California Winter Fishing
Winter fishing in California can be an exercise of extremes. One March day you may be wearing shirt sleeves and sunblock on the lower Sac and fishing little Blue-winged Olive imitations under strike indicators, and the next day you may be wearing an impossible number of layers to ward off blowing snow while you strip leech imitations through a small lake with sinking lines. This diversity offers something for everyone.
Winter is a great time of year to fish California's Trinity River near Redding. Large browns feast on steelhead and king salmon eggs and browns and rainbows rise to PMDs in December and January.
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Baum Lake
Baum Lake is located near the town of Burney, 50 miles east of Redding. This wintertime favorite of mine is a PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric) lake that is formed from the flows of Rising River and Hat Creek. The lake starts with flow from the Hat One powerhouse at the top of the lake. Then the flows are run through the dam at the bottom of the lake through a cement aqueduct into another powerhouse that forms the legendary fly-fishing water of Hat Creek.
Since Baum is a tailwater lake, it has a constant flow of water that makes it much like fishing a big spring creek. Float tubes and prams are the first choice of regulars, but there are plenty of shore-fishing opportunities. No gas motors are allowed on the lake.
If you can see fish rising on Baetis or midges, look for fish in the deep channels and on the edges of weedbeds, as you would at other times of the year, and also near various stream and powerhouse inflows.
For midge-feeding trout, I use a selection of #18-22 olive, black, and gray midge pupae imitations. I also carry some cluster midge patterns such as the Griffith's Gnat and some Trailing Shuck Midges.
Baetis mayflies are abundant in Baum, and my favorite imitations are HBI Nymphs #18-20, Mercer's Poxyback Baetis #18, and Barr Emergers #18-22. I imitate the adults with BWO Silhouette Duns and A. K. Best's quill-bodied Paraduns.
Leech and scud imitations round out a Baum Lake fly box. Small (#10-14) olive and black Janssen Marabou Leeches, Kaufmann's Mini Leeches, and sparsely dressed Woolly Buggers (#10-14) are all great choices. For scuds, I use olive, orange, and tan scuds (#16-20) such as the Flashback or Befus Epoxy Back Scud.
Weather conditions and water levels can change overnight on Baum. If you're driving any distance, call ahead. Baum Lake is open year-round.
Shasta Lake
Shasta Lake, a huge man-made reservoir with large populations of fish, lies just north of Redding. The lake is home to rainbow and brown trout; landlocked king and Kokanee salmon; smallmouth, largemouth, and spotted bass; sunfish; catfish; and even landlocked sturgeon. This diversity of fish species makes Shasta a real wildcard place to fish, but during the winter I fish mostly for trout, finding good numbers hanging out around the dam area and the mouths of small streams that run into the lake.
On Shasta, you can fish from a float-tube or pontoon boat and catch plenty of fish, but I prefer to walk the shoreline searching for schools of trout and the threadfin shad they feed on. Since Shasta's water is stored mainly for irrigation use in the Central Valley, the level of the lake is in an almost-constant state of change. Typically, winter storms cause the water to rise until spring agricultural demands cause the lake level to drop.
Shasta Lake trout dine on a steady diet of threadfin shad and midges during the winter. I have found a variety of threadfin shad imitations to be the best bet for consistently catching trout. I carry medium- to fast-sinking density-compensated lines in addition to my floater, so I can find the level at which the fish are feeding. Because fish can become selective to size, I carry several sizes of the Burk's Hot Flash Minnow Shad (#2-6) and the shad version of the Stanley Streamer (#2-6).
Midges hatch profusely during the winter and when the trout aren't eating shad, they will usually grab a midge pupa imitation. On Shasta, I use #14-18 midge imitations in black, gray, and lime green. I usually use a simple dubbed body midge with a pearl Krystal Flash rib and a peacock-herl head. I'll often tie them with a small silver or gold bead head so they sink more quickly and have additional flash.
I usually fish my midge imitations with a floating line and a small foam strike indicator set from 3 to 7 feet above the fly. I constantly experiment with depth until I start catching fish consistently. Fish rising to midges are fairly easy to fool with a #16-18 Griffith's Gnat.
Putah Creek
Only an hour's drive from San Francisco Bay, Putah Creek is the tailwater fishery below Lake Berryessa. Proximity to the Bay Area means that Putah receives plenty of angling pressure and the fish can be difficult to catch.
From mid-November to April, Putah Creek is managed as an artificials only, catch-and-release fishery.
