Capt. Brian Clemens Report and Forecast
Capt. Brian Clemens Owner/Operator of Nor Cal Fly Guides
Up until this recent crazy Pineapple Express, our rivers all over the state were fishing great. Whether dry fly fishing with skwala drys on the Yuba, bobber fishing on the Lower Sac for Trout, swinging steelhead on the Feather, Trinity or the Coast, things were fishing extremely well, even the American was giving up some nice fish.
With that being said, the current river report/conditions are well...........not fishable right now and super high.
Yuba River - 3800cfs coming out of the bottom of Englebright but another 6600cfs over the top pushing 10,400cfs but dropping fast, Deer creek is pumping 380cfs and dropping fast. (Lets just say she's a bit pushy on the edges right now)
Feather River - 35k cfs total, 25k though Low Flow (Id say shes a bit high) YES 25Kcfs in the LOW FLOW
Lower Sacramento River - 40k cfs come 2/7 (I wont fish it, not fun at those flows, and it was blown out on 2/4)
American River - dropping from 3500cfs to 2500cfs today to 2/8. (very fishable and in good condition)
Trinity River - 3500cfs out of dam come 2/7 (not fishable)
The Coast - without name dropping, Ive been spending a bit of time between the Feather, Trinity and surprisingly the coast swinging for steelhead, and all these rivers have been fishing good on the swing. A recent trip we went 1 for 3 swinging for those elusive native unicorns on the coast, Trinity has been shelling out 6-8 grabs a day and the always consistent Feather 6-10 a day and not in the Low Flow.
Overall fishing was darn good up till this rain. Most of our valley rivers are going to take a bit to come back down, which includes Lower Sac, Yuba and Feather. The American River is ready and willing for your fishy endeavours right now, look for it to continue to fish though the week on into next. Both swinging and bobber fishing will produce. Look for diving ducks which is the sign of alevins. Birdnests, eggs, worms, caddis will be other nymphs to try, swinging anything black and blue, pink, pink n blue, u-name-its, sculpins, euphorias/alevins will work well.
The next to drop into shape is the Yuba, what till deer creek gets below 150-175cfs for clarity to get better, as far as main flows, you can fish the edges at 3500, while still high, still fishable, best at 2k and under. Rubberlegs, worms, eggs, alevins, caddis, skwalas for bugs, swinging anything olive.
Feather, Lower Sac are going to be a while before they come into shape, cant put a timeline on them. Trinity, we are waiting on BOR to finish fixing the CVP tunnels that take water over the hill. They predict mid March, but we are hoping sooner. Flows at 1500cfs was fishable, and we are having good days swinging in JC at those flows, but anything higher is out of the question. Watch for these flows to come down, hopefully in the next week or 2, maybe.
Coast has been really good, but the recent storm did blow most of the rivers out except the Smith. All coastal rivers are dropping into place nicely and by the beginning of next week a few should be high but fishable.
With this big storm, while fishing is shut down now, its going to make our summer fishing outstanding. Really looking forward to spring steelhead, late spring early summer Shad, striper season, summer steelhead/trout spey.
