Evening Floats on Lower Sac are Awesome…
As the weather turns hot… those in the know turn to the Lower Sacramento River.
Shasta Dam is America’s 8th tallest dam and it backs up the largest reservoir in California that has 4,552,000 acre feet of storage and can be up to 517 feet deep… it has 365 miles of shoreline. It creates a massive cold water tailwater fishery for trout, steelhead & salmon… along with other anadromous species like sturgeon, striped bass, American shad and various bass varieties further downriver.
The water temp below the dam as it spills into Keswick Reservoir (immediately below) is typically in the very chilly 40’s degree mark. The Lower Sacramento River begins below these two reservoirs and is fairly stable at around 52-53 degrees in the upper reaches of downtown Redding, CA. This is a cold- cold water river.
As the summer temps climb the river stays clear and cold… but these hot days do little to affect the trout fishing and the aquatic insects that they depend on. Our spring fishing may be driven by mayflies and midges with a variety of small stoneflies, etc but the summer fishing revolves around the caddis fly. The caddis are the king bugs of summer.
Caddis in this river love it when the daytime air temps climb into the 100 degree range. These bugs often get active in the mid afternoon usually after lunchtime and as the evening approaches - especially that magic time in early evening when the sun finally leaves the river and the big cottonwoods and oak tree tops create welcoming shady banks… the caddis will become more active and the trout go nuts.
While fishing during such a hot period may not sound very appealing to many fair weather anglers… we have a few ways to mitigate the heat:
1) Just get in the river! As I said before this river is COLD. I bet you cannot wet wade for very long. We mostly fish from the drift boat on the Sac but a quick wet wade in a shallow riffle for 5-10 minutes is a great way to cool down. And, it’s a lot of fun fishing a dry dropper rig or work on your tightline nymphing (some call it Euro fishing or whatever).
2) We go early and late on the hottest days… I call this the “Half-n-Half”. We do a half day trip in the evening PM on Day 1 - stay one night in a hotel - and then a morning AM trip on Day 2 and you’re on the way home around lunch.
3) For anglers who want a little more time on the water we do a typical full day trip beginning after Noon and going till sunset… like 12-8 type of day. You may have to endure a little heat for a few hours (it’s actually surprising cooler on the water) but the evening session is where its at for the best fishing in my opinion. The fish can be very grabby most nights and anglers will soon forget how hot the day was.
