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North Fork American River (6/29/08)

I fished the North Fork of the American River at the Iowa Hill Access on Sunday afternoon from 4 to 7 PM.  Bugs were not coming off, so I decided to nymph the pools.  From my experience a week earlier, I drifted a two fly rig using a Solitude Tungsten Golden Stonefly (#8) with an Angel Cased PMD (#16) dropper.  Within minutes, I hooked up and landed a 15″ Rainbow Trout.  For this size river, this is a large fish.  As I worked my way downstream, I hooked up with two more 8″ trout.

The North Fork headwaters start near Donner Summit in the Sierras and finally ends at Folsom Lake in Placer County.  The areas that I fish from Lake Clementine in Auburn to the Iowa Hill access near Colfax is home to Smallmouth Bass and Rainbow Trout.  It’s great fly fishing when the water flows subside after the winter runoff.  The best trout fishing runs from May into July.  During the rest of the summer, the water flows are low and warm.  Trout can survive in the deep holes, but they just hunker down.  During this time, it’s Smallmouth Bass time, baby!

Here’s a picture of the Iowa Hill Bridge with a lone fly fisherman starting to rig up.Iowa Hill Bridge

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West Carson River – 06/29/08 Early AM

I woke up early this morning and headed out the door.  Out of habit, more than anything else, I decided that I was going to hit the West Carson at my usual spot.  After getting some coffee at the local 7-11 and driving the short 12 minute drive to the river, I found myself stringing up the rod is some chilly morning temps and a medium velocity wind.  Gonna’ have to dress in a long sleeve and wear waders and shed layers when it warms up.

As I stood over the bank at the gaging station hole, I saw tons of bugs on the water.  I knew that this would be another great dry fly morning despite the wind.  I quickly waded into position and checked out the bugs flying around.  Seems that there were a good combination of midges, PMD’s and even some Yellow Stoneflies floating around.  A few larger drakes were still fluttering around, and I had a nice Callibaetis land on my rod tip.  Don’t know why I saw the lone Calliebaetis, but I just assumed that it was “gusted” to the river from one of the nearby lakes.  There might even be a small hatch of Calliebaetis on this river.

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Support our wild trout – support your local TU chapter

One of the blogs that I read  is that of Mikey Wier.  Mikey is the producer of several excellent feature length fly fishing movies that I have purchased over the years from his production company Burl Productions.  It looks like Mikey just did a project in conjunction with TU and here is the video promo for that project as posted on YouTube.

httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=GmweN0-XFv4

Mikey is a guide at Tahoe Fly Fishing Outfitters, so many of the people and places are recognizable, and that makes his films that much more enjoyable.  If you want to check out some of his other films, I can recommend Soulfish as excellent fish porn that you will watch time and again.

httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=HeyXj9aBKRk

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West Carson River – 06/24/08 Early AM

I just cannot seem to get enough of this early AM dry fly fishing.  I headed back to the West Carson River, this time to the Gaging station section.  Upon arrival, I note that it is noticeably colder (my thermometer in the car read 31 degrees…brrr) than the previous morning.  It was also windy.  On a positive note, the water is lower and clearer each time I get a chance to fish the river.

As I string up the rod, I keep a vigilant eye on the water.  Because of the winds and cold ambient air temps, I do not see nearly as many bugs on the water.  I only see one little shaker splash the surface, but that is enough to encourage me to tie on a dry to start the morning.

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West Carson River – 06/23/08 Early AM

Another early morning and another day on the West Carson.  Water levels are getting better by the day and the water clarity is excellent.  This morning was nice and warm, so I dressed lightly and headed out the door at an early hour.

I headed to one of my favorite sections that I call “the automatic hole”.  I immediately saw bugs flying around, mostly smaller mayflies (probably PMD’s).  I tied on a small #16 winged Adams and started fishing.  I got strikes right away.  I hooked and landed two fish in quick succession with the biggest being about 10″ inches.  I switched up flies to a #16 red Humpy and continued to get strikes, mostly refusals, but I still managed to hook one small 6″ rainbow.   Another quick fly change to a #18 E/C Caddis, and another two small trout.

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