Pictures and commentary from our recent kayaking trip:

http://riverlog.blogspot.com/2005/10...ccloud-ca.html

Bill...now yer talkin'! Awesome pics, Creek looks reeeeeal inviting. I gotta
git myself out there. Water temp low? I noticed all are wearing drytops.
"Bill Tuthill" wrote in message ...
Pictures and commentary from our recent kayaking trip:

http://riverlog.blogspot.com/2005/10...ccloud-ca.html

Grip wrote:
Bill...now yer talkin'! Awesome pics, Creek looks reeeeeal inviting. I gotta
git myself out there. Water temp low? I noticed all are wearing drytops.

Yes, I'd say water temp was in the low 50s F, but didn't have thermometer.
This is why the trout population is so healthy, I guess. Water is released
from the bottom of McCloud Reservoir. Side streams are a bit warmer, but
don't add much to the flow at this time of year.

Awesome, Bill! Guess what? I've just moved to Cali. Living in Marin
now with sights on moving to Mt Shasta area someday. I've eyed the
McCloud when I've visited up there. Thanks for a kayak level view.
Quess what else? I'm actually thinking about getting an IK!

Bill Tuthill wrote in :

Grip wrote:
Bill...now yer talkin'! Awesome pics, Creek looks reeeeeal inviting. I
gotta git myself out there. Water temp low? I noticed all are wearing
drytops.

Yes, I'd say water temp was in the low 50s F, but didn't have
thermometer. This is why the trout population is so healthy, I guess.
Water is released from the bottom of McCloud Reservoir. Side streams
are a bit warmer, but don't add much to the flow at this time of year.

That's what you call a tailwater. There's another big one here in the upper
Delaware river water shed. The west branch of the Delaware river is fed
from a release at the bottom of reservoir while the east branch get's it's
water elsewhere. During the heat of the summer the west branch of the
Delaware is still producing fish (primarily Brown Trout) while the east
branch drops off. Experiments involving tagged fish have shown that many
fish tagged in the east branch are later found in the west branch miles
away. For those that don't know, different species of mayfly hatch at
specific temperatures (starting around 50 degrees F) so a coldwater stream
is going to produce more food and thus more trout.

Mothra wrote:
Awesome, Bill! Guess what? I've just moved to Cali. Living in Marin
now with sights on moving to Mt Shasta area someday. I've eyed the
McCloud when I've visited up there. Thanks for a kayak level view.
Quess what else? I'm actually thinking about getting an IK!

Welcome to Hotel California, in the immortal words of the Eagles.
Let's get together and run something sometime! Redwood Creek maybe.
If you have a creek boat you don't really need an IK to run creeks
but a person can never have too many boats.

John Fereira wrote:
That's what you call a tailwater...
For those that don't know, different species of mayfly hatch at
specific temperatures (starting around 50 degrees F) so a
coldwater stream is going to produce more food and thus more trout.

By "starting around 50 F" do you mean at 50 F and below, or above?
The Rogue river has lots of insect hatches in much warmer water.
I have never seen a river more teeming with life than the Rogue!
When you step in to take a swim, fingerling trout(?) are there
to bite your toes.

Bill Tuthill wrote in :

Mothra wrote:
Awesome, Bill! Guess what? I've just moved to Cali. Living in Marin
now with sights on moving to Mt Shasta area someday. I've eyed the
McCloud when I've visited up there. Thanks for a kayak level view.
Quess what else? I'm actually thinking about getting an IK!

Welcome to Hotel California, in the immortal words of the Eagles.
Let's get together and run something sometime! Redwood Creek maybe.
If you have a creek boat you don't really need an IK to run creeks
but a person can never have too many boats.

John Fereira wrote:
That's what you call a tailwater...
For those that don't know, different species of mayfly hatch at
specific temperatures (starting around 50 degrees F) so a coldwater
stream is going to produce more food and thus more trout.

By "starting around 50 F" do you mean at 50 F and below, or above?

50 F and above. Out here in the northeast most of the rivers get much
colder from about this time of year to about April or so. Coincidently the
time of the year the water temperatures start approaching 50 F after a long,
cold winter coincides with opening day of trout season (first week in
April). Different species of mayflies and caddis flies will hatch as the
temperatures get warmer so for flyfishermen that try to "match the hatch"
the inclusion of a stream thermometer in your vest can help predict the best
pattern to tie on. During the heat of the summer there isn't much hatching
anymore so terrestrials (ants, beetles) and baitfish imitations (streamers)
work better. Perhaps the most well known flyfishing pattern is called a
royal coachman, a fly which doesn't mimic anything in nature. Fly patterns
such as the coachman are called attractor patterns.

It's the time of year here when large german brown trout and landlock salmon
are making their way into the local tributaries of our lake (Cayuga). I
designed and tie a streamer that looks very much like a small trout that
I've had more sucess with than anything else I've tried. Some of these
trout and salmon run over 10 pounds so catching one on a small flyrod is a
challenge.


The Rogue river has lots of insect hatches in much warmer water.
I have never seen a river more teeming with life than the Rogue!

It's hard to say what they are but I'm guessing they're probably stone flies
if you're seeing them in summer. If you've ever seen the movie "A River
Runs Through It" and remember the big fish that was caught at the end, Brad
Pitt figures out what fly to use after slapping an insect off his neck. It
was a stone fly.

When you step in to take a swim, fingerling trout(?) are there
to bite your toes.

The Rogue river has a run of steelhead which come up to the opper reaches of
the river to spawn. The fish you are seeing might be baby steelhead (which
is essentially a rainbow trout that migrates to the sea or large lake).
Course they could also be a warmwater fish like a bass, fallfish, or chub.