Sacramento, CA area

[Royce]

My wife would like to plan a trip to California this summer probably around the first part of July. We would be staying somewhere in the Sacramento area but will be traveling to various other areas as well. The wine country, SF/Oakland area for a baseball game. And, of course, some fly fishing.

Any suggestions for where we should look to fish? Looking mostly at stream fishing for trout. Traveling a couple hours from Sacramento to get to a nice trout stream will be very doable.

My brother-in-law will probably be joining me for this fishing. He is a very inexperienced fly fisherman but is a quick study. I have no doubt he will be very capable by the time our trip comes around. Something with relatively easy access and not to technical of water would be best, I think.

So, where do you suggest we head? I've done some looking around the internet for ideas but California is a big place and I just get confused. Thanks.

[whatfly]

Quite a few fisheries within a couple of hours of Sacramento, although we've had such a dry winter, very hard to say what will be fishing well by July. For early July, I'd probably head for the Truckee area which is just about 2 hours east of Sac, and an easy drive. Lower Yuba is a bit closer (east of Marysville), but I've no idea how it'll fish. North Fork of the Yuba might be in pretty good shape at that time (area around Downieville). The East Carson (Markleeville) is a bit outside your range, but might be OK as well. Finally, if you want to try a drift boat trip, and add another hour to the drive, the Lower Sacramento near Redding should be worth a shot.

Considering that you have some lead time, I'd make a point of calling around the local shops now, and again when the date approaches. Kiene's Fly Shop in Sacramento (http://www.kiene.com/), The (Redding) Fly Shop (http://www.theflyshop.com/), and Tahoe Fly Fishing Outfitters (http://www.tahoeflyfishing.com/) would be my choices for information on the areas mentioned.

Good luck.

[cmcculloch]

Kiene's Fly Shop also has an active forum divided to the type of fishing you are intested in reading about - trout, steelhead, warmwater, shad, stripers, and stillwater. It's a pretty friendly board most of the time - - http://www.kiene.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=25

[planettrout]

At that time of the year, I would second whatfly's suggestion to head up to the Truckee area...the central valley can get real hot. Here are some links one can peruse about the Truckee River and surrounding waters from some guys who know their stuff:

Ralph Cutter's site:

http://www.flyline.com/places/truckee/

Greg Vinci's site:

http://california-flyfishing.com/Truckee.htm

...and a great overview of the entire Sierras from Steve Schalla:

http://stevenojai.tripod.com/

The East Fork of the Carson, below Markleeville is one of my favorite spots to be at that time, but one needs a 4X4 to get down into the remote spots in the canyon...


PT/TB

[Dave E]

Hello Royce,

You can spend a warm July night taking in a great baseball game in one of the minor leagues best parks, right in Sacramento.

http://www.milb.com/index.jsp?sid=t105

We also have some pretty good wineries just a short drive east of Sacramento in the gold country.


When you get the fly fishing portion of your trip a little more organized, shoot me a p.m. if you want to discuss the less publicized day trip options and specifics from Sacramento.


Good Luck, Dave

[Royce]

Thanks for the tips, everyone. I was already leaning toward the Trukee River. Might wait a bit before we make any definite plans to see how the spring weather works out.