Show: The Fishing Show Station: KNCO File: 10:31.mp3 Air date: 2026-10-31 Source: OpenAI whisper-1 · shrunk from 98.9 MB to 12.4 MB --- transcript --- 977-9706. Denis Peirce do not represent those of ownership, management, and staff of Nevada County Broadcasting and KNCO. But they are all true. 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. Bet you're going fishing all of the time, baby going fishing too. Bet 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 relate. Many fish bites if you got good bait. I'm a going fishing, yes a going fishing, and my baby going fishing too. I went on down to my favorite fishing hole, baby grabbed me a pole and line. Threw my pole on and caught a nine pound catfish. Now you know I brought him home for supper. Time-proofing. Many fish bites if you got good bait. Here's a little tip that I would like to relate. Many fish bites if you got good bait. I'm a going fishing, yes a going fishing, and my baby going fishing too. Good evening, this is Denis Peirce and we're live here on Fridays with KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report. And this evening we're followed by Nevada Union High School football. So exciting lineup for you this evening. Halloween tomorrow night and end of October. Sorry to see it go. I've contemplated on occasion having a crusade, so to speak, to get Congress and or the state legislature, they can do anything, to make October eight weeks long instead of four weeks because the fishing is so good in October. But with the way things are, we'll settle for some early November stuff and we'll still enjoy that really, really well. But the fishing out there is good. Let's start out the program by thanking our sponsors. First off, Drs. Jerry Chan and his daughter, Dr. Tiffany Chan. The Chan Family Optometry Practice is located at 360 Sierra College Drive. I just went in and picked up a new set of glasses there this week and they've got a lady there named Tammy, who's been working for 40 years or 43 years for the Chan Family Optometry. And I stopped picking out my own glasses and have Tammy pick up, you know, pick a few for me to choose from. But that lady knows what looks good on various shapes of human faces and gotten some really terrific glasses by relying on Tammy. But go to see Dr. to the Chan Family Optometry and ask them for Tammy to help you pick out your glasses. Second sponsor, TrollingFlies.com, a home of Arctic Fox Trolling Flies and Jay Fair Trolling Flies. And this year, the hot fly at Eagle Lake is the Jay Fair Hot Orange. Now, last year, the smaller number eight was it. This year, hands down, it's the number four. And if you go up to Eagle Lake in the next anytime, the fishing up there is excellent right now. But I just shipped a ton of orange flies to the Eagle Lake RV Park, which is over in Spalding over there. Because I think the the main store is closed there by the marina and stuff. But the fishing is excellent. The catching is excellent. The shore guys are catching fish and the boaters are out there doing it as well. I checked in with Tim Noxon and he said the only thing that would be better if the fish were a little bit bigger, because they're all running three to four pounds and a five pounder is what you write home about there at Eagle Lake. But if you want to get out and go trout fishing, dress warm. I mean, nights at Eagle Lake are cold. I didn't quite get a water temperature on the lake currently, but it fishes well down into the high 40s. And anyways, Eagle Lake, put it on your to do list and go from there. One other thing I found out about this week is at Bullard's Bar that has a new program over there with the houseboats, where they've got a houseboat that's entitled the Opal, where it is tied up to the dock with shore power to it. And it doesn't leave the dock. It stays right there. You bring your boat, you know, your bass boat, your fishing boat, whatever you're going to use there. But at night you can recharge your batteries and it's basically it's a floating cabin there. But it's a really nice houseboat with all the amenities and that stuff. And I have rented a houseboat years ago at Lake Oroville. And when the wind gets blowing, those houseboats are horrible to be responsible for. It's really hard to set them up on shore where they don't swing around and blow and that kind of stuff. And I thought this, I think it's called Fish and Stay is the program. But if you go to Bullard's Bar dot com, hunt around in there. I found it under FAQ, Frequently Asked Questions. But the Fish and Stay program, real interesting concept and a really, really, really good idea. Halloween, I have said for years, is the peak of the salmon spawn, particularly on the Yuba River on the Feather. Spoke with Tom Page this afternoon. Tom says there are spawning salmon from the Highway Bridge, Highway 20 Bridge, all the way down through Sycamore Campground, Sycamore Ranch area. And he said down towards Daguerre, he sees some scratching and stuff, but not really seeing paired up fish getting ready to spawn. But the higher up you are, the more fish there are. But overall, this year was a very