An Upper Sac Primer Part 1: Winter

The Basics on doing well here By Michael Malekos

Ifish the upper Sacramento River hard in the winter. The river is open to angling all year, after all. My wife’s family offers me the use of their weekend home in the town of McCloud. Each day, I rise early, pull on my waders, and proceed in darkness to different access points along the river’s northernmost sections. A favorite destination is the river accessed at the Cantara Loop. Whenever I fish there, I seldom come upon another angler. Perhaps because the memory of a part disaster lingers.

In July 1991, a Southern Pacific Railroad train derailed at the Cantara Loop, where the tracks curve nearly 180 degrees at the bridge over the river, and a tanker car spilled metam sodium, a soil fumigant and herbicide that forms a toxic liquid and gas. Interstate 5 was closed, residents from the town of Dunsmuir and south to Castella were forced to evacuate, and both the fish and the insect populations of the upper Sacramento were decimated all the way down to Lake Shasta.

Seasoned anglers I’ve spoken to who fished there before the accident remember this area as a good place to catch trout in the 10to-12 inch range. A 14-to-15 inch trout was an exceptional fish there.

Today the river appears to have rebounded and has once again become quite a fishery. The area is scenic and provides easy access to excellent fishing opportunities. My guess is that if the anglers who fished here before returned, they’d find the trout living in this nutrient-rich water to be much larger than before. Additionally, similar to other fisheries that follow strict catch and release than before. As in other fisheries that follow strict catchand-release practices, upper Sac trout live longer, grow larger, and get smarter, and thus catching them becomes more technical, at times requiring fly fishers to fish smaller fly patterns. The trout I have caught and released here are vibrantly colored, healthy, and are incredibly strong fighters.

One thing I have learned by fishing the upper Sac is that when bugs are coming off, an angler can be fishing and catching trout in a spot where the bugs are hatching while another angler, not far away, sees no insect activity and is not catching a thing.

Snapshot: The Cantara Loop

Nearly three decades have passed since the derailment poisoned the river. The upper Sac at Cantara has relatively clear, clean, highly oxygenated water. The clarity, water level, and temperature are regulated by the amount of rainfall and weather conditions throughout the year. Like most freestone rivers, the shallow

Upper Sacramento near the Cantara Day Use Area - Image Courtesy of Mike Malekof

water provides easy wading to likely trout holds – pocket water, runs, and deep pools. Anglers should be prepared and able to fish confidently and comfortably any type of water they encounter. On the upper Sac, a 9-foot 5-weight fly rod with floating line is perfect. About a thirty-minute walk downstream from the day-use area at Cantara, the water flattens. There, flows move slowly and wading is much easier. My experience has been that the bigger fish tend to occupy these waters. Cast to them along the banks, targeting the undercuts.

However, I’ve observed anglers walk and at times run to the flat water to begin fishing. But river trout come to the riffles to feed. So begin fishing the riffles, then make your way to flat water. The riffles provide fish with plenty of structure, allowing them to hide and escape the current. The Cantara section’s fast water isn’t deep, but it is swift and choppy on the surface, which means anglers can get fairly close to a fish without being spotted. In this fast water, there is no reason to cast anything longer than 7 feet of line tied to a 7-foot leader. I tend to fish where there are signs of underwater structure or target the pocket water behind rocks.

Fishing the Entire River: Winter

As the seasons change, water levels change, and so should the methods anglers employ for catching trout.

Winter is the time of year when you don’t see a lot of bugs coming off the water. I caught fish this past winter, but not by casting Blue-Winged Olive dry flies, as I’ve read many anglers suggest – not even during and occasional afternoon BWO hatch. My best results were achieved nymphing.

Effective winter nymphing patterns to use include red Copper Johns, Zebra Midges, Micro Mayflies, size 16 to 18, and dark rubberleg and stonefly patterns, size 6 to 8. Size 6 brown sculpin streamers work well here after heavy rains raise the level of water and make it offcolor. Fish this pattern until the water clears. At best, like many trout fisheries during the winter months, catching fish can be sporadic.

Despite the cold weather and even colder water, there is an upside to winter fishing the Upper Sac. I enjoy the changes in nature and solitude winter fly fishing provides. I’m alone, but not lonely. When my wife and kids accompany me, I balance fly fishing with family activities. I said “balance” – not “forego.” For example, I may fish the upper Sac for several hours in the early morning, then return to gather the troops and head over to Mount Shasta Ski Park for an afternoon of skiing. This continually proves to be easier said than done, if I’m into fish. One of the highlights of fishing the upper Sac during winter is the October Caddis hatch, which this year took place closer to December. This is the final opportunity for trout to gorge themselves on large insects before the winter rains turn to snow.

If you’d like to visit and fish the site of the Cantara Loop derailment disaster (which is not in plain sight), get on to South Old Stage Road, which is near the freeway and can be accessed from the community of Mt. Shasta, from the Mott and Azalea areas, and from Dunsmuir if driving north from that community on Mott Road. Turn onto Cantara Loop Road (left if coming from Dunsmuir, right if coming from Mt. Shasta, and then drive a short distance to the day-access area located on your left at the bottom of the hill, just before Cantata Loop Road ends. Park along the river. There is additional space for parking at the end of the road. Everyone assumes the dayuse area is heavily fished. As a result, nobody fishes it.

Editor’s Note. This article is essentially the first half of Michael’s An Upper Sac Primer. I have extracted from his original article with Michael’s kind permission. Part 2 covering Spring, Summer and Fall will appear in the April Irideus.