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During the general trout season in California, which starts on the last Saturday in April and runs through November 15, Putah Creek is open to all angling methods. From the close of trout season to the opener, it is managed as an artificials-only, catch-and-release fishery. I never go there during the general trout season but make a few pilgrimages there each winter. The fishing has always been best for me during January and February, but Putah can easily become a muddy mess with winter rains, so I always try to go before or after winter storms roll through the area.
The most important winter hatches on Putah Creek are midges and Baetis mayflies. I've had limited success with drys here, so I fish mostly with small midge and mayfly subsurface imitations and a yarn indicator. I use #18-22 HBIs; #18-22 black, olive, and brown WD-40s; #18-20 Disco Midges; #18-22 Zebra Midges; and #18-20 Mercer's Poxyback Baetis. Long 6X or 7X fluorocarbon tippets will increase your odds of catching fish. Fish these flies at the heads of pools and riffles.
Orange Tag Peacock
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Two other tactics that are effective on Putah are fishing small (#12-16) orange or pink egg imitations under indicators, high-stick-style in the tailouts of pools, or stripping a black or dark olive leech or Woolly Bugger (#10-14) through slower pools on an intermediate sinking line.
The Trinity River
Located 35 miles west of Redding, the Trinity River has a well-deserved reputation as a great steelhead fishery during the late fall and winter months, but it is also home to some large brown trout.
With spawning king salmon and steelhead in the river system, standard egg patterns such as the Glo-Bug and Pettis Unreal Eggs are effective patterns for these browns when fished dead-drift in the deep runs. I fish small egg imitations (#10-12) tied on heavy-wire hooks such as the TMC 105 or 2457. If you don't use a good stout hook, you may lose the brown trout of a lifetime and have only a twisted piece of metal to show for it!
Size 6 Muddler Minnows, Stanley Streamers, or a gold or silver Burk's Bullethead Streamer are my favorite streamers on this water. Giant, brightly colored streamers have never worked nearly as well for me on the Trinity. The Aggravator Nymph in Hare's Ear and black (#6-12) has been a real fish catcher for me on the Trinity. I like to dead-drift them under a yarn indicator or fish them down and across, wet-fly style.
The Trinity has a unique hatch of Pale Morning Duns from about the end of December through the end of January, although some years they'll hatch as late as February. It is truly a thrill to cast small drys to freely rising brown trout and steelhead-especially at this time of year. The Trinity's PMDs are typically a light creamy orange shade as adults and rusty brown in the nymphal form. They are best matched with #16 imitations. For the nymphs, I use Burk's HBI Nymph, Mercer's Poxyback PMD, and Pheasant Tails. For adults and emergers, I use Burk's Silhouette Dun in Creamy Orange and Quigley's PMD Cripple. The Trinity is open until the end of March.
Other Spots
I've only scraped the surface of the trout fishing California has to offer. The lower Sacramento (see FFM December 2002) is a terrific tailwater fishery that runs through downtown Redding, and it is populated with lots of big rainbows in the 16- to 20-inch range.
Jamie Lyle releases a winter Yuba River rainbow.
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Located east of Sacramento, the Yuba River hosts salmon, steelhead, and rainbow trout. Since the Yuba is an easy drive from Sacramento, it gets a lot of angling pressure. This fact aside, the Yuba is a tremendous fishery with consistent hatches including Skwala stoneflies, March Browns, and Baetis.
My favorite section runs from the Highway 20 bridge upstream to Englebright Dam, and it is open from December 1 to August 31 for artificials-only, barbless-hook fishing. Indicator nymphing is extremely productive, especially later in the winter, when fish begin to dine on the river's population of caddis, mayfly, and stonefly nymphs. The Yuba is a demanding river to wade, so I recommend studded wading shoes and a staff to negotiate the tricky wading.
Yuba River rainbow trout.
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The lower Owens River near Bishop has fairly regular afternoon Baetis hatches through the winter and early spring. The lower Owens special-regulation water (flies and artificial lures only) is from the artificial spawning channel located just shy of a mile below Pleasant Valley Reservoir downstream, approximately 3 miles from a Department of Fish and Game sign. There is a campground nearby and reasonably priced motels in Bishop, and it is approximately 50 miles from Mammoth Lakes ski area. The upper river below the dam is another good spot to investigate.
Well, that wraps up a few of my favorite winter trout angling opportunities in California. I hope to see you out on the water this winter while others sit at home dreaming about fishing.
Andy Burk is a columnist for the California Fly Fisher and works for Dave's Reno Fly Shop. He lives in Reno, Nevada.
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