poor, I don't know, very poor. But it has not been a good, strong run this year. This year is subpar. Hopefully enough return for next year will be even better. But I asked Tom if it was just a full on egg bite and he said no. He said that a guide trip with him is floating the entire river from Highway 20 Bridge down to Daguerre Dam. And he was saying that he's catching fish on eggs, they're catching them on mayfly nymphs, and they're catching them on caddis pupae, I guess is the proper term for it. And he's catching them right up behind the spawning salmon there at the tail outs to the pools. But the runs and the riffles, pretty much everywhere. He's fishing all types of waters, the point I'm trying to make. And doing well. The fish down there on a bite. And he said it's his opinion based on the size of some of the fish they're catching and some of the coloration to them, is that there are transient fish have moved in, in addition to the local population of rainbow trout slash steelhead that are there. But the point being that the fishing is very, very good down on the lower Yuba. And if you wanted to go spend an afternoon down there, or I don't know about going after work now that we're going to lose daylight savings time in the near future. But regardless, the fishing is good down on the lower Yuba. And it's worth your time to go down there and put in some time and fish down there in the real near future. Our guest on this evening's program is Mike Peace. I met Mike through the Gold Country Fly Fishers. But we're going to take our first commercial break of the evening. And we hope to have Mike with us as we come back from our commercials. For over 20 years, when Nevada County pipes have gurgled, dripped, rattled, or flat out rebelled, Craig Johnson Plumbing has come to the rescue. They're the honest, reliable pros who've seen every plumbing surprise. Yes, even that one. And still show up with a smile. From homes to businesses, big jobs to, please fix this before company arrives. They do it all. So when your plumbing misbehaves, call Craig Johnson Plumbing at 274-7275. Or visit them online at craigjohnsonplumbing.com. Election Day is November 3rd. Have you voted yet? If you haven't, now is the time to complete and return your ballot. Not registered? California's Conditional Same-Day Voter Registration allows eligible voters to register and vote through Election Day. Need help making informed decisions? The League of Women Voters of Nevada County provides nonpartisan voter information, including local candidate forums and information on state propositions, at lwvnevadacounty.org. You can also visit vote411.org for personalized information about your ballot, candidates, and voting options. Return your ballot at an official ballot drop box, a vote center, or by mail. If mailing, complete your ballot, sign the return envelope, and mail it at least seven days before Election Day. Don't put your ballot aside. Make sure your voice is heard. November 3rd is Election Day. Vote today. Your vote, your future. Paid for by the League of Women Voters of Nevada County. At Grass Valley Provisions, caring for the community also means caring for the place we call home. That's why Wolf Creek Community Alliance is their community beneficiary for November. Every Sunday throughout the month, a portion of Provisions proceeds will help support this important local organization. Wolf Creek Community Alliance is a volunteer-run nonprofit working to protect, preserve, and restore the Wolf Creek watershed. Through cleanup, water monitoring, education, and stewardship, they're helping keep this natural resource healthy for generations to come. When you shop Provisions on Sundays in November, it helps support that mission. Well-rooted in Nevada County, Provisions offers quality products, exceptional value, and knowledgeable service in a beautiful, welcoming environment. Adults 21 and over, shop online at GVProvisions.com or visit 403 Idaho-Maryland Road, open daily, 9 to 9. Grass Valley Provisions. Lift up your day. The Grass Valley Way. This is Dennis Pearce. We're back with the KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report. I'm glad to welcome to the program Mike Peace. I met Mike for the first time a couple years ago through the Gold Country Fly Fishing Club here in town. Mike is a guide. He lives in the cool weather, the warm weather months. He's up in the Sierra and generally living in the Quincy area. He winters down in the Sacramento area. Nice switch if you can make it work. Mike Peace, welcome to the program. Well, hello. Thanks for having me, Dennis. So, you are ending up your season in the high country? I am ending up my season in the high country, but before I start, can I give a shout-out to my wife, Diane, and my mother-in-law, Beth, for listening tonight? Wonderful. I enjoy having my listenership increased by my guests. That's great. Thank you. So, you're generally up in the Quincy area, correct? Yes. A Quincy, Gray Eagle area. Okay. Probably more Gray Eagle than Quincy, actually. All right. So, typically in the warm weather months, where are you fishing? Where are you