Sunday May 10, 2009
Sunday evening I had a chance to slide down to the lower part of the Sacramento River. I arrived around 7:30.pm after a day with the 4 little ones running both my wife and myself crazy. The water is currently green, high and murky. After the recent rains that we have received, the river is now beginning to recede. I wadded out into riffle and right away noticed several fish rising. There was a hatch coming off the water as I began casting and drifting. With only a few cast into my tranquil time away from the family I hooked up on a large snag like fish. The one that you know right away is not going to put up much of a fight. The ominous sucker/squaw fish. I was drifting a size 14 standard copper John and as a second I was using a size 16 Bloody Mary. After releasing the fish I checked the hooks and drifted right back to the same hole when Bam! 18inch Rainbow exploded out of the water. Typical wild rainbow in that section of the river. Great fighters that will put some tension on the drag. I netted that fish and could see several fish now jumping close to me. I changed to a dry fly in an attempt to catch something on the top of the water. This is about the only time of the year that it is possible to actually have some success on the dry flies. I started out with the Salmon fly and got several fish to rise and hit the fly but, my hook setting was a little slow. I decided after several casts and retrieves that I would then change to the size 16 orange Stimulator. As the sun was hiding behind the cliffs across the river from me I could see the Fly skating across the top of the river when a medium size(13-15 inch rainbow) took my fly and headed down river. It was a good native fighter that I enjoyed landing. The rest of the evening with all of my attempts, I had no success in coaxing the “big one” in taking my dry.