Sacramento River at Chico mayfly hatch 08 30 2010

I have been out on the river, re-familiarizing myself with a section near Chico.  All afternoon through dusk last Saturday the 28th I could not help but notice that lots of big fish are throwing themselves out of the water and flopping about on the surface.  I can not tell what the fish are, I do see them, but not clearly enough to identify.  It is enough to drive you crazy, all the fish jumping.  Last Sunday I thought they were feeding on a rather small white bodied fly, I identified it as a very light colored mayfly based on the the corpses floating down the river.  So many corpses, how do you get the fish to hit your pattern?  I thought about maybe some king of light cluster midge pattern, but decided to stick with more traditional mayfly patterns.  So I go out tonight armed with little dinky mayfly patterns each with a different emergent as the dropper on my flyrod.  Nothing.  All the while the fish flop around and tease me right next to the kayak.  Man thats annoying.  Ever once in awhile during my torment I notice an additional player I missed Sunday.  This is much bigger, well at least much bigger than the dinky clouds of size 18-20 stuff I noticed.  This new player was nearly 1/2 inch through the body.  I caught one (bug), and got the skunk off.  Imagine going fishing but then changing into chasing down bugs in the river in your hobie.  My project now is to create some of these, and catch one of those jumping fish so I can figure out what kind of fish they are.  Oh, and what a bummer, my scotty's and ram's wont hold my fly rod. 

looks like your halfway through your problem solving, professor.  Please let us know the results.   

If the fish are throwing themselves out of the water they are most likely chasing emergers to the surface. Little surface sips would indicate they are taking the floating bugs. I would try a dry/dropper setup, with the dropper being an emerger pattern or nymph. If it's a mad feeding frenzy, try a streamer right through the middle of them. Just my 2cents...Good Luck!

I agree with Golfish, these fish are probably not after floating bugs. Another option that's worked for me in this type of situation is an unweighted nymph just under the surface. Your picture looks kind of like a Blue-Winged Olive, but I'm sure. When you say "big fish" could they be salmon or are they more like the big rainbows that can be had up there? Good luck and I'm looking forward to hearing about a successful report.

After you tie a few of those tie a few dark elk haired caddis.
I used to use that to get those jumping fish....suckers.
The 4-5 lbers make GREAT striper bait!

If the fish are throwing themselves out of the water they are most likely chasing emergers to the surface. Little surface sips would indicate they are taking the floating bugs.

That seems to make sense, I will work on it.

After you tie a few of those tie a few dark elk haired caddis.
I used to use that to get those jumping fish....suckers.
The 4-5 lbers make GREAT striper bait!

 I'm thinking Squawfish.
 Randall

After you tie a few of those tie a few dark elk haired caddis.
I used to use that to get those jumping fish....suckers.
The 4-5 lbers make GREAT striper bait!

 I'm thinking Squawfish.
 Randall

I'm lazy like that. I catagorize them all the same.

How big are these fish? If they are fairly big 10-15lbs, it sounds like salmon. There all over the feather river doing the same thing.n Don't get caught with one on the line right now if it is a salmon.