guiding? Yeah, I'm guiding a little bit more than half of my time is on the Middle Fork of the Feather River, anywhere between Portola in the spring, actually, in March and April, all the way down to Nelson Point. And even sometimes backpacking in on a rare occasion on the Middle Fork of the Feather River. I do some on the North Fork of the Feather. I do some of the creeks in the area. And then about close to half of my time now is out on Lake Davis. Okay, because that's where I wanted to take the conversation, was there. But for those who don't know where Nelson Point is, could you define Nelson Point for us and what's significant about it? Nelson Point's significant. It's a pretty good-sized tributary, a spring creek. It's cold all year. And it's where Nelson Creek comes into the Middle Fork of the Feather River. And it's the beginning of what's called the wild zone of the wild and scenic Middle Fork of the Feather River. And back in the mid-1800s, it was known as one of the most lawless areas in all of the mining areas. Okay, now ball-less? Lawless. Lawless, okay. Murders and all kinds of crazy stuff. Okay, because I know of Nelson Point. It's where the road from Little Grass Valley Reservoir crosses the Middle Fork of the Feather River on its way to Quincy. I don't know if I'm thinking of it the same way you are. Nelson Point, for me, is where you take the Quincy-Laporte Road. Yes. Okay? And if you take that from Quincy, it'll actually come into the Lower Yuba right near where you live. Yes. But maybe about 15 minutes outside of Quincy, you drop down to the Middle Fork of the Feather River. That's called Red Bridge. And then a little bit further, you have another bridge crossing Nelson Creek. And I think that's where you're talking about. Right. But right around that area, there's a trail that follows Nelson Creek. And where Nelson Creek meets the Middle Fork of the Feather, that's what I understand as Nelson Point. One thing I noticed years ago was that they were talking, I think it was the Wild Trout Area in Northern California. Anyways, Nelson Creek was mentioned on that. And along with a lot of other waters around the state that were special catch and release. And I never could figure out why Nelson Creek was put on that program. But that it's cold all year round, I guess, is a good reason as any. Is that fishery exceptionally good? It is good. It's kind of hard to get to, though. Getting in and out of there can be tough. But it is. My wife and I just went to a meeting recently where they talked about there's a group called Friends of Plumas Wilderness that are trying to have other waters added to be wild and scenic. And there's a number of things about Nelson Creek. Historic. It's beauty. It's a great fishery. That would make it eligible to be wild and scenic. Okay. But that they would make it like that says to me that it's worth exploring and that it's that tough to get to is a pretty good indication that fishing can be good there from time to time. It can. It's super clear water, so it can be challenging. It can be very challenging because the water is so clear. Okay. Well, maybe we'll get into that next summer on a program. But what really piqued my interest in the conversations we've been having for the last couple of weeks is Lake Davis. And where are we at? When did you start guiding Davis this fall? Did you start in September, or when did you move your operation there? Well, actually, I typically start guiding it in the spring, like in April. Right. You know, April, May, June. And I even guided it July and a little bit of August. But August was really not very good. It started to pick back up in September, I would say, is when things started to improve. But the spring was very good as well. What kind of water temperatures does Lake Davis peak at in the hot weather months? Yeah. I was just looking at my notes, and the hottest I ever recorded it this last summer was on August 7th. And it was in the 72 to 73 degree range on the surface. Okay. I was expecting it to start with an 8, but a low 7. Okay. Yeah. Where are we at temperature-wise currently? Yeah. I was just telling you yesterday that I was just, when I called you, had the best day on the lake of the whole season yesterday. We probably landed about 22. And almost all of them are 18 to 21 inches and a couple break-offs, too. But yesterday the water temperature was 47. Wow. But 47 and your best day of the season, that's a good data point, you know, to just sort of keep in your hip pocket for Lake Davis, but also for other lakes at the same time. What's going on at Davis with the weed beds and that sort of stuff? I know that in the hottest time of the summer the weed beds can really come up a lot. Have the weed beds started to die off or to drop back down? What's going on with weed there? Yeah. Great question. So the weed beds are breaking apart. They can get in the way if you're streamer fishing and foul your fly. It can add to the color in the lake, but it certainly didn't matter. But the weed beds are definitely falling apart right now. Now, I know I remember a time when I was up fishing Eagle Lake and