It has been quite awhile since my last post and lots has been going on.
I had the opportunity to attend Sandy River Spey Clave. It was awesome to be around so many talented casters and have the option to cast just about any rod out there. Even got to fish a few days on the Sandy and Clack.
Back up to memorial day (I know 4
th of July has just past but I want to recap). Teresa and I spent the weekend on the North Fork of the Feather with some friends. It was our first time up there and what a gem we had been ignoring. Tough to wade, lots of scrambling up and down the rocky banks, and no other fishermen in sight. I could not believe that for a holiday weekend we did not seen another fly fisherman and only two or three gear guys. Bonus for us!!! The highlight of the weekend was spotting a riser from a high rocky bank and stocking my way down into position and putting a
caddis right into his zone while the rest of the group cheered from above.
I am finally into my new place in
Rancho and the projects around here have been taking a good portion of my time.
I am happy to
announce that we (Teresa and I) have a new addition to the family. We have a house why not get a dog?? Riley is a 5 year old retriever mix but he is not your ordinary retriever. He is about 85 pounds of red fur and a face that has the
innocence of a 2 month old puppy. His former owners were moving back to England and did not want to put him through the 6 month
quarantine process. So Teresa went over to look at a couch they were selling and came back with Riley (well not exactly but you get the general idea).
I guided a few days the following week on the
Yuba with the flows
rippin. We managed a few fish each day with the bonus of three nice steelies out of the lower river (below Sycamore). The high flows did move some of the structure around and opened up a new piece of water down low that I am excited to swing when the flows come down.
I guided three days on the American for shad and
strippers. Only a few small
schoolie strippers but we did have a blast with some shad and the two handed rods. This is a great way to get repeated hookups on the swing which doesn't happen too often with
steelhead.
The guys from Outdoor Specialty
Products put together a vendor
spey day on the American River which featured the complete line of Sage,
Redington, and Rio
spey products. Simon
Gawesworth gave a few demos and
presentations. I was fortunate to spend multiple hours with Simon one on one working on and discussing two handed instruction. I
gleamed a few nuggets that will help me out when
working with clients and with the two handed instructor
certification exam.
I passed my single hand casting
certification exam. This was the culmination of two months of focused work and many times of going through the
demonstration questions with Teresa (secretly she is happier than I am as she does not have to listen to them anymore).
I have begun working more with Jeff Putnam on his fly fishing schools. I will have another post outlining what we are working on for the balance of the summer and the fall.
I took a client over to the Truckee for a day two weeks ago. I was hoping to catch the tail end of the Green Drakes but I think we were a few days too late in the sections we fished. But that did not mean we were out of luck with the surface action. There were Yellow Sallies and
Caddis everywhere and we had a nice mayfly hatch in the evening. No monsters but lots eager fish.
I got out with my buddy Shawn last week on the
Yuba. We only had about 5 hours to spend but we made the best of it. We swung through a few runs with no grabs. We did find a pod of risers in the lower river and were able to raise a half dozen or so. This was also Riley's maiden trip in the boat and he did very well. I think he is gonna make for a great fishing dog.
I have a list of at least 6 topics for posts that I have been working on so there will not be as much of a lapse between posts from now on.
The tug is the drug
Adrian
he Truckee. We got into lots bass throughout the morning. No monsters but plenty of action to keep up occupied. After a few hours we ventured back into one of the inlets only to find a huge swarm of hoppers throughout the tree lined shores and when the wind would blow they ended up on the water. I have never seen such a thing on still water. Even the Geese were excited and chasing the water trapped hoppers so it would only make sense that the trout would also be keyed in. We made a dozen or so drifts with fish on every one, even a few doubles and a few multiple fish drifts. Again no monsters but still pretty cool to catch fish on the surface, in high sun, with large dry flies. The evening ended on the moving water of the Truckee with lots of fish chasing bugs to the surface.
