Okay, so it’s still hard for some folks to believe but the Sacramento River near Redding, CA is one of the best rainbow trout fisheries you’ll ever run across. I know, I know…it sounds kinda bizarre, but this tailrace fishery below Shasta Dam is as good as just about anything you’ll find in Alaska in terms of numbers of fish.
When the Sac is really going, fly and spin anglers can catch as many as 100 rainbows from 12 inches to 3 plus pounds (most are closer to 3 pounds than they are a foot!) per day. And this is a year-round fishery, too, with the trout biting winter, spring, summer and fall!
Team FishWithJD hit the water recently with guide Gary Manies of Stricty Fishin’ Guide & Tackle in Redding for a quickie 2-hour stop to sample the fishing. Well, all I can say is that, due to schedule issues on our end, we hit it dead wrong — 1 p.m. on a 94-degree day…and we still caught a bunch of trout. That’s just how good the Sac is!
Gary lives in a gated community that has its own private ramp, so he’s got quick and easy access to some of the best trout, steelhead and salmon (when open) action on the entire upper end of the river. Another plus to that is you can park your rig in a safe location, which is really nice!
After we hopped aboard his 22-foot Koffler jet sled, Gary bombed us downstream to the first hole, which was only a couple minutes downriver.
In good hands...Gary's got a quarter century of guiding here!
After rigging up with Glo Bugs on some sweet light spin rods that Gary custom makes at his shop, we started drifting and, if memory serves, we got our first bite on the second cast. Reilly hooked up first…
Two casts in and Reilly's already hooked up...
The fish turned out to be a beautiful and extremely scrappy Sac ‘bow…
The trout here are gorgeous!
In that spot, we probably got bit 10 straight drifts and then Gary took us downriver to see some different water. If you’ve never been here, the Sac is incredibly beautiful and full of trout. We got bit in just about every little nook and cranny that our guide took us to…
Hey, next drift...YOU grab the camera!
In only a couple hours of mid-day fishing, we probably hooked 20ish trout!
Another Sac beauty!
And so it went…
Finally, I talked Reilly into manning the camera for a bit :)
The Sacramento River is where I first went on a jetboat ride way back when…and that one day completely changed my life path. Well, all these years later, it’s still a thrill running up and down the river…and the boat ride is worth the price of admission!
Yee..Haw!
All that great trout fishing and we saw a grand total of two other boats…you gotta love it!
As I noted before, we probably hooked 20 trout in just a couple hours in the mid-day heat. I can only imagine how good it is when you’re on the water early!
We had a ball with Gary, who by the way, is one super interesting guy. He grew up in this area and has been guiding on the Sacramento River for nearly 25 years. He’s got every rock, seam and drop-off in the river mapped in his head and damn near knows each trout by name. He’s active in fishery issues affecting the river and is a wealth of information about the local history, flora and fauna. Besides that he’s a damn nice guy and fun to spend the day with.
Contact Info
If you’d like to fish with Gary, check out his website here or give him a ring at: (530) 241-4665.