there were all these waterfowl birds, coots or something that was up there, that were diving and breaking off the grasses and stirring it up. And there was just vegetation all over the surface of the lake. Do you get that phenomenon at Davis? Yeah, we do. And it's funny. It seems like some days the vegetation that's on the surface is a big problem. And then maybe the next day, because of some wind, it blows it all to the other side of the lake or something and it's not a problem. So I encourage you to get out there. And you never know. Most days are good. Let's put it that way. Is there frost in the morning? What I'm getting at is how cold the temperatures are overnight lows at Davis. Do you know? Yeah, it was pretty cold the last few days out there. I would say I didn't notice frost, though it must have been just above freezing or at freezing. But there wasn't any problem. Definitely go with a jacket in the morning. Actually, have a jacket for all day because when that wind comes up, it's cold. Yeah, definitely. Many people out there fishing? Not many at all. It's pretty amazing, I think. I feel like sometimes I have my private lake to myself. Okay. Where are you finding fish these days? Are they over top of the weed beds, beside the weed beds? Give us a description of where it is that you're most successfully finding fish. Yeah. Kind of all over except the surface right now. So everything from right off the bottom in 24 feet of water to yesterday was a really unique day. I told you a while back that I did a still water clinic up in Canada with Bill Rowley and Brian Chan. One of the techniques I learned was booby fishing. Now, no one get mad at me for saying that because it's a type of fly that looks like something. Anyway, I was stripping the booby fly and, man, we were just nailing them yesterday. With the booby fly, it floats. You've got two bulbous little things that make it float, and then you use a full sinking line. So the full sinking line gets everything down near the bottom, and the booby fly floats above the bottom of it, and you strip it pretty aggressively back. Man, we got at least 10 to 12 fish on that technique. In what depth of water? We were in not very deep water. It was the lake's down a bit right now, so I'd say that was about a little over 10 feet. Okay. Because there is another nickname for that fly. They call it the Dolly Parton fly. I can see why. Yeah. That might be a little more PC. Maybe so. Maybe so. You were describing a sinking line system and a floating fly. How much leader do you have between the sinking line and the floating fly? Is that real short? Yeah. It's about five feet. Okay. I don't know, because that technique is also a big deal at Pyramid Lake as well. That's right. With the popcorn beetles, right? Yes. Any particular color combo that works? Well, the fishing was so good that I just tried every color I had in my box. Actually, Brian Chan had given me a fly, so that's the one I started with. I think they call that one Tequila Sunrise or something. All right. It's kind of fluorescent green. It's got orange in it. So that worked. Then I threw on a white. They had the white bulbous part, and then just fluorescent green. That worked. Another one with some pink. I mean, every one worked. But you're describing hot fluorescent-style colors rather than camouflage stuff. They're a tractor. Definitely a tractor pattern. Okay. And were you fishing amongst weed beds, or was it open water with just some weeds on the bottom? What I'm trying to get at is get an idea of where that system works. Now, at Davis, but it can work other places, too. Absolutely. I first did it in Canada on Corbett Lake at the clinic and worked there. But there were weeds on the bottom because I was timing my sinking. If I let it sink a little too long, then I was catching weeds on the bottom. Just above the bottom. Okay. And every now and then you feel a weed and you just pull it through it. But the idea of a sinking line and a floating fly presenting the fly up above the bottom that's going to be in the fish's face makes all kinds of sense. All kinds of sense in that they were all over it yesterday. All right. We are up against our second break of the evening. This evening our guest is Mike Peace, fly fishing guide, who's up in the Quincy, Portola area during the warm weather months. And then we'll get into where he's going to be fishing this winter. But we'll be back after a word from our sponsors. Johnny Houlihan grew up in Nevada City, graduated from Nevada Union, and spent his teenage years listening to KNCO, Dreaming About Music. That dream eventually took him to Nashville, where he built a career as a singer, songwriter, and producer. Now Johnny's music is bringing him home. His latest album, 119 Grove Street, is inspired by the Nevada County he grew up in, with songs like Nevada County Line and Hometown Radio. His latest album, 119 Grove Street, is inspired by the Nevada County he grew up in, with songs like Nevada County Line and Hometown Radio. ...set steady on KNCO and the DJ's laughing like an old friend does, reading school scores, weathering the football