The much anticipated August 1st re-opener of the Top Section of the Lower Sacramento River here in Redding, CA has been pretty darn fun. It's been nice to float under the Sundial Bridge once again and have that option to float here in town. It was crowded on opener but then the crowds seemed to dissipate as the days wore on. The water temps have remained very cold (mid 50's) and the wild rainbow trout are fat & healthy. See pics below...
(Images: The Jeff & Sean Martin show... Always a fun time with this family along with their crew of friends, Brenden, Bart, Bert, Chad... it's a handful but always a good time)
(Images: Brad the Stick showed up next and he put the hammer down. On day #2 he was unstoppable. We enjoyed a relatively quite river... a lot less people out and somewhat clearer skies, smoke wise. More on the local fires below)
(Images: Kendall and her father, Tim, travelled up from So Cal to enjoy a few days floating the Sac River last week. We had some pretty gnarly smoke on a couple days but that didn't slow us down much. We saw some of the biggest trout of the week with many fish in the 18" - 20" ++ range. These fish are getting smart though and it takes having your finger on the pulse to consistently hook them... and a little luck, too!)
I currently have these dates open:
August 27, 28, 29 (Sat & Sun) 30, 31 September 7, 8, 9, 13, 16, 17
Visit www.reeladventuresguideservice.com for more information and contact
Having the Sacramento River back open up top does give us a great option to fish for big rainbow trout the rest of summer and especially going into Fall Season. The entire L Sac river is fishing well, however, and I think things are shaping up to be a good rest of August and September. The early fall run Chinook are beginning to show up in the lower river below the Barge Hole. There have been a lot of BIG 25-30lbs salmon caught this week! The salmon guides I've talked with seem pretty stoked so far in their season - which opened up just a few weeks ago. October egg bite is just around the corner for you trout fiends...
September I will be splitting my time between Pit River and Fall River and Lower Sac with some days on the Trinity if the fires situation gets under control. See below...
*Side Note...I talked with the Salmon counting crew (the boat carcass crew) one morning and they informed me that the winter-run Chinook salmon seemed to have a good spawn this summer in the Posse Grounds area... they counted 3,000 more spawning fish this summer than last, which was another decent run. Against all odds and all the grim reports there are... this is encouraging news! These are the fish that spawn in the April-July timeframe and the reason the Top few miles of river close to all fishing. It may not mean much in the big picture (these fish are imperiled) but it seems as though 2018 recruitment may have been decent. Remember 2018 was that big winter year when the Sacramento River went to 80,000cfs. (Yes, that's eighty-thousand-cubic feet per second flows) These fish were probably spawned that summer or the summer after 2019. All the more reason to do a rain dance this winter. These fish need it ... and CA residents desperately need another big water year with lots of snow and rain!!!
Now, the local wildfires report. The Monument & McFarland Fires are burning directly to our West (Trinity County) and mega Dixie Fire is to our East about 1-2 hours away. These are the biggest "local fires" along with the Antelope Fire to our north near Mt Shasta. Honestly, by the time I write this the updates will be out dated (the Dixie Fire has grown as much as 20k acres overnight many times this week). You can google those names for latest updates.
The wildfire that is particularly concerning to me is the Monument Fire which is burning up the Trinity River drainage. We spend much of our time steelhead fishing in the winter season and salmon fishing in the summer on this river. The Trinity is one of my absolute favorite rivers and it's very special to me. The region is no stranger to wildfires as it sees lots of forest fires every summer. I have many friends that live over there and my thoughts are with them and their friends and neighbors during this very stressful time.
Much has burned in the Big Flat area and there's been a lot of damage to the river raft outfits that operate in that area. I know that Straw House has survived the fire as of 8/15/21. So far, the Junction City area has been pretty well protected with fire crews putting in a lot of work keeping it out of the most populated areas (it's burning in the hillsides all around JC though). The next few days will be critical with the forecast calling for increased wind. The areas in the southeast portion of the fire... upper Conner Creek, Big Creek and over towards Soldier Creek are concerning. So far, Weaverville is ok as the crews have really dug in on the west side of Oregon Summit... but these next few days will be critical and I know that the fire crews that are on the ground and in the air are doing everything they can do to get control of this fire.
