10 June 26, 2020 VOL.39 • ISS. 14
When Size Does Matter
By Jason Thatcher
FRESHWATER
Catch & Release Fishing!
Hook More & Bigger Fish With Flies...
Sponsored by Kiene’s Fly Shop
916-483-1222 • www.Kienesflyshop.com 9550 Micron Ave. Suite B • Sacramento, CA
It’s another sunny, beautiful summer day on the Lower Sacramento River
and I’m in my drift boat with the anchor set, head down, concentrating on a
box of assorted nymphs.
My brother, Brandon, is in the front of the boat holding a five weight fly rod
in one hand, and the end of a leader I’ve clipped off yet again in the other. He
just shakes his head and sighs to let me know I’m burning his daylight. I’m
thinking to myself that if I stare long enough at this box of bugs that maybe,
just maybe, all of the answers I seek will magically be revealed. A light breeze
blows upriver through the canyon; the kind of breeze I can’t quite blame a
poor cast on, but enough to feel refreshing.
It’s just enough to tickle the dried out grass growing in the no-man’s land
between the lava rocks that are jutting from the bank, and put a shimmer on
the water that looks as though diamonds are floating on the surface from shore
to shore. It’s the kind of day you’d like take home to Mom.
I look up from the fly box and catch my brother staring at me with a
trademark half-grin and raised eyebrows. “You really expect me to be the
Oracle-Of-The-River don’t you?” I ask. He shrugs and turns back around, now
grinning ear to ear. He’s managing to get to me, a small triumph in our world.
Despite all that has been going right so far this morning, one thing was
missing; a crucial part of the equation: biting trout. For some reason the trout
are not buying what we’re selling. We’re not getting skunked, there’s a Mercy
Fish now and then, it’s just that in our minds we should have been doing as
well, or better than, the previous day when we’d been on the same stretch of
river with the same setups!
I’ll go ahead and admit it right now, I was getting frustrated. A trout’s brain is
roughly the size of a small pea on a good day, so I took it personally when they
had me baffled. I leaned back in my rowing seat and considered out loud what
we knew. The previous day the conditions were more or less identical. We’d
been nymphing with indicators and using a two-fly leader with a #8 stonefly
nymph on the top and a good old #14 flashback pheasant tail as the dropper.
On this morning, we started with the same rig as the day before, but we’d
landed less than half the number of trout as the day before.
When something seemed “off” in the first couple of runs we started changing
flies out to see if the fish had merely lost their passion for what they’d greedily
snapped up the day before. Nothing new there, that had been a successful tack
to take in the past.
As we continued on and couldn’t find a consistent bite I became flooded with
doubt and started to change rigs over and over again. I found myself mumbling
“We shoulda’ had one there…and there…and there…” as we kept getting
further downriver.
Finally, I went back to square one and retied the stonefly and pheasant tail to
Brandon’s leader. This time I dropped the sizes of both bugs. I could hear in
the back of my head the advice I’d once read long ago, and knew to be true.
A major mistake anglers often make is changing patterns when they should be
changing sizes.
We were back in the game and
fishing again. Brandon made a big
show of yawning after his cast and
his first two mends. Mid-yawn, with
arms stretched wide and looking
to the sky, his indicator shot down
and disappeared. He choked on his
yawn as he flailed around trying to
set the hook and started hiccupping
as the trout jumped and the rig
sailed back at us.
“Had to be a -Hic- fluke –Hic,” Brandon stammered as I rowed back up the
slot. Presently, Brandon made another cast, only this time the indicator had his
full attention. Again, the indicator went down and as he set the hook another
trout rocketed out of the water and did a barrel roll. This time Brandon brought
the A-Game and the fish stayed stuck and ended up in the net.
“On -Hic- the PT –Hic- eh?” Brandon mumbled with a sidelong glance in my
direction as the fish was released. After about six more passes through that drift
and a trout hooked on the PT every time, we were both chanting “Size Matters.”