bus... Hear Johnny Houlihan live, Wednesday, November 11th at 7pm at the Miners Foundry in Nevada City. It's a special hometown concert you won't want to miss. Seating is limited. Get your tickets now at knco.com. Johnny Houlihan, coming home to Nevada County. This is Dennis Pierce, 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. Have you been considering laser eye surgery to improve your vision? I recently had Dr. Jerry Chan refer me to Dr. Hagley to get a cataract lens replacement and it worked out really, really well. But if you're considering a referral to a surgeon to work on your eyes, I recommend you contact Dr. Jerry Chan or his daughter, Dr. Tiffany Chan, to find out whether you're a candidate for those types of operations. But really good stuff. The Chan Family Optometry is located at 360 Sierra College Drive. If you're up there and you're looking for quality family eye care, you cannot do any better than the Chan Family Optometry. There's a fresh chapter in a Nevada City favorite. 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He's a fly fishing guide up in the Quincy, Portola area during the warm weather months. Mike, what you've described so far about your recent trips to Lake Davis is fly casting and retrieving. Have you done any trolling of flies up there? Because Lake Davis' Jay Fair and John Biocchi both did a lot of trolling fly trips up there. And I wondered if you had been pulling stuff around searching for fish. Absolutely. A lot of times I'll just troll behind the boat, either wind drift at a wind drifting speed, or use my trolling motor if there's no wind and go pretty slow with intermediate lines and long leaders and troll and find fish that way. And then people that are good casters will stop and then start casting. But yes, I troll up there all the time. And also about many of the fish yesterday were under an indicator. Okay. And under the indicator, were you doing small nymphs or what were you presenting below that? Yeah. I like to fish three flies under an indicator. The top fly was a blob, which is another Phil Rowley, Brian Chan thing. It's basically, I think it's imitating a daphnia. And they are eating daphnia. Then below that I have a balanced leech. And then below that I usually put a chironomid. Okay. Sometimes a nymph. All right. Gotcha. The balanced leech is very similar to like a crappie jig. So you get a horizontal presentation of a fly, sort of like a minnow. Correct? Exactly. Yeah. Okay. Exactly. Over at Lake Davis, general rule of thumb, the west side is a real gradual, slow drop-off into the depths of the water over there. And on the east side, there's a much steeper bank going in. Did you fish both types of areas over there? And sort of give us a compare and contrast about where you're finding fish. I find them in all those areas, actually. The fish, they move around a lot. And so, yes, in the more shallower stuff, like around Cow Creek. And then that's on the west side. And then on the east side, just straight across from that, is Lightning Tree. And that drops off pretty deep out there, between 20 and 30 feet. And there's fish in both of those areas. And then also, there's an island out from both of the boat ramps, either Camp 5 or Hunker Cove. And there's usually fish out by that island. But, you know, you'll find them all over the lake. One area of the lake I haven't explored a lot of is the south side, near the dam. I haven't fished a lot out on that side. Okay. Is the boat launch ramps, boat launch, the dock still in the water? No. And I know last year, I haven't been going to Hunker Cove. I've been going to Camp 5. And they've pulled the dock in. And I think they've pulled the dock in at Hunker Cove. And at Hunker Cove, at some point, they actually put the gate so you can't get into it. But you can still get into Camp 5. Okay. It can get kind of tricky on getting your boat in and getting in and out of the boat, right, because of that. Because Ed Dillard was fighting that battle. His boat had really tall sides on it because of the wind and the white caps and the waves on the lake. And he really needed a dock to get his customers onto his boat. I remember calling the congressman and all that kind of stuff, you know, trying to get some pressure from the top down. But, yeah, there's a lot more factors than just fisherman convenience. What I do is I just have a little step ladder. And I have people get in the boat ahead of time. And then I back the boat. So they're already in the boat. And it's not that hard for me to get into the front of the boat, you know, once it's out there. When I beach it. Okay. When there's a will, there's a way. Exactly. Exactly. Yes. Now, you have also been fishing on the middle fork of the feather over there. And this should be the lowest water time of the year. I mean, it has not rained much up there at all in the last few months. How are the water conditions on the middle feather? You know, there's still plenty of water to fish it. And the water temperatures are really good. The water, I think, today, I barely made it back for this today because the train stopped. And I couldn't