Almanor/NF Feather River, 9/5/2011: Adaptation is Key...

I woke up around 6am this morning for no reason.  Couldn't go back to sleep, so I figured "Eh, I'll check out the river." I've been fishing the North Fork Feather River near where it enters Lake Almanor the past few weeks (actually, it's been the only place I've gone fishing for quite a while up here), but I've always gone down there in the evenings.  Curious to see what the morning bite was like, I pedaled off from my house down the street a ways to the trail that leads to the river.  Took me about 15 minutes to reach the old railroad trestle that crosses the river.



There's some good water around the trestle, but I wanted to keep moving downstream.  Continued down a trail heading east towards the lake.

Reached my favorite bend in the river within a few minutes.  The lake is steadily dropping...the gravel bar on the right had about a foot of water over it a couple weeks ago.


Threw a Roostertail along the overhanging willow bushes and undercuts for a while in this area, because that's what the fish have wanted in the evenings.  But they sure weren't wanting it in the morning.  Only landed this little guy around 7:30am, who looks like he's had some close encounters with the local otter family that lives down here.

After the slow action in the river, I decided to follow a winding, brushy trail down to the river mouth.  I prefer fishing the river because the fish in the river tend to be more aggressive than the ones in the lake, but I didn't have much choice.  There are multiple trails in this area, and with the lake so high, only one of them gets you to the lake.  You even have to cross a beaver dam en route.

Luckily I didn't run into any minotaurs or the Predator on my way to the lake.  Here was the scene:

Slow-moving water, very clear, very quiet.  There were several fish down here slurping something off the surface, but damn were they teases!  As the sun came up I could see some real toads about a foot below the surface--a couple of which looked to be 24 inches, easy.  I threw all sorts of stuff at them: Rooster Tails, white crappie jigs, Pins Minnow, several different flies beneath a float, and an all-black Panther Martin.  Fishing in the calm waters until 9am, I only connected on one fish.  But what a fish!  She gave up an awesome aerial display and took a few drag-peelin runs.  This was on the all-black Panther Martin.




Fish continued to rise down here, but I obviously didn't have the equipment to coax them.  I moved back upriver and re-fished the spots I hit earlier in the morning.  Black Panther Martin produced a planter and a wild fish.  Can ya tell which one is which?  Haha.


By 10am, I couldn't get any more takers on spinners.  I didn't have any bait with me, but not to worry.  There's tons of bait in this river, and one of the easiest to catch are the big October caddis larvae that graze on cobbles in the river.  They come in cases made out of little pebbles and whatnot.  It's real easy to pluck them off the rocks.

Then you just take apart the case and extract the goody inside.  On a size 8 hook, I would hook two caddis larvae like this.

Drifting this with a small splitshot underneath the willows, I started tearing up the trout big-time!  Most of them were only 12-15 inches, but they were fun nonetheless.  Again, it was a mixture of planters and wild fish.



The evil copepods Salmincola!

The fish were particularly partial to caddis pupae, which were a pain to put on the hook because they were so soft (talkin softer than a baked ghost shrimp, if that's possible), but they'd release this little scent cloud when in the water that the larvae lacked.  In total, I landed 12 rainbows and 2 small browns this morning, all released.  Big fish hit spinners, but the numbers came on the caddis larvae/pupae.

Things I learned this morning:
1) The morning bite is VERY different from the evening bite.
2) Those beast rainbows at the mouth are definitely feeding on something, but I didn't see any bugs hatching.  Either the bugs they're eating are very small or the fish are just messing with my head.
3) It can be frustrating at the moment, but I actually dig getting schooled by big trout you can see but cannot coax to bite.  It makes you put on your thinking cap to try and figure out what the heck you didn't do right, and compels you to improve your understanding of these fish and how you can go about tempting them to hit.  I don't want them to be easy, otherwise they wouldn't be very special would they?

Rock on buddy!

another beauty report Clayman.  Sooo when's a good time to guide me up there?   

