gone fishin

Reports From the Field

A Lower Sac Drift/Float Trip Report By Mark Likos

Last December 15th, I posted an email to the Grizzly Peak membership describing my trip to Lower Sac. You may recall, I waded the river and had limited success. I went back Friday the 27th to float the Lower Sac.

I went with a few anglers one of whom (my boat mate) was Elaina Genser, a 2018 GPFF Foundational Fly Fishing graduate. Our guide Ernie has been guiding for 31 years and he is still on the water 260 days a year. He was a great resource for the day.

We went a little further down the river than I did on my earlier wading trip. We launched three boats at Anderson River Park at 10 am and worked the river down to Balls Ferry. We left the river there at 4 pm. Surprising to me, we were the only boats on the river.

The day was cold, clear and sunny with water temp at 56°F. Flows were about 7000 cfm. By comparison flows were just under 5000 cfm when I waded the river a month earlier. Water clarity was good at around 8 feet. Although the water levels were up, the average depth in this part of the river was just 6 ½ feet.

I rigged a 9 ½’, 6 weight rod, reel & WF fly line with ~ 9 ½’ nymph indicator leader with graduated 4x, 5x & 6x tippet to three flies. (Indicator, 6 feet of 3x level mono to two AAA split-shot to 18” of 4x fluorocarbon tippet to the first fly (Pats Rubber Legs), to 18” of 5x fluorocarbon tippet to the second fly (pale red Egg Pattern), to 18” of 6x fluorocarbon tippet to the third fly (micro Mayfly). This is a typical rig for this time of year on the river; I used something similar on my wading trip. The Egg Pattern was the winning fly of the day, nailing nearly every fish. (8mm bead/egg trailing a #6 barbless hook).

My hopes were bolstered by my recollection of my Posse Grounds south to Bonnyview float-drift a year earlier. The fish in that section that day were big; our boat saw 19” to 23” all day.

We were told the fish in the section of river we fished this trip would be smaller. Didn’t matter to me. I was excited to fish another part of the river, but they were right. All of the three boats took fish. The catch rate ranged from 1.5 per hour to maybe 3 per

hour. There were plenty of missed grabs, but we all got better at setting the hook as the day wore on. I even managed to hook a good-sized sucker fish in its fin on a missed aggressive grab!

If you have questions or comments about fishing the lower Sac contact me at mlikos@comcast.net Fishing the Upper Sac: A Video Report By Todd Pond

Just before the start of the New Year Todd Pond took advantage of a break in the weather to fish the upper Sac. He was anxious to try some new equipment and to experiment with video-making ideas. The fishing was slow but the scenery was world class as you will see in his video. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=4wUe8RvAGGA

Stills captured from Todd’s video adventure on the Upper Sacramento Back Cover: Upper Sacramento by Todd Pond