Last week...

Wow talk about weather all over the place...wind, rain, hail, thunder, lightening, and a tornado...Yes a tornado touched down south of chico and tore the heal out of a barn and a few miles of Almond and Walnut Orchard. Crazy. I have spent the last week chasing shad around on the Lower Sac outside of chico and some days have been good some days have been terrible. The fish are there and if we could get some consistent warm weather I think the fishing would be great. That said most of the fish we have been catching are large females so quality vs. quantity is a nice thing at times.

The river is high at 14500 outside of chico and the clarity is about 2-3'. Nice brown color but then if you stick your rod or hand in the clarity is pretty good. Wind has been an issue but can lay down in the evening making shad fishing OK. Water temps are cold. At Red Bluff it is 55 and I imagine with all the cold water coming in from tribs the temps are not warming up much with the cold nights and days we have been having. This doesn't bode well for small/large mouth, carp, and striper fishing. I haven't seen one bass bed in the sloughs or creeks yet though I have seen some small schools of fry swimming around. I can't figure the bass out with all these weather changes. Striper fishing has been spotty. I know some bait guys are getting a few but haven't heard of any fly guys getting any around chico. Forecast is for rain tues and weds but 84 and 88 on saturday and sunday so I am crossing my fingers for some warm weather.

Lower Yuba is slowly creeping down and has been actually fishing well. Flows are down to 4400cfs and I know a few guys that have been floating the river and catching some good numbers of fish. I have yet to get out there but will in the next week to see how things look. Clarity is great from what I hear but if you go flows are high so be careful wading.