get to my car. Luckily, it started right at the last minute. But, anyway, we got quite a few fish today. And it's not too low. But it is the lowest of the year. This is correct. Now, from Gray Eagle to, say, Nelson Point, how many miles would you guess that is? 20, 30, 40? Let's see. Gray Eagle to Nelson Point. I want to say. Let me think. Let me just guess. Make a wild guess. It's not. 15 miles. Let's say 15 miles. Okay. And is there a significant difference in how much water flow there is at the bottom of that stretch than there is up by Gray Eagle? Yes. Definitely significant. So, at two rivers, you have Jamison Creek, which is a pretty good-sized tributary that comes in. So, early season, fishing above rivers is good because the river isn't so big. And then, later in the season, you have that nice cold water coming from Jamison Creek. Fishing below two rivers is better, I think. So, yeah. Okay. So, you've got good natural water flow down there. You just have to pick your stretch of the river when you go. Yeah. And so, the further down you go right now, the better, I would say, just because there is more water because of the tributaries that add water to the river. Are there active insect hatches this time of the year down there? Or are you just using general searching-type patterns? This time of year, it's all about blue-winged olives. There were fish feeding all over on blue-winged olives today. And what hook size were they? They were small. 18s and 20s? Yeah, 18s and 20s. They were small. And so, with one guy, he was pretty new. It was only his third time fly fishing. I set up a bigger dry fly on the top and then tied off the bend about another two feet of really tiny blue-winged olive emerger. And we actually were getting them on boats, but a lot more of them on this really tiny emerger. Okay. And he was able to make it work. He caught his first fish on a dry fly today. Right on. As a guide, that's got to be fun. It's the best. It is. It is. So, how much longer are you going to be fishing up there in the high country? Or are you coming to the end of your season? Today was the end of my season up here. I do come up and fish it and guide it in the winter for people that are crazy and want to do it in the snow. And I like to use my two-handed trout spay and swing streamers. All right. It's super fun. And I've had great days. But tomorrow, actually, I'll be heading back to Sacramento. And then on November 5th, I head to Chile and Argentina where I take groups down there to fish. Now, you guide in the valley in the wintertime, correct? I do. I do. And most of my guiding is on Lake Berryessa for bass from December to the end of April. And I'm mostly using the float and fly technique. Okay. And so, as a general rule of thumb, that's basically after the holidays until it gets good fishing back up in the high country. Actually, before the holidays. I'll start it in December. All right. And then, yeah. And so, December through the end of April, I bring my boat back there so my boat lives down in the valley. And so, I use it out on Berryessa. And then end of April, beginning of May is when I bring it back to the mountains. And then it lives up here in the mountains. Well, you know how to design a nice lifestyle. It's a really nice lifestyle. All right. All right. If someone wanted to get in touch with you and try to find you on the web, how do they find you on the Internet? Yeah. Mikepeasadventures.com. Spell peace for us, please. Sure. Yeah. P-E-A-S-E. Okay. My daughter will say, please, without the L. Now, that's it. Mikepeasadventures. And it's plural, adventures. Okay. And I'm also on the Orvis Endorse. So, you can find me on the Orvis website and also look at all my reviews there. And I'd love to take people out. Okay. Now, is Berryessa a really good bass fishery? I fish trout over there, but I haven't really fished bass. I do think it's a really good bass fishery, yeah. Okay. Because you could go to Oroville instead if you wanted, but you choose Berryessa. Yeah. Oroville's a little bit further for me from my home in Sacramento. Okay. And so, I decided to get to know Berryessa, and I've had tons of fun out there. And people keep coming back for more, so they must like it, too. Well, Mikepeasadventures.com, thank you for taking the time to be with us this evening. And I look forward to getting you back on the program once you start fishing Berryessa. Thanks so much, Dennis. It's been a pleasure. And it's Mikepeasadventures, plural? Yes, plural. All right. Adventures.com. All right. Adventures.com. Mikepeas, thanks for being with us, and we look forward to having you back on the program again. All right. Thanks again, Dennis. We're up against our third commercial break of the evening. We're going to be back after a word from our sponsors. Life can feel complicated, but your finances don't have to be. At Ostro Financial Consultants, our CFP and CPA advisors are here to bring you clarity and peace of mind. For more than 40 years, families and individuals have been working together to provide you with the best financial support you can ask for. At Ostro Financial Consultants, our CFP and CPA advisors are here to bring you clarity and peace of mind. For more than 40 years, families and individuals in our community have trusted us to guide them through life's most important financial decisions. Retirement, investments, taxes, insurance, and estate planning. We take the time to listen, to understand your goals, and create a plan that helps you feel confident about the road ahead. 