Show: The Fishing Show Station: KNCO File: 9:26.mp3 Air date: 2026-09-26 Source: OpenAI whisper-1 · shrunk from 98.9 MB to 12.4 MB --- transcript --- News Talk 830. The views and opinions of Denis Peirce do not represent those of ownership, management, and staff of Nevada County Broadcasting and KNCO. The KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report with Denis Peirce is a service of Craig Johnson Plumbing. Honest, reliable, and fair. Find them online at craigjohnsonplumbing.com. Betcha goin' fishin' all of the time, baby goin' fishin' too. Betcha your wife, your sweet wife will catch more fish than you. Many fish bites if you got good bait. Here's a little tip that I would like to relay. Many fish bites if you got good bait. I'm a-goin' fishin', yes a-goin' fishin', and my baby goin' fishin' too. I went on down to my favorite fishin' hole, baby grabbed me a pole and a line. Threw my pole on and caught a nine-pound catfish. Now you know I brought him home for supper. Time-proven. Many fish bites if you got good bait. Here's a little tip that I would like to relay. Many fish bites if you got good bait. I'm a-goin' fishin', yes a-goin' fishin', and my baby goin' fishin' too. My baby brother about to run me out of my mind. Say, can I go fishin' with you? I took him on down to the fishin' hole. Now what do you think that he did do? Pulled a great big fish out the bottom of the pond. Now he laughed and jumped, cause he was real gone. Many fish bites if you got good bait. I'm a-goin' fishin', yes a-goin' fishin', and my baby goin' fishin' too. Good evening, this is Dennis Pearce. We're here live on Fridays with the KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report. Usually this time of the year we have a NU football game afterward, but this week is a bye week. No game after the show this evening, but the minors will resume next Friday evening. Okay, we've got a couple interesting interviews this evening. First is going to be Jeff Goodwin, and I've been mostly focusing my salmon reports on the Feather River. Jeff primarily fishes over on the Sac, and we're going to talk about what's been going on over there. And then toward the end of the program, Tom Page is coming on, and we're going to talk about the egg bite starting on the lower Yuba River, which is a big deal for down there. Especially early on, the fish can be just suicidal for eggs, and we're going to find out what he's seeing for salmon and all that kind of stuff, but that's a little bit later toward the end of the show. Right now I'd like to thank our sponsors, Drs. Jerry Chan and his daughter Dr. Tiffany Chan. Together they are the Chan Family Optometry Practice, and they're located at 360 Sierra College Drive. If you're looking for quality family eye care, you cannot do any better than the Chan Family Optometry. They are strong supporters of the local community. Jerry used to play football for Nevada Union back in the 1960s. There's a ways back, but they're longtime residents connected to the community and exactly the kind of people you want to support. But Chan Family Optometry. Second sponsor is TrollingFlies.com, the home of Arctic Fox Trolling Flies. I tell you, it's Eagle Lake time. What we're shipping out this time in the last week, two weeks actually, has been almost exclusively Jay Fair stuff for people heading up for Eagle Lake. Eagle Lake has already begun to fish well. We had the equinox this past week. We are into more hours of darkness than daylight and things are cooling. It's about water temps and the water temps cooling off up there at Eagle Lake. We had Val Aubrey on, but if you're interested in, Val Aubrey did a sort of a seminar at the Eagle Lake Marina. It's been, I guess, three, four weeks ago, right, right around Labor Day weekend, beginning of the month. But if you would like to hear that, if you go to the website, TrollingFlies.com, front page, upper part is a link to a Facebook link that will take you to the recording of her seminar. And if you're interested in fishing Eagle Lake up there, she is just a wealth of information. So go to TrollingFlies.com, look at the top of the home page, you'll find a link there, click on that, and then you can watch it. And now you'll learn some stuff that you didn't know if you haven't heard it before. So TrollingFlies.com. Well, we're going to start off the show. I keep in touch with Mark Pilgrim. Mark lives up at Almanor. He's a bass pro. And last weekend he did a tournament at Don Pedro Reservoir, which is down the valley. I think it's actually below Stockton, but it's quite a ways down there. And what was interesting to me that I didn't realize, Don Pedro is the only major reservoir west slope below Sacramento that doesn't have the Quagga Mussel or the Golden Mussel restrictions. And you can just go down to Don Pedro and go fishing, which is why it has been really popular with recreational boaters and bass tournaments and fishermen. But one of Mark's comments was that those fish down there had been pressured. He said the bite was tough. They had seen a lot of stuff before that. He did okay on the first day, did very well on the second day, ended up in the middle of the pack, which suited him well enough for the overall standings for his competition season that he's doing down there right now. But Don Pedro, he fished two days before the tournament, and then he fished the weekend of the tournament. And on the four days, he had temperatures running from 74 in the early part. The last day he fished was 71. So there's a sliding scale there of the water temperature dropping down. He threw a lot of jerkbaits first off, and he was finding that at the top of five