Nor Cal Report – The ship sails on
On November 1st, 2011 by Hogan Brown

It seems that the fishing around here has reached the necessity of rain period. Fishing on most rivers is good on the back of end of being great and to get things going again we need some rain or weather to move fish around and mix things up a bit.

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Autumn's Beauty

Lower Sacramento River – I spent two days last week on a group trip with Todd “Slim” Cancilla for Off the Hook Fly Fishing Travel. Mike and his wife Carrie put on some great hosted trips all over the world and it was really fun to work with them. The river fished good not great. We had some rookie anglers, but they picked up nymphing pretty quickly and we ran into some small pods throughout the two days of feeding fish to put our numbers in the boat. It was good trout fishing by anyone’s measure just not for the L. Sac in October. The bar is set pretty high for this time of year.



I didn’t see one salmon working a red and we caught 3 fish on egg patterns in two days…bad. The egg bite is just not happening I guess. The consensus is that all the salmon that were coming up the river earlier in the year were hatchery fish and are either to dumb to spawn in the river or entered the hatchery lower in the river. Most of the fish we caught were on mayfly nymphs in the morning and caddis patterns in midday on. The fish are feeding in what we refer to bug water and are not even up in the areas really where the reds should be.



Keep in mind on the L. Sac that there is 80 some miles of fishable water and Slim and I spent both days between Aqua Golf and Anderson so conditions may change lower down the river but from what I have heard that is not the case.

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Silver Bullet

Lower Feather River – Fished the Lower Feather a day last week on a group trip with Ryan Johnston and fishing was good not great. We floated from the Outlet down to Gridley and hooked a fair number of Jumbo half pounders but no big adults. The feather is really in the “needing rain phase” to move fish around and move some fresh fish up. Most of our fish came on egg patterns up in the riffles, but a few started to come on bugs which means fish are backing off the redds and getting a little picky or more sensitive. Hopefully some rain will move in soon and stir things up on the feather. There are plenty of fish around and fishing should continue to be good through November.



Lower Yuba River – I have not fished the Lower Yuba in 2 weeks, which is pretty standard for this time of year. I give it a rest as it gets whacked by wade fishermen and other guides. Once it gets some rain and the flows come up a bit I’ll move back over there. Kevin the Price had a trip over there last week though and he said it was pretty tough. He got into some good numbers of fish but he caught them all in about 2-3 spots. This is pretty typical of the Yuba this year in that you find a few salmon up on reds and if some one hasn’t pounded it yet you are gonna get some fish. I would give the Yuba a few weeks and a rain storm.

Sports Report – What a great world series!!! The extra inning game was amazing. I didn’t have a horse in the race so all I asked for was a great 7 game series and I got it. Nothing better then a game 7 in October. Momentum is a tough thing to overcome and St. Louis has it now after the collapse of Texas in game 6.



ND – so the USC game didn’t turn out how I had predicted…so it goes…two weeks off before a game was not a good thing I think. Watching that game was like watching the first 2 games of the year….painful, disappointing, and brutal. That said we are building for the future. Kelly is the right guy for the program, this is year two and he continues to get good recruits. More importantly stats were released this week regarding graduation rate. ND has the highest grad rate in the FBS…USC isn’t even on the chart of top 25. Based on my pure and utter hatred for USC I have decided that unlike previous generations in my family I will NOT be buried in a game worn ND football uniform complete with pads and helmet. I will be dressed in a game worn USC uniform and then cremated.



Music News – I am a huge fan of The Gas Light Anthem. If you don’t own any of these guys albums and are a fan of Bruce Springsteen, Americana Music, Punk, etc. you should check these guys out. That said their last album American Slang was released last summer and while it still gets heavy rotation in my world I have been needing some new Gas Light…To my surprise the lead singer and guitar player released a side project album with his guitar tech called The Horrible Crowes…oh my is it good. Mellower than gas light for those more into the Bruce then the Punk but the same catchy lyrics, melodies, and great stories that have made gas light a classic. Check it out ASAP for some good mellow drive to the river on a winter day music.
hogan brown
www.hgbflyfishing.com
www.hgbflyfishing.blogspot.com


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