By Tim Romano & Kirk Deeter

By Michael Caranci

The trout fishing in Northern California has been great all spring and into these early parts of summer. We had such a dry winter, and such low snowpack this year, that water conditions on all of our rivers are ideal right now, and there have been some great hatches: salmonflies and golden stoneflies on Hat Creek, the McCloud, the Upper Sacramento, and the Pit River, the Green Drakes just started coming off on Hat Creek, and the PMD spinnerfall on Fall River has been epic. Of course, the Lower Sacramento is almost always a sure bet with nymphs out of drift boats all day long, but the evening dry fly fishing is starting to pick up for the summer, too. Fish everywhere seem hungry and larger than average.

Check out this pic taken on Hat Creek recently; the fish ate a salmonfly dry.

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By Tim Romano & Kirk Deeter

By Terry Gunn

All the Lees Ferry Angler guides agree: This spring provided the best and most consistent fishing that we have seen on the river since 1999. The trout are in great shape, strong and eager to eat … at least most days. The fishing is not as "easy" as it was in 1999, as a matter of fact; I would call the current fishing conditions technical. But if you know where the fish are and can make the cast and the perfect drift, and use the right fly you just might hook the strongest trout of your life. (A Lees Ferry Anglers guide can help you with the above.)

The water flow is going to change in June and this will change our approach to fishing. Most likely the midge fishing will be finished until we see lower water flows. Our focus will be shifting to drifting out of the boat and wading only in lower water flows. July will bring Cicadas and the best dry fly fishing of the year. Our cicada fishing rivals that of any other river in the country and happens most years. The summer drift fishing is often the best and... [ Read Full Post ]

By Tim Romano & Kirk Deeter

... Is Often No More Than A "BB"

I have never met an angler who doesn’t like or respect Pat Dorsey. For those of you who do not know Pat, he is, hands down, the “hot stick” guide on the trout rivers closest to Denver, namely the highly technical Cheesman Canyon section of the South Platte River, the “Dream Stream” section of the Platte (up in South Park), the Williams Fork of the Colorado (near Kremmling), and pretty much anywhere else he chooses to guide. He literally wrote the book on fly fishing the South Platte.

The fact that Pat is almost uniformly recognized as the best guide in one of the busiest trout fishing regions in America is tall praise. But despite all of that, he remains humble, hard working, and amazingly open with his “bag of tricks.” The most important lesson he ever shared came on a notoriously crowded day near Deckers – one of those days when conditions were challenging, the fish were stubborn, and the place was packed with so many anglers, we simply didn’t have the option of bouncing from one run to the next.... [ Read Full Post ]

By Tim Romano & Kirk Deeter

Runoff is starting to bring all the major rivers up in Colorado. We’re still fishing the North Fork of the South Platte with good results using San Juan worms, caddis nymphs, and the like. The Arkansas is fishing well, with baetis still hatching between BV and Salida … the caddis are starting to pop up as well. Forecast calls for warm weather to continue, mixed with thunderstorms. As the rivers run high, we’ll turn our attention to lake fishing for brook trout. Standard streamers (woolly buggers) are already working in the lakes in areas that have melted. [ Read Full Post ]

By Tim Romano & Kirk Deeter

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By Tim Romano & Kirk Deeter

In the perfect scenario, a trout rises and sips down your dry fly. If you wait too long to set the hook then, what happens? Right. It spits the fly.
And, sometimes, in fact, you foul-hook that fish. I remember once fouling a brown on the Bighorn, and after guide Dan Stein plucked the nymph out of the trout’s tail, he said, “It ate it, and crapped it out … you were too slow.” Well, not literally, but the point was well taken.

All of which leads me to ask if it is really dirty pool to set the hook when you aren’t 100 percent sure? Isn’t that just improving your odds by getting the jump on the fish? Dare I say that being a bit quicker on the draw might actually decrease the snag factor?

No doubt, intentional snagging is bad form. Foul hookups will happen, but less often among good anglers.

Believe me, even if you mini-set, you’ll still miss a good percentage of takes that you cannot see under the surface. I’m just not sold on the argument that setting the hook first and asking questions later is an angling... [ Read Full Post ]