to 10 feet of water, there was a lot of small fish, one to 1.5 pounds that would hit jerkbaits, that kind of stuff. The bigger fish were down below them. And he said that structure is what he was looking for. And if he could find wood down there, he could find big fish on that. And he ended up with flutter spoons targeting directly on top of structure that he was identifying with his electronics. And that's what he was doing. But he said the fall bite on those southern lakes down there has not quite really gotten with the program yet because the water temp, as of last Sunday, was still in the 70 degree area. But he said he did find bait balls down there. And if you could find a bait ball, chances are that you would find feeding fish within the vicinity of that bait ball. But they are noticeable on the electronics. Since he got home, he has been fishing at Lake Almanor. Water temp at Almanor is 68, 69 degrees. The water level has fallen about six feet in the last two weeks. He was gone for almost two weeks getting ready for that tournament down there and that sort of thing. But he said the water dropped way down. The top water bite is good on the west side. The bait that's there on the west side, the water temp is cool enough that the predators, both the trout and the bass, will chase the bait. They're not, you know, laying around waiting for something to swim by them because the water is so warm and they're lethargic. No, he said the water is cooled off enough where these guys are chasing the bait. There, the trout tend to be out towards 15 feet of water, but his best supposition was that when they were in five or six feet of water, they had pushed a bait ball up towards the bank and were working over that bait ball is why the five to seven foot depth on occasion on the west side was really, really good. But he was catching both smallmouth bass. He's a bass guy. That's his target audience. But his bass baits were also catching rainbow trout. And actually, he said the rainbow trout were really good, you know, really fat and well fed fish, but a ton of pond smelt minnows up there right now. But Elminore is good and getting better for the bass and the trout. If you're looking for a destination up in the mountains, Elminore is a real good bet. We're going to take our first commercial break of the evening. When we come back, we're going to have Jeff Goodwin. The topic is going to be the salmon run on the Sacramento so far this year. We'll be back after a word from our sponsors. Rev up your weekend at the California Crossroads Car Show. Saturday, September 26th, the Crossroads Church parking lot comes alive with an incredible collection of cars and trucks from classic American hot rods and vintage muscle cars to European classics, newer rides, and everything in between. Whether you're a serious collector, a weekend gearhead, or just love checking out beautiful cars, there's something for everyone. Bring the entire family. General admission is free. Enjoy the cars, family-friendly activities, live music, kids zone, art show, great raffles, vendors, food, and more, all while supporting a great local cause, the Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital Cancer Center. Special thank you to our title sponsors, Grass Valley Provisions and Holtz Collision. Got a vehicle you'd love to show off? Cars and trucks of all years, foreign or domestic, are welcome, and registration is available online. It's the California Crossroads Car Show, Saturday, September 26th from 9 to 2 at Crossroads Church, 10042 Wolf Road in Grass Valley. Get all the details or register your ride at cccarshow.com. Looking for a meaningful way to lend a hand this fall? Since 1979, the Senior Firewood Program has helped keep low-income seniors in our community warm through the winter, and they need your help. Volunteers are needed to load firewood into trucks and trailers and deliver it to enrolled seniors, and if you have a truck or trailer, they especially need you. Just show up at 12270 La Barre Meadows Road in Grass Valley on Saturday, September 26th, October 3rd, or November 7th from 9 till noon. No registration is required. Bring your work gloves, bring a friend, and help make sure a local senior has a warm home this winter. Want to help on a regular basis? Volunteers are also needed Monday through Wednesday. For more information, call Gold Country Senior Services at 530-615-4541. That's 615-4541. A few hours of your time can make a winter's worth of difference. This is Dennis Pearce. We're back with the KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report, and welcoming him back to the program this evening, Jeff Goodwin from Jeff Goodwin Guide Service. Jeff, welcome back to the program. Hey Dennis, thanks. Good to be here. Yes, now you live in the Redding area up there, and your focus for salmon fishing is preferably the Sacramento River. Have you had to go over to the feather at all this year? You know what, we haven't. Oh good. Yeah, we've stayed on the sack the whole time. I'm not saying we shouldn't have earlier in the season, but we have a boat that's been fishing down there, and so we got our finger on the pulse of the fishery down there as well. It's fishing really good, but we have lots of fish up here now finally, so it's all good. I follow you on social media, and I saw that you started posting some nice-sized fish up there. Is it a trend that the feather, year in year out, not just this year, that the feather fish is earlier than the sack, or is that just a phenomenon for this year? No, I mean, logistically, of course, when these fish push into the Sacramento River system, they hit Verona first. They still