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Early November is prime time for brown trout up in the Sierra as well as in some of the lower Alps. Scott's Flat is a great brown trout fishery. I know for years and years doing this program that I would hear of at least one really good sized brown trout come out of there every year. The knock on it right now is the boating restrictions vis-a-vis, the golden mussel and all that controversy that's going on up there. But if you have a car top boat, kayak, float tubes, that kind of stuff, you can get on the water there. But there's a number of lakes in our area that are known for good fall brown trout fishing. One of them is Little Grass Valley. I do not have an idea of what the water level is like there. Scott's Flat is good. It's close by and getting your own motorboat on there without going through the whole regime of making things happen makes that one a bit problematic if you want to take a bigger, more comfortable boat up there. John and I, we ended up going to Stampede Reservoir on Tuesday. As we drove by Boca, Boca has been drawn down real dramatically over the last couple of weeks. John has a number of friends. He used to work at the Fishing Department there at Mountain Hardware and Sports. And he's got an extensive network of fisherman friends of his up there. And there's been some really nice brown trout caught in lakes up in basically the Truckee area, as well on the Truckee River, is fishing pretty well too. But both Stampede and Boca have been putting out brown trout, but now a launching on Boca is a real problematic thing right now. We ended up going up to Stampede Reservoir, got there the day after the full moon. And full moon, there's the old fisherman's motto, if the moon is directly overhead or directly underfoot, the fishing can be good. So on the full moon, theoretically, it's good at midnight when the moon is straight up high. And it's good at noontime, you know, when the moon is on the opposite side of the planet from you, directly underfoot is the saying that goes with that. And the day everything, you know, one day later, everything's an hour later when it comes to tides or so lunar table. So we showed up late morning and the breeze had already started pretty heavily. And by the time we got, well, John wanted, his recommendation, he's fished Stampede a lot, was to go up and fish where either the Little Truckee River comes in or else where Sagehead Creeks comes in. We ended up picking the Little Truckee River and there's a big, it's a big flooded meadow back up in there is what it is. But I saw the biggest concentration of coots, also known as mudhead waterfowl up there at the back end. There were thousands and thousands of these things up there, all sort of scrunched up together, making just the surface of the water that dark charcoal gray. But if we got close to them with the boat, they would swim away from us. Or if we got really close, they pick up and fly 20 yards and go right back down, which led me to surmise that these things were traveling birds that were migrating somewhere, got tired, needed a place to rest. And on Tuesday, the wind was howling up there. And, you know, reading into the mind, the brilliant mind of a mudhen or coot, they just wanted some place to get out of the wind, get out of the waves and rest for a day and then pick up their program heading south, I'm assuming. But anyway, tons of mudhens up there that just, I've never seen that many birds in one spot in the Sierra. I've seen that down in the valley, like at Gray Eagle and places like that. But up there, I'd not seen it before. I was interested in fishing in the wind because a lot of people don't fish if it gets windy, if you get whitecaps. And it's bumpy and it's hard to stand up and a lot of things can go wrong and fall over, that sort of stuff in the wind. But there are fish to be caught there. And so, John and I decided we were going to stay all the way until the late afternoon because there was a solunar time period at the end of the day, as well as one at the middle of the day. We ended up, there really wasn't a correlation between the fish bite and, you know, the two solunar times. We caught better than a half a dozen, I'd caught seven or eight, all rainbow trout. We did not catch a brown, period. But we caught rainbows. We were seeing them on the electronics. We fished a lot in 10 to 15 feet of water up there at the mouth of the Little Truckee River. There's one side on the north side where the bank drops in real steeply, where you've got 10, 15 feet of water, not very far off the shoreline. And that's pretty much where we were at. We would drift with the wind down, fire up the motor, go back up, and then drift