Lower Sac River Fall Season…

Well, October came and went pretty quickly. The much anticipated “egg drop” trout fishing bonanza on the Lower Sac was a little lack luster. It would appear that not many salmon made it into the upper river this year. Pretty discouraging after the banner season the off-shore boats, both commercial and charter boats, had this summer. It was a Mega Year in the ocean.

There were far too few salmon that made it inland … over harvest perhaps??? I dunno. I do know that the conditions in the river weren’t great. Lower than avg flows (there simply wasn’t enough water behind Shasta Dam) and slightly warmer water and a very hot, dry October didn’t help the Lower Sac salmon program one bit.

I will give the Bureau of Rec a nod though. I think they managed a tough position this summer. Not a popular opinion by many but I’m willing to say it. They had the difficult task of mitigating a very low Shasta Lake level while maintaining the “cold pool” and then providing cold water releases into the Sac River (Chinook salmon need very cold water around 53 degrees). This was a tough balancing act and with all the stakeholders: irrigation districts, Delta water quality, valley farmers, urban municipalties, anglers, the salmon themselves… all requiring a piece of the ever shrinking pie.

We had some challenging conditions this October. Lack of rain was a major blow. The salmon just don’t wanna get in the mood during these hot, dry, no rain-no cloudy days in the fall. They like it wet, cloudy and dark.

I think most of the salmon got on redds at night and early morning… If you were out early and for the first few hours there were days when the “egg bite” happened. Otherwise, it was a slow day until the caddis and mayflies came off later in the afternoon. The typical egg drop stumped a lot of anglers this year. Had to play the bug game more… and that game was very good!