have quite a ways before they reach the upper stretches of the sack here for this fishery. So yeah, they make that right turn, and especially if there's good flows in the feather during certain years, and there's cold water, we'll even lose a lot of our Sacramento fish into the feather just for that very reason. So yeah, they'll definitely get fish before we do. Okay. This year, did you get any fish at all early in the season? You know, late July through the month of August, was there any activity up on the sack? I mean, there were fish around, but absolutely the worst openers, both the July 16th opener and the August 1st opener above Woodson Bridge, you know, very, very poor numbers of fish, and there's a lot of stuff playing out right now that we know caused that. But yeah, it was really, really tough. I really kicked myself in the kneecap for, you know, booking trips as early as I did based on the hype that was presented, you know, as far as numbers and all that kind of stuff. Because I was aware of the number projections that, man, we're going to have a really good year, and I was expecting at some point that there was just going to be a full moon where just a huge number of fish came up. Have you gotten a big wave of fish, or is it just sort of a steady coming up the river system? No, just a trickle, a trickle at best. And for a long time, you know, that trickle is exhausted by moving fish. So you get a little bit of fish into certain areas of the river, you get, you know, little pulses of fish moving through, but they move through pretty quick, and in some sections, and not so much at all in other sections. But so what ended up happening was, you know, we're not sitting on a ton of fish right now. The barge hole should be absolutely stuffed with salmon. A lot of the fish are already pushing up into Battle Creek, so we're losing those fish. There's fish up above, you know, the barge hole, there's fish down below the barge hole, but, you know, nobody's out there, you know, seeing the kind of season that we like to see, you know, during this time frame, year after year. Okay, because we are virtually at the first of October, basically. And does your approach to how you fish for salmon change from September into October? You know, are you doing lures at one time and eggs on another? Where are you at for tactics currently? Well, yeah, you know, a lot of, you know, a lot of it has to do with water conditions, the amount of flow, you know, CFS that we have, as far as volume goes. That'll determine some of our clarity, you know, in the system. But typically, we really just restart down lower. Year after year, we start in the Woodson area, and we do a lot of, you know, boondogging or side drifting or bobber fishing. And time and time again, we went down there this year, and the fish just weren't there. And it turns out a lot of the fish, you know, stopped in sections of the river, you know, basically from Orland down to even Colusa. A lot of our fish now are trucked down below to Butte City and down to Colusa and released down there. And, you know, you can start talking about imprinting and stuff like that. And when those fish get released as small into the system, miles and miles and miles downriver, typically those fish are going to come back to those same areas where they smell that water and think that that's where their destination is. And for, you know, weeks and weeks and weeks, we had fish kegged up downriver, just a little bit out of reach for us. Driving two hours every day just wasn't, you know, something that we were prepared for each way. So, yeah. So, everything changed. Everything was different than the normal years. But we're back in our pattern. We're fishing plugs in the morning and we're fishing eggs later, you know, once the sun hits the water. And that's been productive. Okay. My observation has been that the water starts out real cold up in the Redding, you know, Shasta Lake area, and the further downriver it goes, it gets warmer and warmer and warmer. And my preconceived notion is that Corning, Woodson Bridge, that area is about the extent of the cool water that the salmon are liking. Does it extend further south than that? You know, it did this year. And that's another factor involved in this whole year being so, so different from all the other years. And we had the coldest water that I can remember this year up in the Barge Hole area. You know, our summertime water was 54 degrees in the Barge Hole. So, it was super, super cold. They released a ton of cold water. And that, you know, because we had higher releases because, you know, there were, you know, federal mandates to release more water to, you know, certain water groups down south of us. And so, we had, I think I was told it was like 4,500 CFS of water was delivered above the normal range of releases. So, what that did was it pushed a lot of cold water down south of our location. Woodson Bridge was 54 degrees, or Barge Hole was 54, Woodson was 56, 57 degrees. And a lot of those fish caked up in that first little bit of 60 degree water that we had down in Org Band, Butte City. So, yeah, that made a big difference this year. And that's not typically what we see. And we don't expect fish, you know, typically to stop down that far. But if there's cool water, just like the feather, it'll pull fish into those areas and they'll stop. Because that's what I was, I was looking for an explanation because I knew that there were guys on above Verona, you know, Knights Landing area that were catching some fish on the Sacramento River. And if they were catching them, the fish were on the move, and then they're not up where you're at. I