Wow, Thanks for the great Pictorial report, beautiful place and fish.

another beauty report Clayman.  Sooo when's a good time to guide me up there?   

Yeah, maybe we can carpool!    Awesome stuff Clay!

Interesting that fish in the river have copepods.  I've never seen that before, only in lakes.

Another fantastic report!! Wtg on trying various tactics to lure the fish to bite. Thanks also for sharing some of your insights from this trip. That is why I consider ya to be a top notch fisherman when it comes to Almanor fishing 

awesome report,
We were actually planing on going up there for a day this weekend, until I hit the pavement on the bike....hew about next weekend?  I have my mom in town for the week and I want to get her on some Almanor fish if I can...

another beauty report Clayman.  Sooo when's a good time to guide me up there?   

Thanks dude!  If you're really serious about catching a lot of big fish, then I recommend coming up here in March or April.  It can be very cold and sloppy weather, but the fishing is off the hook that time of year.  Mostly browns and rainbows, but if you get a warmspell you can get into some prespawn smallmouth bass.

Yeah, maybe we can carpool!    Awesome stuff Clay!

Interesting that fish in the river have copepods.  I've never seen that before, only in lakes.

I'm pretty sure the fish that are in the river are swimming up from the lake.  Every evening, they'll start showing up in the lowermost pools and runs of the river to feed.  They have no qualms swimming upriver just to eat/explore/do whatever they wanna do.  Further upstream, the wild fish thin out and you mostly have planter rainbows that have no copepods.

awesome report,
We were actually planing on going up there for a day this weekend, until I hit the pavement on the bike....hew about next weekend?  I have my mom in town for the week and I want to get her on some Almanor fish if I can...

Now is a great time for targeting rainbows in mild weather.  I heard that Hamilton Branch is also fishing very well right now where it flows into Almanor, though I haven't been over there yet this year.  It tends to get more pressure than the Feather, but it also tends to hold more fish.  I'll be around this weekend, if you wanna fish  .

Awesome report as always Clayman!

My kind of fishing! Thanks for the report and pics!

Very nice, living so close to a river must be awesome, very jealous. I've neglected the streams this summer, I need to get out. Seeing the Oct Caddis larvae is really getting the juices going. Guess I'll head north somewhere soon. Do you fly fish? I'll send you some nymphs I tie that resemble the OC larvae, they would kill there. Easy to tie, just 3 materials...

That was a great, thoughtful report.  Thanks, I learned something............those are the best kind of reports.

nice report brings back some old memory's nothing but good times 

Thanks for the props guys!

thanks for the quality documentation and report. Have you paddled that stretch of river?

Nope, haven't taken the 'yak around the river mouth.  Mostly because there isn't a real close launch site.  I wouldn't take a kayak down the river since you can just wade across at most points.  I'd feel a little silly paddling my 12 foot Ocean Kayak in there  .

Very nice, living so close to a river must be awesome, very jealous. I've neglected the streams this summer, I need to get out. Seeing the Oct Caddis larvae is really getting the juices going. Guess I'll head north somewhere soon. Do you fly fish? I'll send you some nymphs I tie that resemble the OC larvae, they would kill there. Easy to tie, just 3 materials...

Actually I'm planning on bringing my fly gear out the next time I venture to the river mouth.  I prefer spinning gear in the river since a lot of the fishing is in tight quarters.  But the mouth is very open and looks perfect for fly gear.  I'm a newb when it comes to tying flies, I feel good when I tie a decent glo-bug!   I wouldn't turn down an October caddis imitation, I'm sure they'd rock.  That'd be awesome dude!

Liked this report and ones you did in the past so here's my go to caddis larvae pattern. Just adjust size and color and you could fish any caddis stream. PM me and I will send you a few to try and tell you how to tie them although it's super easy there is a trick. Wade and high stick nymph and you should easily out fish spinning gear when they are keying on caddis larvae. I use this as a searching pattern too with another attractor nymph like PT, prince,dark lord or copper john, fish will eat this year round.

Looks even better when wet.

Another great report, Chris.  I'd love to get up there some day.