The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

Each time we fish we should learn something, regardless of how insignificant or seemingly unimportant. My most recent trip with Carpy and Oldtrout at the Bidwell Ranch was a perfect example. This report contains NO fishporn, so if you are looking for pictures of big fish, or even small fish, you are out of luck. Kind of like we were when our expectations were crushed. Again, the fish were smarter than we and proved it again and again, for four straight days.



Carpy and I arrived on Monday late afternoon. After setting up the trailer and watching the fish for a while we had a good dinner of some homemade Minestrone Soup accompanied by some French bread and root beer. The next day dawned bright and sunny and Carpy roared out of bed at an early (for him) 8:45 am. After coffee and breakfast we headed out fishing. The fishing was tremendous. The catching was a bit lacking. Remember all those flies I tied for this outing when I was obsessed??? Well, most of them will wait until late spring, next year. There was an excellent hatch of Callibaetis but the fish were not keying on them. However, they were regularly sipping midges and midge clusters. Leave it to say, I had not tied any of those patterns. We finally keyed on to what the fish were taking on the third day, being stubborn and not believing that they could leave all those mayflies float away unharmed. They did take a PT on a floating line with a slow strip retrieve occasionally, but you had to put the fly almost on their nose to get a take. Lunchboy, aka: Oldtrout, finally showed up late in the day on Tuesday bearing our long lost lunch, so I fed him a little leftover soup and then started dinner while he and Carpy fished the close pond. That night’s dinner was Oxtail Stew, mashed potatoes, salad, and a pretty decent Chianti. After dinner, Oldtrout got the dishes done and we joined together at the campfire to tell stories. Carpy has heard most of mine so I regaled Oldtrout with some repeats. He told really old bad jokes in return.



Oldtrout doing after dinner dishes. Rule of camp is that the cook doesn’t do dishes, thus I cook a LOT!

The next day found us still at it. Oldtrout hooked a few fish, I hooked a few fish, and so did Carpy. Nice fish that fought pretty well. We did find the fish would take pt’s under an indicator on one of the ponds and had some fairly steady action in the evenings with that. Dinner that night was Saucy Pork Chops over rice with salad. It was accompanied by a really bad red wine, pictured below, that was touted at the general store in Shingle Town. Don’t buy any, you’ll regret it. Locally made and smells of logger under arms. We had to follow it with Cheesecake and some Rootbeer of various vintages.





Out again the next morning. Oldtrout and I again beat Carpy up by about 2 hours. The man likes to sleep in but I have to admit there isn’t much going on early in the morning. This photo was snapped while we enjoyed coffee. Paul is showing the effects of two glasses of the Redneck Red from the evening before:







Thursday morning was a little overcast, raising my hopes for a better take on mayflies. Fond hopes are often just that. I did get into fish with some #24 Griffith’s Gnats and with some #16 bead head PT’s. I gave the fishing for the evening “hatch” to tie some flies and prepare a dinner of abalone steaks, salad and noodles alfredo, and cheesecake. The evening ended at the fire, where, although the fire goddess was absent, Carpy did a fine job of keeping our flames tended and providing some light and warmth. The rest of the warmth was provided again by various vintages of Rootbeer….very very good Rootbeer.







Friday was the last day for Carpy and I. I had tied up two variations of Griffith’s Gnats, light and dark. The fish liked them and Oldtrout gained confidence each time one inhaled his imitation. I had also tied some special #32 parachute gnats. I fished these on a long tippet ending with 9X Varivas tippet. I had five takes and hooked two fish. I had them on momentarily. Seems my 9X might have been a bit old, like maybe 8-9 years old. I will have some fresh 8X Frog’s Hair the next time I try this. The fish took the little flies with no hesitation but getting the hook set was difficult because of the very small gap. It was fun!!! The following is a photo of the Bidwell Ranch from the rim on the North end. The pond in the bottom of the picture is Pond #4. We didn’t fish that. You can barely make out the water in the far upper reaches of the South Side of the ranch where we stayed in fished Ponds 1 and 2.







Lessons learned:
(1) Plan on enjoying your morning coffee accompanied by snores when fishing with Carpy.
(2) Don’t buy local wine in Shingletown.
(3) Always have plenty of really small flies tied when fishing, and have them with you.
(4) Buy more really good grade Grizzly Necks.

(5) And, last but not least, be sure the tippet material you bring is not old.

Tight lines all. Hope you are getting out and fishing. Duck season is beginning and I will be cutting back some on my fishing but still have to hit steelhead and Eagle Lake trout. Reports will follow. Keep some reports coming on your fishing. This board is not dead.

I learned something...

Some people (well at least one person) can not only tie size 32 flies, but can stick some nice trout with them too.

Show off!

You hooked them with the #24's...not much different with the 32...and you could tie them if you tried.

Great report Charlie,you guys camp and eat in style,except the yunky wine,FYI that river east of me fished well last week,fish are now in full spawn mode I only targeted risers down low in the system (just above the hot springs),I'm done over there until spring,hard freeze last night getting cold for these old bones

Great report Charlie, sounds like you guys had a great trip.

About 8 years ago, I won a weekend trip to Bidwell through a raffle with the board here. My wife and 2 girls, who were about 3 and 6 at the time, had a great weekend there. What a beautiful place, and amazingly tough fish to hook up on. We did manage some really nice fish though. That is a special place.

You are completely right, it is a special place. I'm glad you had the chance to experience it at least once. I wish everyone here to get that chance.

So if your root beer was as old as those 9x leaders, I suspect all was not lost. And I certainly agree with your wine review. I like to buy local so I had to try some Redneck Red. Not impressed. I have since convinced myself that Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino qualify as local when it comes to wine. And New Zealand and Australia may not be exactly local.....but its good to be neighborly!

I have heard lots of good things about Bidwell Ranch (mostly on this board). Do you have to be a member to get in or is possible to buy a daily permit?

I take it you are still in Ukiah and not Spokane?

Still in Ukiah..house prices went down so instead of selling at less than it's worth we decided to stay for now.

You have to be a member to make a reservation to fish Bidwell but there is always hope that some of your friends would be happy to have you as a guest. I don't think I'll be going up again until Spring...duck hunting and steelhead fishing will keep me busy.

Steelhead and ducks make for nice alternatives.

I have always enjoyed your posts.....both fishing and hunting. You set the example for how to retire properly. I am retired now (after 34 years over a 37 year span with the Forest Service), but I still have a ways to go to live up to your retirement example.

There is still some fishing to be had here in Plumas County, and I have taken to collecting mushrooms too. But I also have a part time job which can get in the way. (At least part of the job is writing the weekly fishing report for the local newspaper.....it requires field research!)

Anyway.....Thanks again for the report.

Did you get my PM???

I did. Reply on the way. Thx