did not have an explanation. And now I sort of understand why it might have been that way. But that is sort of an unusual situation. One thing that I don't think people this far in our region here understand the Barge Hole. Could you explain where it is, why it is, what's the allure of the Barge? I mean, it's one of the most famous salmon fishing holes on the Sacramento River. What's the deal with the Barge Hole? The Barge Hole is basically it's located adjacent to Battle Creek, where Battle Creek comes into the Sacramento River. The significance of Battle Creek is that our fall salmon hatchery, Coleman National Fish Hatchery, is located on Battle Creek, okay? The fish access the hatchery through Battle Creek from the Sacramento River. And it just so happens that the Barge Hole is actually a really, it's a 45-foot deep hole. It's been 50 feet in some years in the past. And so it's this giant area that holds a ton of fish in deep cold water, and they stage there, right? So they can sniff that Battle Creek water. In fact, a lot of fish, there's a 25-foot hole right in front of the creek, and they pile up there 10, 15, 20 feet thick and waiting for Mother Nature's signal to go up and enter the creek to go up and get spawned out by hatchery personnel. Generally speaking, you know, the last, there are already fish going up there now, but typically they start spawning those fish in late October, early November. Gotcha. So it is the staging spot for fish heading for the Coleman Hatchery. Yeah, I mean, if every single hatchery fish in the Sacramento River that originated from Coleman Hatchery were to return, they would be headed for that exact location. So I say, you know, clients a lot of times, they say, this is the closest thing you'll ever get to fishing at the actual hatchery. So it's just like that. Fish jumping all over the place, you know, airborne, you know, people, you know, catching fish, you know, ones and twos, threes, fours at a time. And it can be just a spectacle to say the least. Okay. Is there any shore access in and around the barge hole for somebody that isn't boat fishing? No, not really. There is downriver from us just a little ways. There's a place they call the gravel bar and the gravel bars would be your, you know, numbers wise, the equivalent of what, you know, the outlet on the feather kind of looks like only one side of the river, though. It's a much longer kind of a gravel bar. But a lot of people wait out there and they, you know, toss their Sacramento River flies out there, do what they do. And they catch a lot of fish there, actually, because there's, you know, thousands and thousands of fish are going to swim right along that stretch of the river and head up around the corner to the barge hole. Okay. We are up against our second commercial break of the evening. Our guest this evening is Jeff Goodwin from Goodwin Guide Service. We're talking about the Sacramento River. We're going to be back after a word from our sponsors. Start your engines, Nevada County. Grass Valley Provisions invites you to the fifth annual California Crossroads Car Show this Saturday, September 26th from nine to two at Highway 49 and Wolf Road in Grass Valley. Bring the entire family and check out an incredible collection of cars, art, food, raffles, and live music at this free, family-friendly community event. Best of all, it's fun with a purpose. All proceeds benefit the Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital Cancer Center, supporting quality cancer care right here at home. As title sponsor, Grass Valley Provisions is proud to give back to the community they call home with a commitment to local partnerships, responsible access, education, and the health and well-being of Nevada County. Cars, community, and a cause that matters. Free admission and fun for the whole family. Join Grass Valley Provisions at the California Crossroads Car Show this Saturday, September 26th nine to two at Highway 49 and Wolf Road. This is Dennis Pearce, host of the KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report. Drs. Jerry Chan and his daughter Dr. Tiffany Chan have been taking care of my family's vision needs for over 35 years. Is your vision not quite as sharp as it used to be? You might just need another prescription, or you could have a more serious eye condition. I recommend you have either Dr. Jerry or Dr. Tiffany Chan examine your eyes. Their family optometry practice is located on the ground floor at 360 Sierra College Drive in Grass Valley. That's the third building on the left as you go from the roundabout down toward Ridge Road. They are experienced doctors, they have an experienced staff, and they are a winning team. Around here, when there's work to do, we roll up our sleeves and get it done. Rental Guys helps you do it right. Tell us what you're tackling. From a weekend property project to a full-scale construction job, our local team will find the right equipment and keep your job moving. From excavators, skid steers, and lifts, to generators, concrete equipment, and yard tools, every rental is cleaned, inspected, and ready to work. Third generation and family-owned, Rental Guys has proudly served our community since 1959. We've grown to 13 locations, but our promise hasn't changed. Take care of our customers, stand behind our equipment, and help you finish strong. Visit 302 Railroad Avenue in Grass Valley or 2021 Live Oak Boulevard in Yuba City, or start at RentalGuys.com. Rental Guys, rent it right the first time. Life doesn't stop when you need surgery, but the right care can help you get back to it sooner. Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital offers robotic-assisted procedures that can improve accuracy and may reduce disruption to your body, which can help you heal faster to get back to living fully. Because progress in the operating room should mean progress in your life. Learn more at DignityHealth.org slash Sierra Nevada Surgery. Dignity Health. Hello, humankindness. This is Dennis Pearce. We're back with the KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report. Our guest this evening, Jeff Goodwin from Goodwin Guide Service. Jeff, one more point on the barge hole. Where is it relative to a freeway off-ramp on I-5? Because I-5 does not go along the river, and where's the barge hole? Yeah, it's off of Balls Ferry Road. Okay. And Balls Ferry is accessed by the outlets there, and Anderson Outlets off of I-5 there. The outlet stores? Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Okay, gotcha. So, yeah, you take the Shoes Road out, and you end up by Balls Ferry, and you take Balls Ferry all the way up to Ash Creek, and Ash Creek takes you right to the boat launch, pretty much. Or follow all the boats and trucks heading out there. Yeah, yeah. You know, it hasn't been too bad this year. We're really, really not seeing, you know, the boat pressure that, you know, we typically do, but it's starting to pick up a little bit now, and yeah, chasing taillights. Are you fishing above the barge hole at all, or is that off-limits? What's going on salmon-wise higher up on the river system? Well, you know, we fished up above the barge hole today, and there's a riffle above the barge hole, too, that's actually really good for trout and steelhead, and the salmon will lay up in there, too, when they're tired of being harassed down in that deep hole. But you can keep going. I saw salmon rolling, you know, all the way upriver, and a lot of them will overshoot the barge hole, and they'll run all the way up into Reading, and they'll go nose-to-nose with the Keswick Dam there, and so a lot of fish will end up that high in the system as well. But yeah, absolutely, you can fish for salmon up to Deschutes Bridge, which is in Anderson there, which is, you know, probably a good 10 miles, 7 miles from the barge hole. But it's most notably known for steelhead and rainbow trout above the barge hole area. Okay, because do you know that, do you know Tim Fox? He's a fly-fishing guy, drift boat guy, and yeah, I was speaking with him this afternoon, and he's been fishing over on the Trinity and the Sacramento, but up in and around the town of Reading, fishing for trout and steelhead, but he was saying that he was seeing quite a few, the numbers of salmon up there have increased markedly in the recent past, so yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, last year was great, and they're going to have a ton of salmon. You know, they don't all, you know, even, you know, these salmon, they'll only sit so many fish in one hole, and then they'll move to another one, or they'll drop back to the hole down below, and as the river, you know, loads with fish, it typically will load up above, and it'll load down below, and so not all these salmon are going to go back to the hatchery. A lot of salmon are going to spawn in the main stem, and also tributaries of, you know, Clear Creek, and Anderson Creek, and Cottonwood Creek, and, you know, just the list goes on and on. Great. If someone were interested in fishing with you, where do they, where can they follow you on the web? You know, social media is a great spot. Jeff Goodwin Guide Services on Facebook and Instagram, or jeffgoodwinfishing.com is our website, and, you know, that's a lot of information there about all the things that we fish for, and how you can get a hold of us, and get something set up if that's something you're interested in. Okay, one question I forgot to ask you. I know you fish Lake Shasta in the non-striper, non-salmon season. Have you heard anything about Shasta in the recent past? Yeah, yeah, I have a lot of friends that fish out there, you know, every week throughout the year, and so I'm always, always paying attention to what's going on out there, and, you know, the bait populations are super this year. The 60-degree water mark, actually, is almost, almost down to 250 feet, so you have to go, you know, 280 feet, I think, is where they mark the 53-degree water, and 100 feet is 70 degrees in water temperature, which is going to be a problem for our fall fish. They're running out of cold water. I've watched, you know, the river come up in temperature about, you know, four degrees this week alone, so, but the trout are deep. We got the spring derby, or a fall derby coming up for trout, and a lot of people are going to be paying attention to that. All I can say this year is fish deep. These fish are going to be really deep. The bait's deep. A lot of the bait's starting to come back up to the surface again, but the cooler water temperatures were in the, you know, the low 70s again on the surface, so look for that, and, you know, these, like always, you know, these trout are going to start, you know, migrating back up the arms, and a lot of them are going to go back to the boat launches where they were planted, and then, you know, even a little bit later on, we're going to start seeing a lot of these trout go back to the creek bowels and stuff to get ready to do their thing up there. When do you anticipate start guiding on Shasta again? You know, I'm hanging on to our, you know, late February and all of March time frame for the brown trout fishery. That's something, you know, I'm going to concentrate on a lot of river fishing this winter, but when we get into late February and March, I'm going right back