It’ll suffice to say that our day really came together and turned around for us
from that point on. Simply scaling down made all the difference. I sure enjoy
hearing complaints about sore shoulders during the short drive home at the end
of the day.
I think one of the things that I enjoy the most about fly fishing is dissecting
all of the variables involved in making a trout eat a wad of feather and fur. With
thousands of fly patterns available to anglers these days it can be very easy
to forget some of the basics of fly selection and get caught up in cutting and
retying time and time again when you’re not getting the desired results. Picking
one or two bugs out of a fly box lineup can turn into a daunting task!
I believe that a winning fly selection can really be boiled down to size, shape,
and color. If you already have a proven, effective pattern (that takes care of
shape and color), turn your attention to going bigger or going smaller. It seems
that more often than not, with all of the information sharing out there, anglers
are usually tuned into the right patterns for the time of year and body of water.
I believe that paying special attention to size can turn out to be a crucial factor
in fishing success. Having a broad selection of sizes can be hard to do with all
of the hot new flies out there. Personally, I try to keep stocked with a reasonable
selection of “key” patterns in all of the different sizes I’m likely to need.
My fly boxes may not be the diverse potpourri one would expect, but there are
many chewed-to-a-frazzle bugs in the back of my boxes that have been retired.
These veteran flies serve as a reminder to the effectiveness of sticking to the
basics. Next time a trout has you stumped out there on the water, just remember
that size really does matter!
Captain Jason Thatcher offers both fly and gear trips on the Sacramento River
and other north state waters for a variety of different species including trout,
king salmon, steelhead, stripers, shad and more. Jason’s is the owner operator of
River Pursuit Guide Service. For more information or to book a trips give him a
ring at (916) 997-2765 or check out his website at www.riverpursuit.com
State Submits Section 404 Permit for Delta
Tunnel Project to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
On June 18, The California Department of Water
Resources (DWR) took another key action in its plan to
build the Delta Tunnel, a massive public works project
that a coalition of fishermen, Tribal leaders, environmentalists,
family farmers, Delta residents, elected officials
and other Californians considers to be potentially the
most environmentally destructive public works project in
California history.
In the midst of an unprecedented pandemic, DWR
today submitted a revised Department of the Army permit
application pursuant to Section 404 of the Clean Water
Act and Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act to
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to request
authorization for the proposed Delta Conveyance
Project activities in waters of the United States. This is
a necessary permit required by the federal government
before the project can be constructed.
As Regina Chichizola, co-director of Save California
Salmon, explained, “A 404 permit is a “major dredge
and fill permit that will led to the Federal NEPA public
comment period and Environmental Impact Statement
(EIS).”
“This is the same type of permit that was hotly
contested by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe during the
Dakota Access Pipeline fight,” she said.
The underground tunnel project would divert water
from the Sacramento River before it flows through the
estuary so it can be exported through pumping facilities
in the South Delta to big agribusiness interests in the San
Joaquin Valley and to Southern California water agencies
including the Metropolitan Water District.
In addition to the Section 404 permit, DWR said they
have separately initiated USACE (and the Central Valley
Flood Protection Board) review of the Delta Conveyance
Project under Section 14 of the Rivers and Harbor Act,
Title 33 United States Code Section 408, “as an activity
that may affect the Federal-State flood control system.”
Why is DWR doing this at this time?
The agency stated, “DWR is submitting its Section 404
permit application for the Delta Conveyance Project now
in order to formally engage USACE in early coordination
with DWR’s California Environmental Quality Act
(CEQA) process regarding environmental review under
USACE’s process for compliance with the National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA), as well as Clean Water Act
and Rivers and Harbors Act. The USACE permit process
will not be concluded until NEPA and all other relevant
environmental compliance efforts are complete.”
Chichizola noted that Save California Salmon and many
others, including Tribal representatives, environmental
justice advocates, and NGOs, have repeatedly asked