try stripping some streamers. We anchored above Rainbow Bridge and I cast my quick-sink line with four feet of leader tipped with 4x fluorocarbon. The first bump felt like a bite but I wasn't sure, so I let the streamer sit for a couple seconds, and BAM! I lifted the rod and hooked into the smallmouth bass pictured here. It was 16" long, fat like a football, and easily the heaviest smallie I've ever caught. I got another little smallie about 8" long that completely inhaled my streamer.  I've read that Lake Natoma at one time was considered a great smallmouth fishery, and we are definitely going to target them more often.

Little Truckee River

Me and the family decided to go camping for a few days, so we headed up to Truckee and camped on the Little Truckee River at Boyington Mill Site. The weather was outstanding, the fish were flying out of the water chasing emergers, and I figured out fairly early what would work.

I found a nice run above the mouth at Boca, and started out with a caddis dry since I saw a few flying around. Not a bite. Switched to a PMD for 5 minutes without success. Threw a woolly bugger and got zilch. Finally, I decided to go to a two-nymph drop under an indicator, which is how I expected to fish e when I was sitting at home tying red and green Copper John's in size 12 and 14. My second cast got me a nice 12" rainbow on the green. Tuesday I landed 5, lost a couple. Wednesday I got the same, landing 5 and losing a few, including a nice 15"-16" thick rainbow, they all took the red Copper John's. Thursday was the best day, landing 14 and losing at least ten other takes. Almost everyone of Thursdays' fish took the green flies in size 12.

We hit the Truckee River on Thursday on a side trip into town, but at midday the water was too warm, gotta hit it early or late.