to Shasta, and we're going to target those big trophy browns that we get every single year during those months. So, you're going to be targeting the rainbows and the steelhead in the Sacramento then? Yep, yep, and we have this, you know, salmon run that we have going on right now is our fall run. Beginning in November, our late fall run comes, and that lasts until the end of the year. So, I tell people mid-November through the end of the year, if you're interested in, you know, fishing in the cold weather and having a chance at a, you know, 30, 40, 50 pound king, that's a great time of the year. We also do steelhead trips same day on a lot of those instances. We call them combo trips. So, if the salmon fishing is a little slow, a lot of times we'll break off and then trout fish to finish for a day. So, it's a great trip. So, yeah, having an opportunity at two different species makes all kinds of sense. Jeff Goodwin, yeah, from Goodwin Guide Service, thank you for taking the time to be with us this evening, and always appreciate you having on the program. Yep, likewise, Dennis. Take care, Jeff. Can we go ahead and take our third break early? Yeah, I'm talking to my engineer, John August, here. We're going to do that, and when we come back, let's call Tom Page, and we're going to do a report from the lower Yuba. Things are changing on the lower Yuba for the better, and we'll be back after a word from our sponsors. Dad, have you seen how outdated our window treatments are? Yeah, we definitely need to do something about that. What are you thinking? I was checking out Budget Blinds of Grass Valley. They've got so many options. Blinds, shades, shutters, you name it. Sounds good. I wonder if they offer cordless options for safety. They do. They're all about keeping it safe, especially for younger kids and pets. That's important. And where are they located? Right on 310 Colfax Avenue. Plus, they do free in-home consultations. Can't beat that convenience. Perfect. Let's give them a call at 530-274-1122 and set something up. Explore a variety of stylish options, including child-safe and cordless solutions. Upgrade your home with Budget Blinds of Grass Valley, located at 310 Colfax Avenue. Or call them at 530-274-1122 to set up your free in-home consultation today. Transforming your windows. Transforming your home. Hey Captain, you read me? Captain Sam, can you hear me? On your left. Prime Cinema presents movies on the big screen as they were meant to be seen at Del Oro and Sutton Cinemas, showing through October 1st at your Prime Cinemas at the Del Oro Avengers Endgame Encore, rated PG-13, Forgotten Island, rated PG, and Resident Evil, rated R. Now let's check on the Sutton. Heart of the Beast, rated PG-13, and Practical Magic 2, rated PG-13, playing through October 1st at your local theaters. Now you know what's showing, be sure to enjoy a movie on the big screen at Nevada County's two Prime Cinema theaters, the Sutton and the Del Oro. This is Dennis Pierce. We're back with the KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report. I want to welcome back to the program Tom Page and a little bit of background. Salmon season in the Sacramento Valley theoretically opens on July 15th, and Tom is fishing the Yuba River more than anybody else down there. I call him every week and bug him and ask him how many salmon he's seen in the last week. It was a swing and a miss, I think, for most of July and August, but things are improving on the lower Yuba. Tom Page, welcome back to the program. Hey Dennis, thanks for having me back. Always appreciate it. Okay, when did you start noticing salmon? What, two weeks ago, three weeks ago? Yeah, yeah, we'll see. You know, I've seen it like one, two, three, four, you know, and then it just, we're not seeing a lot. We're just seeing, you know, probably in the last, this month alone, I've probably seen maybe two to three dozen salmon total. Okay. But we are starting to see some salmon spawning activity. We're seeing the reds being developed and no salmon sitting on them. The other day I saw two salmon sitting at the head of one of the reds, and that's about the only time so far that I've seen salmon on or near the reds. Okay, now the rules are that you're not allowed to fish for any species of fish above the high, from Highway 20 bridge up to Englebright, correct? Yes, that closed down on the end of August. Right, and so theoretically the salmon should be passing up the river and staging up in that zone where they're not getting any pressure. Yes, exactly. Okay, and today you told me that you saw some fish on red, in red stipe location, not necessarily digging them, but were they up at the Highway 20 bridge or was it further downstream? From basically the Highway 20 bridge down to, say, Long Bar, which is about halfway down the river. Okay, gotcha. And you saw fish in spawning type locations in that entire zone here and there? No, just the spawning reds, just the beds, not too many salmon today. I didn't see, I probably saw three, I think it was like three, maybe four salmon total today, but they are creating the reds. Okay, is it possible, is there adjacent deep water that you cannot see to the bottom for them to go up, mess around in the shallows, and then for the daytime get out of sight? Yes, there definitely is, and there's also some ripples where it's harder to see them as well, so they'll drop down in those deeper ripples and it's harder to see them in that as well. Okay, what I'm always looking for, the best fishing I've ever had down on that river in years past, has been the first major rainstorm that stains the river, you know, that stains Squirrel Creek, Deer