Spanish Creek

Euro-Nymphing Spanish Creek

Last night at work I had finally made my decision. I texted my wife, “I’m going to go buy a fly rod tomorrow. It’s going to be the last one I ever buy.”

Over the years I’ve accumulated quite an arsenal of fly fishing gear. I currently have a fly rod for every type of water that I fish: 2WT and 3WT for small waters, 5WT for general , 6WT for stillwaters, 6WT for streamers, 6WT for travel, 5WT switch rod for spey casting valley rivers, 7WT switch rod for spey casting coastal rivers, and 8WT for Pyramid Lake. With the rods that I own now I can perform every type of fly fishing presentation however I was missing one of the most important types of presentation; euro-nymphing.

The euro-nymphing technique to me is a more refined and specialized way of tight-line nymphing. Any fly rod can tight-line nymph in a euro style however only true euro-nymphing fly rods can provide anglers with the purest euro-nymphing experience. The long length of a euro-nymphing rod, typically 10ft, is fundamental. A longer fly rod provides anglers with the extra reach to get to the fishiest parts of the river in addition to enhancing the direct contact of your presentation as there is less drag when guiding your flies through the water. Euro-nymphing rods are designed to be light and sensitive at the tip and heavy and powerful at the bottom near the butt. This unique design helps keep the top feeling like a 3WT and the bottom feeling like a 5WT.

The fly rod I settled for was the Echo Shadow II 3WT. Echo rods are some of my favorite rods as they are affordable, fantastic to cast, perform great on the water, and come with a lifetime warranty.

As far are euro-nymphing tackle. Euro-leaders are simple to tie however I opted for a premade Rio euro-leader for convenience. Euro-nymphing fly patterns are weighted jig-head style patterns that float hook side-up. I currently don’t have the means of tying any euro-nymphs at this time due to lack of materials and hooks but I hope to start gathering some to experiment on own patterns.

Spanish Creek is a small creek that originates from Spanish Peak west of the town of Quincy. The stream flows downstream crossing HWY 70 on the outskirts of Quincy and parallels HWY 70 where several streams join it eventually emptying into the North Forth of the Feather River.

I’ve fished Spanish Creek once near the Keddie area and worked my way upstream about half a mile. The fishing was fair for the time of year I fished it and although fun I wasn’t too impressed. My plan this trip was to fish it from Oakland Camp Road bridge outside of Quincy and work my way downstream to Oakland Camp.

The weather was great with cold mornings and warm afternoons. I was curious about how the flows were considering it was it fall and there hasn’t been a drop of rain since early winter. The water was surprisingly cold and the flows were low but very fishable. I fished below the small bridge and started hooking fish right away on a prince nymph. There were larger mayflies coming off and their shucks could be found in the slower water near the bank. I saw a few riser but wanted to stick to playing with my new euro-stick.

This section of Spanish Creek was easily accessible however I noticed a lot of frog water between the riffles, runs, and pools. Thankfully there was a nice trail that followed the creek downstream that I used several times to avoid the stretches of frog water. The fish appeared to be stacked right below the sparse riffles eating anything they could find. The largest fish I caught was about 10” in this section with the average being in the 6” – 8” range.

I made my way down to Oakland Camp and fished an area that was modified to create a large swimming pool and called it a day for this section of Spanish Creek. I still had some time left and decided to continue fishing Spanish Creek near the Spanish Creek campground. I hadn’t fish this section before but had feeling that I’d be able to catch some bigger fish since this section had bigger water.

The campground was closed so I had to park near the HWY and hike down the hill. The fishing was good with bigger fish like I had hypothesized. The water in this area had quite a bit of frog water as well but the fish quality was much better. I fished downstream below the campground a ways and after not getting into anymore fish I called it a day.

Spanish Creek is a nice small stream that has some good fishing if you are looking to for a quick trip around Quincy. There are supposedly brown trout in this stream however like all brown trout in California they are elusive and rare. There is one section above the campground that I have yet to explore and I look forward to seeing and fishing it in the future.

Yuba River

Translating Fly Fishing to Spin Fishing #2

Life has been getting busy with baby and wife going back to work and there isn’t as much time to fish anymore. However I’m still chugging along and trying to get as many hours on the water as I can. I wish I could get out further and longer but family comes first.

The first place I wanted to try my new UL spinning outfit was at the Yuba River. I’ve seen a handful of gear anglers on the Yuba but have never actually seen one catch a fish. I was always curious to know whether or not the fish on the Yuba would consider eating hardware. It was time to find out for myself.

I initially started out trying to nymph with my TFO panfish rod. I used a barrel swivel and attached about 3ft of 4x tippet, a splitshot, and rubberleg stone with a PMD dropper. I used a regular fly fishing indicator and was surprised at how well I could cast the rig.

Dead-drifting this rig was a bit difficult because the presentation would drag when it reached about 45 degrees downstream however the fish were receptive to my presentation and I had several hits with a few good hook-ups. The trout on the Yuba tend to be super strong but the UL spinning rod reeled them in within seconds with little to no challenge. The disappointing UL spinning fight was a good reminder of why I took up fly fishing; a fair fight between man and fish. A fully bent UL spinning rod does not compare to the feeling of a fully bent fly rod; it’s just a totally different sensation all together.

Dead-drifting nymphs on an UL spinning rod works just fine but throwing hardware such as spoons and spinners is where a spinning rod really shines. I had zero confidence with these types of lures on the Yuba so I figured why not give them a try to see if they worked. To my surprised they worked… and they were absolutely deadly making me question why I never saw gear anglers catching any fish out there. I plan on getting out there again soon to see what other lures and rigs work.

I made a stop at some of my favorite largemouth holes and absolutely crushed them on a topwater Zara Spook. Spinning gear is definitely much more fun when targeting bass. Some of the hardbaits that I used were so fun to just watch swim in the water that catching fish was just a bonus.

I spent one of my 100 degree evenings night fishing for bass for the first time and was surprised how active they were at night. Anything that made a lot of noise on top of the water was getting hit and more so that day than during the hour of power before sunset. I hooked a fish every other cast and had an absolute blast.

1 2 3 7