The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

Get to the water a bit early and rigged up with a size 20 BWO on 6X. Sat on a comfy rock for about 15 minutes before I saw the first rise.
Quickly three other fish rose, I sat up and started paying attention, but it got quiet again. It had been raining fairly hard when I left the house but since I hit the water it has been very light. A few more minutes go by, and then I see a few BWOs fly by. Ah ha, it is starting, Rises scattered all across the run in front of me, I head for the edge of the water and pick out the first fish I will cast to. Wait, darn, it starts raining hard. The fish stop rising. Hum, that should not happen. Rain does not usually put down fish, as long as the hatch continues. But no matter what I thought, the fish had their own idea. So I waited, and waited, the hatch was still going, I could see good numbers of BWOs flying by. But no rises, so I wait some more. The rain stops, now we are in business, there are lots and lots of BWOs drifting down the run, and there are 10-15 fish working on them. I lay a cast out over the closest fish, no take. Quickly run a few more drifts over the fish, still no take. I wait for him to rise again but I seem to have put him down. Change targets to a fish a bit further out that has been working fairly steady.
Cast and drift, no take. Stop and wait for the fish, but he does not rise again. That quickly proves to be the pattern for the next hour. The fish are working, but so spooky it reminds me more of fishing Hat Creek than the Upper Sac. I change flies several times, add longer tippet, switch to an emerger pattern, nothing helps much. Soon as I get a drift over a fish he goes down. Once I move off to a new fish, the old one starts working again. I do not have any 7x to try. I have never needed it on the Upper Sac before. All too soon the hatch ends, the rises slow to just one every couple of minutes. I wade much further out into the run I have been fishing and spot a fishing working along a current seam, Cast to him and he takes on the first drift, Ha, that is the way it is supposed to work. Nice fish but I suspect, one of the smaller ones that were working during the hatch, get him to hand and he is a nice 13". I continue across the river and get on the gravel bar on the other side, and head upstream for a look around. I find a few more fish working the tail end of the hatch but have no better luck on them. Up to the top of the run and to the tail-out of the next pool up. Pretty close to the car, so I try to cross back over. No go, too deep, as I get turned around to head back to dry ground I see a huge swirl in the pool upstream about 100 feet. No way that was a fish. I get to shore and watch the pool for a few minutes, Yep, there he is - a river otter playing around in the pool.
Back downriver to my crossing point, taking a cast here and there to fish but no takers. Just above my crossing point, I see a couple of fish working. These are fish that I tried for earlier from the other side of the river, I figured I would see if this side would work better.
Suddenly up pops a head. Ah, that river otter came on downstream, Wait, another, and another, and another. It is a whole family of otters. Four in the group, they swim on by studying me carefully as they pass. I figured that would take care of any more fish rising but I wait for a few minutes just to see. Well, what do you know, the fish start working again. I cast to the closest one but cannot get the take. I extend the cast to the second and he takes it on the first drift. A short tussle and I get him to hand, another nice fish in the 13" range. It is starting to get dark so I cross over and get up on the tracks for the short walk back to the car. Darn tough fishing, looks like I am gonna have to go back there a few more times to get dialed in on the hatch.
Let’s see, I need a few new patterns and some 7x for the next time.