Creek, get a little bit of color in that sometime in October, and then the glow bug or the egg bite just goes crazy. Has the egg bite started on the river, even without the prime conditions I'm describing? Yes, today, I was down there on Wednesday, fished some egg patterns, we got one fish on them, and I pretty much fished that egg pattern all day long, and only got one fish. Today, started with egg patterns and a couple nymphs, and the first 11 fish that we caught or hooked into were on eggs. Okay, so there's a major turnaround just within a few days. Just in a few days, yeah, and I'm seeing, I've probably counted double the amount of spawning beds, the reds, than I did on Wednesday. So, they're there, the salmon are somewhere, I just don't know exactly where they're at, but they are, they are scraping reds right now. Okay, because, I don't know, anecdotally speaking with you and others, that there aren't, there don't seem to be as many salmon in the Yuba River system as there have been in years past. No, not at all. Because I remember one year, Labor Day weekend, floating the river in a canoe, going down to where that old dam, the concrete abutments, where that old dam, that was the, that was the only sandy spot on the river that you could put a sleeping bag on and not be laying on cobblestones. Yeah. And I remember camping down there one night on Labor, yeah, it's Labor Day weekend, and they were rolling all night long. Oh yeah. Yeah, and there was all kinds of fish activity and stuff down there for the beginning of September, and in recent past, just the quantity and the earliness have not been there. No, not at all, not at all. You know, I've been fishing that river since 1985, and I've definitely seen a huge decline in fish on that river. It's, you know, unfortunately, it's like a lot of our rivers around here, it's the fall run salmon that really are doing better than the spring run salmon. Okay, gotcha. The, now the Department of Fish and Wildlife has been capturing salmon the last couple of years and trucking them up to the North Yuba, up above Bullard's Bar. Yeah, that's pretty sick. Yeah, have you any idea where they get those fish from? From what I understand this year, they've got them over at the Feather River Hatchery and put them in over there on the, up there on the North Fork of the Yuba. Okay, so they're not capturing Yuba fish, so to speak. No, so they're actually damaging the wild genes on the lower Yuba River once those salmon, if those salmon ever make it down to the lower Yuba. Okay, there's always controversy no matter what you get out there. Yep. But back to the trout slash steelhead there. Are, there are a resident population of those things there that are what, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 inches is the size range? Yeah, yeah. Have you seen any evidence of not, of migratory bigger fish this season? We've, we've hooked into a couple, today we actually hooked into a really big fish. We never got to really see it, but it was a big fish. It was ripping line up river and the guy just couldn't slow it down and unfortunately it came unbuttoned, but it was, it was definitely a bigger fish the way it took off. Okay, so yeah, I mean that's, yeah, but that's a really good sign there. Yeah, for sure. Are you seeing any hatches on the river that are noteworthy or is it just a sporadic type of thing? We're seeing sporadic caddis hatches here and there. And then in the mornings we've been seeing a tricot hatch. So fish are actually coming up and eating, eating small tricots. And we actually hooked some on, on Wednesday when we were down there we had fish coming up and eating small. We were actually throwing like a size 18 pinky, which is pretty popular down there. And we got fish to come up and eat that. So we probably got like five or six fish eating, eating those little tricots. Okay. Would you define what a tricot is? It's, that's a real buzzy word for the fly guys. The rest of the world has no idea what a tricot is. It's kind of like a itty bitty mayfly in a way, you know, very small, almost like midge like, you know, they're tiny. Yes. Because I remember them in, 18 is a big tricot, 20s and 22s are more of what tricots are in the wild, so to speak. And what never made sense to me was there's not just one tricot out there. There's usually quite a few of them when they're hatching. And how is it that you get a fish to eat a fake tricot when there's all these real ones and everything is so small? Yeah, it's tough, but it's fun. Okay. Well, do you think they see something a little bit bigger, like a double Big Mac? Yeah. I mean, like I said, we were throwing a little 18 pinky, which is, you know, on the smaller side of those flies that we fish and, and we definitely got fish coming up and eating them. If you, if you get it into the right lane, you know, they're going to eat it. And we've, we've picked up fish doing that. So where could you describe the water type where the fish were eating your pinkies and or the tricots? It's, it's mostly in the slow moving flats. So slow moving water. And the water that we picked them up in, it was probably about two foot, two to three foot deep water. And it was really slow moving water. Now that is a real technical fishery, correct? Super technical. Yes. Okay. Because if your line is too heavy or you don't get a perfect drift, the fish are going to give you that single fin salute, I think. