Middle Fork Feather River Fishing - 6/23/2018

Fished the Middle Fork Feather after hiking downstream for about 2 miles in the remote canyon (near Quincy). Great fishing, but man, I don't think I can fish that stretch again. Trying to walk along the bank was extremely difficult most of the time and I had to climb over some rock outcroppings a few times. The canyon also has a lot of rattlesnakes, though luckily I didn't see any. But if felt good to knock off this river from my CA/NV list as I had been wanting to fish it for quite some time.

Fish were around 10-12", but I caught a lot of them and the scenery and remote feeling were amazing. Tons of insect avitvity, but no major hatches going on: caddis, stones, mayflies (baetis and some strange orangish colored one), damsels/dragons.

Beautiful wild rainbows that fought very hard. The Middle Fork straddles the transition between the Sierras and the Cascade mountains. A lot of volcanic rocks along the bank. 

Saw three different stoneflies: Salmon, Golden, & Midnight--however I didn't see any hatching, just came across a few along the bank. I bet the bigger fish come out towards dusk to feed on them. In Fact, as it was starting to get dark, I had what I think was a large fish break me off, but I couldn't tell how big. It could have been just a 16" fish that broke on a poorly tied dropper connection.

That green vegetation along the bank was the worst. I had to bushwhack it with my net, and there were spiders all over them. You couldn't see where you steeped because of it unless you cut it down. 

Was using a 15' Euro or French leader and switched back and forth between tight lining and indicator nymphing. The #16 Frenchie caught almost all the fish, until later when it got darker, the fish switched to the #8 Rubber Legs.