Fly-Fishing the Middle Fork of the Feather River
by Josh McCoy
Steven Holly remembers learning to fish the hatch Isonychia, a genus of huge mayflies, on the Middle Fork of the Feather River the hard way. On a beautiful fall day several years ago, he stood a cast across from Dale Marsh, a fly-fishing friend from Oroville, at the base of a Jeep trail where pine trees turned to oaks and madrones in a gorge. Clear water poured between white boulders across jagged spots on the backs of dozens of rainbows, but nothing rose. On the other side, Marsh, with 51 years of fishing experience to Holly’s 52, lumbered and roll casted into fish after fish.
Holly sneaked downstream. “All’s fair in love, war and rising fish,” he says. But Marsh overtook him, catching the fish that Holly had missed.
“I was up 25 to 1,” Marsh jokes. It was more like 25 to 3, Holly says, but adds that it taught him a valuable lesson: With the wild rainbows of the Middle Fork, it’s all about presentation. Their nymphs were identical, as were their rigs—something like 4-weight rods and 2x leader going to 18 inches of 4x tippet with a bead of split shot pinched close to the fly. Only Marsh’s tippet was straight, giving him a little better sink and a slightly better feel. Holly has had to live with Marsh’s boasting to this day but the payoff was insight into what Northern California fly-fishing writer Andrew Harris calls “possibly the finest free-flowing trout stream remaining in California.”
Feather River fishing action heats up in mid-June, when lower water gives anglers access to ongoing hatches of caddis, mayflies and stoneflies, which bring fish to the surface. “The Middle Fork holds some very large fish and we catch a lot of them,” says Holly, estimating the average size at 14 inches, “with a fair number of 18 to 20.”
Holly and Marsh fall back on flies like Parachute Adams, Loop Wing Caddis and Elk Hair Caddis for most situations. They carry basic colors—grays, browns, dark olives, pale olives and yellows—to match dozens of different flies coming off the water.
The hatches slow in July and August, but calmer flows allow for greater movement in the boulder-choked canyon. The fast action continues into the fall, when the Isonychia dart out of the water at minnow-speeds to hatch. A simple A.P. Black, fished aggressively, will suffice. Tour de FishIt’s hard to go wrong when fly-fishing the Middle Fork of the Feather River. The stream offers almost 100 miles of good waters from Sierra Valley to Lake Oroville, with great fishing in the last 43 miles below Nelson Creek. Pack your tackle box and waders; from Tahoe’s North Shore, here’s the guided tour: Head north on Highway 89 to Truckee. At the junction with Interstate 80, set your odometer to zero.
Mile 21.5: Mixed forests vanish at the abrupt edge of Sierra Valley and the headwaters of the Middle Fork. Mile 22.5 Sierraville: Plumas National Forest maps available at the ranger station on the left. Mile 26.7 Sattley: A right turn on Westside Road leads to Portola, where slow-moving channels harbor more largemouth bass than trout.Mile 27.6: Veer right to stay on Highway 89. Mile 41.2 Clio bridge: The California Department of Fish and Game stocks trout here and downstream at Mohawk and Graeagle in the summer. For wild trout or solitude, keep going. Mile 53.3 Sloat: The river has left the highway and wild trout abound. This is a good option in early June, when downstream reaches are still too high to fish. Moderate riffles and pools hold plenty of brown trout. Mile 64.4 Quincy: This is a good base camp from which to fish multiple points on the Middle Fork. Turn left on La Porte Road to get to Nelson Point and the last paved access to the river before it enters perhaps the most rugged canyon in California. Jeep tracks and foot trails cross the river in this section, as well as a dirt road at Milsap Bar.
Owner of Quincy’s Sportsman’s Den Allan Bruzza recommends fishing immediately downstream of Nelson Creek, one mile from Nelson Point, where a seven-pound brown was caught a few years ago. Marsh and Holly like fishing the more difficult reach between Hartman Bar and Cleghorn Bar. Wherever you go, be prepared for long hikes, rattlesnakes and poison oak.
Plumas National Forest Trout Fishing Guide by Andrew Harris is the definitive guidebook for the Middle Fork. A “Wild and Scenic Middle Fork of the Feather River” map can be purchased online or at the Forest Service Supervisor’s Office in Quincy. Freelance writer Josh McCoy lives in Ione, California, but often travels to the Middle Fork to fish; he caught his first trout at age 13 at the Hartman Bar. This is his first article for Tahoe Quarterly.