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, it's been kind of a casting downstream and feeding line to the fish. Very stealthy type approach where any kind of drag or any non-natural presentation will spook those fish or shut them down. Okay. For years, when I used to be a fly salesman, the, the word on trout slash steelhead in the fall was eggs and legs. And yeah. And is that still the case? And could you explain the eggs and legs reference? Eggs are definitely eggs. I mean, anything that represents a salmon egg, and then legs is what we're basically a stonefly nymph, a rubber leg stone. So it's basically a chenille body with rubber legs on it. And that's kind of the, the most simplest way I can put it. And it's what, inch, inch and a quarter? It's a big bug, correct? Yeah. It's a big bug. Yeah. It's about an inch, inch and a quarter, size eight to size six hook. Yeah. So it's, it's a good, it's a good meal. Okay. But that is standard fare throughout Northern California when the, when the salmon are spawning and the rainbow and the steelhead are feeding. Yes, exactly. Cause the salmon are in there digging up, they're in the shallow riffley water. They're digging or the tail outs of the riffles, digging up the spawning beds, moving gravel around and dispersing those stoneflies. And right now it's been kind of stone, caddis and small mayflies that have been, been successful with those egg patterns. Okay. But when the salmon really start excavating the bottom is when the bigger bugs work better? Yes. All right. Well, Tom, thank you for taking the time to be with us this evening. If someone were looking for you on social media, how do they find you? Cause I know you post on Facebook and Instagram and that sort of stuff, but what keywords should they use to find you on the web? On Facebook, it's Tom Page, Tom Page. And then on Instagram, it's Real Angler's Fly Shop. And real is R-E-E-L, correct? Yes. All right. Well, Tom, thank you. And I do appreciate the heads up on the egg bites starting on the lower Yuba. That's always a big deal every fall, but that it started, that's all kinds of good news. Tom Page, Real Angler's Fly Shop. Thanks for being with us and look forward to having you back on the program again. Thank you, Dennis. Always appreciate it. All right. One other thing I wanted to get into briefly before the end of the show, talk to Tim Fox this afternoon. Tim is a fly fishing guide, drift boat guide, very similar to Tom, except his specialty is the Sacramento River Redding area, but over on the Trinity. And he's been fishing a lot on the Trinity. And my question to him is, are there steelhead in the Trinity? And he said, yeah, there's half pounders, number of half pounders out there within maybe one adult per day. If you go to the very top of the river is where I asked him, are there brown trout about? And he said, yeah, all the way up by Lewiston, up in there, there are some resident browns. But the other data point I was interested in is what is the salmon count look like? And he said, there are salmon everywhere. The, uh, starting about a month ago, they raised the water flows at a Trinity dam down the Trinity river from four to 500 is sort of normal flow, maybe three 50 to 500 is anywhere is the normal thing. They took it up to 1,100 and kept it there for a month. And the reasoning behind that is to cool off the mouth of the Klamath river. Trinity flows into the Klamath, then into the ocean and the lower Klamath can get really warm and they can flush it, you know, push more water through, drop it quite a few degrees down there by running water from the Trinity. And there's also, I think an Indian ceremony down there that takes place in that same timeframe, that water flow stopped or will stop this weekend. It's, uh, it's over for that high flow. We're back to the three 50, 400, 500 cubic feet per second. But the point is the, uh, that drew a ton of salmon up into the Trinity river and a lot of salmon coming up the Trinity with the egg bite and all that, like Tom was discussing on the lower Yuba, that type of a system is going on now over on the Trinity river. Uh, Tom was saying that there are quite a few salmon drift boat and drifting on rafts, salmon guides working the Trinity river. And he said, there are fish in most of the holes up there, especially toward the upper part of the river. So it's looking like a decent year. I don't know if it's going to be a bumper year, but it's a decent year for salmon on the Trinity. The Trinity fishes well for steelhead. The big adult guys start coming on in November. And then there are the biggest fish of the year come on in January. But the point is right now you can go over and shore fish salmon over there on the Trinity. It starts the 1st of September and I think ends December 31, but don't ever go salmon fishing or steelhead fishing anywhere where there's anadromous fish without checking the regulations. There's always something to slip up. And if you get busted, it's such a, it's a pain in the rear end to do, to deal with that. So always check the regs, but if you want to fish from shore and looking for a place that has a good number of salmon, Trinity River is a beautiful, relatively small river to fish over there. This is Dennis Pierce for the KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report. I will not be here next Friday evening. I'm going up to the Puget Sound to fish salmon in saltwater up there. We're going to replay the program from September 11th, I think it was, Justin Leonard discussing how he targets and finds spots to fish salmon on the Sacramento and Feather Rivers. It was an excellent program. If you didn't hear it, I recommend you listen next Friday evening. Thanks for listening. Good night. Now with two, we're just six minutes away from the car show on KNCO Grass Valley, Nevada City, 106.9 FM and 830 AM. It's six o'clock. --- end of transcript ---