back through again. And we were throwing flies and dragging flies through there, streamer flies. The black over white basic minnow imitation did well, as well as orange. I don't know why orange is such a good color for rainbow trout, but particularly in the fall. I describe it as like a Halloween type colors that were there. But we did okay fishing that day. We had a lot of problems with the wind. I've got a drift sock for my boat, which is similar to a sea anchor, same thing, where you throw it out. And we're trying to figure out how to rig it on the boat to get a good drift with the boat. We tried the two stern quarters. We tried it down the side of the boat. We had it up toward the front. And with just one drift sock, the boat was swinging a lot. And at some point, the boat was actually spinning in a circle as the wind was shifting going through there. I learned a lot, but I need to go back out and fish in the wind more. But I am a believer that it's a good time to fish out there with the wind blowing and just figuring out how to do it. I haven't done that yet. The place we ended up at the end of the day, if you're familiar with Stampede Reservoir, you've got the boat launch ramp. It's an island or a pair of islands out there. It's just one big island now. And beyond that, there's a huge cove back there that is not the Davies Creek arm, but a big shallow cove back there where most of it was like 10 foot depth, which is what John wanted to target relative to searching for brown trout. But all we found back in there were rainbows as well. But it's tough being out in a strong wind with white caps and the boat rocking and bouncing around, that kind of stuff. But it's something I want to continue to get into more in the future. But I would still recommend going up and fishing Stampede. Donner Lake, the boat launch is closed there. Jackson Meadows, they have the boat restrictions for the mussels and that sort of thing. So it's a car top boat scene there as well. So I felt rather limited as far as where to go to go brown trout fishing. And I almost wonder if we just ought to go back to Englebright. It's so much closer. The gasoline is so much less to get out there and do that. But those are some of my thoughts on brown trout. Talked to Brian Ricucci this afternoon. Now Brian is switching back and forth depending on where his clients want to be. He's on Lake Almanor and then he's at Eagle Lake. He fished Almanor this week and tomorrow he starts fishing at Eagle Lake again. Almanor is fishing extremely well. I asked him if it was as good as it gets and he said for fall fishing, yes. He said there's really good spring fishing there. But he said that the fishing there at Almanor right now is excellent. You can go out and target brown trout. And he said if you're going to go out with him and target brown trout, he said you're going to confine yourself to three, four, or five fish per day, but targeting big ones. He said if quantities of fish are what you want, he said he does more of a targeting of rainbow trout in there. But the size of the fish right now is excellent. A lot of his fish today, or in the recent past, have been up to two foot long rainbow trout up there, which is really good. But they're running from two pounds to six pounds, which any other lake in California, that would be an exceptional catch. But there at Almanor, it's a pretty common occurrence right now. The fish are primarily feeding on pond smelt, baitfish imitations. Although he said for brown trout fishing, if that's what you wanted to do at Almanor this time of the year, he said he would definitely be prepared to vertically jig over water that's 25, 30 feet deep, going down toward the bottom and lifting off and do a vertical jig like a dying, falling minnow presentation. He said that's how he would be targeting browns up there. But he said there's a number of guides working on the lake up there. He said everybody is catching fish and doing really, really well. Same thing at Eagle Lake, as far as how good the fishing is up there. Talked to Sean Rainsbarger. He's continuing to salmon fish the end of the salmon season here. He's been down at Sac Metro. Tuesday of this week, he did really well. I think he landed four fish for seven. Don't quote me on the numbers exactly. He was up there yesterday and he and every other guide up there struggled. He relates bad salmon fishing days in the Sac Metro area to the concentration of sea lions that can come through there. He said there's got to be like 20 of them. If they are hanging out around where you're at, salmon fishing is going to be pretty tough. But there still are salmon to be had down in the Sac Metro area. There's a lot of different fishing options here in Northern California. This is Dennis Pearce for the KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report. Thanks for listening. We're going to be back here next Friday evening. Okay. Right after the legal ID, which is in 10 seconds, I'll pot you up. Okay? Alright, then I'll do what I need to do and then I'll see you back here in a little bit. I'll leave you potted up. --- end of transcript ---