Fall River Fish Report

May is a good time for dry fly fishing on Fall River

Fall River

by The Fly Shop
4-17-2012
Website

The Fall River is the largest of California's spring creeks, fed by several icy aquifers coming from the snows and glaciers of Mount Shasta.

Current River Conditions: Are you ready for some dry fly fishing? How about rising fish? How about casting a fly you can see, more or less. But you can see it is the point! Fall River offers up dry fly fishing all of May and it can be some of the most amazing dry fly fishing in all of California, for the YEAR. Conditions are great and the prospects for a productive fly fishing spring are great!

The Fly Shop's ? Tips: The "Fall River Twitch" has been the most effective technique on Fall River for decades. How to: Anchor your pram upstream of rising fish. Cast downstream and across, then feed line out to extend your drift a long ways downstream. The "Fall River Twitch" results in a presentation that lets the fish see your fly first, while you are positions upstream and out of the fished field of view. The Fall River Twitch is equally effective whether fishing dries, swinging nymphs or indicator nymphing. If you're casting to a pod of rising trout, work from the outside in and you can often pick them off one by one. 5-5 wt rods are what we recommend for Fall River, with some anglers using 6 wt rods for casting heavier sinking lines. The Fly Shop ? recommended fly lines; RIO Gold floating line and an extra spool loaded with RIO CamoLux.

Suggested Fly Patterns:

Dry Flies:
• Last Chance Baetis #20
• Tilt Wing Dun PMD #18
• Tilt Wing Dun Mahogany #18
• Last Chance Cripple PMD #18
• Mayfly Cripple Limestone #18
• Mercer's Missing Link
• Norman's Loop Wing BWO #18
• Parachute Adams #18-20

Nymphs/Wet Flies:
• Pseudo May's Brown #16-18
• Drifting Flashback PT #14-16
• Black Zebra Midge #16-20
• Red Copper John #18
• Zug Bug #14-16
• PT Nymph #14-20
• TB PT Nymph #18
• Norman's Wiggle Tail PT #16-18
• Mercer's Micro May Fly Brown #16

Streamers/Leeches:
• Zack's Swimming Leech Olive
• Zack's Swimming Leech Black

Fly Fishing Gear:
• Buff ? High UV Angler Series Headwear
• Simms ? Solar Sombrero
• Oakley GASCAN Polarized Sunglasses

More Reports

The Fly Shop Reports

for Tuesday, April 17th, 2012

Klamath River - Upper - CA: Conditions are perfect on the Klamath! But the fishing is slow.
Sacramento River: Fishing conditions on the Lower Sac couldn't be better, & fishing has been good, nymphs work best.
McCloud River: Weather will be great for opening day. Conditions are good, fishing will be great on the McCloud
Pit River: The Pit is on one day, then kind of slow the next.
Trinity River: Fishing on the Trinity River has been fun for smaller juvenile steelhead and salmon
Sacramento River: There have been some good reports coming out of the Upper Sac, but not consistently
Baum Lake: Some will say the fishing is great at Baum Lake while others feel it's borderline fair

The Fly Shop Reports

for Monday, April 9th, 2012

Klamath River - Upper - CA: The fishing can be good, but don't expect to find many steelhead.
Sacramento River: Fishing GREAT! Expect the bite to be a little slow in the AM hours
Pit River: Fishing on the Pit River has been good
Trinity River: The fly only section for the Trinity River is open and fishing great!
Sacramento River: The Upper Sac is fishing better, the recent rains made things tough for awhile
Baum Lake: The fishing at Baum Lake has been good one day, then slow the next
Iron Canyon Reservoir: Rainbows and Browns, sometimes Brooks are all active at Iron Canyon Reservoir to varying degrees
Keswick Reservoir: The fishing on Keswick has been great
McCumber Reservoir: The best bite at McCumber reservoir occurs mid-day
Lewiston Lake: Fishing is fair to good on Lewiston Lake