Tragically, Jon Baiocchi, 55, passed away in April from a heart attack while guiding on one of his favorite waters, the Middle Fork of the Feather River. He was a thoughtful, observant, and skilled fly fisher, one of the best I’ve met, and a patient teacher, generous with advice. He wanted his clients to have a good experience, but he also wanted them to improve as fly fishers, and to appreciate the fish and their environs. This was true as well for the thousands of fly fishers he influenced through his presentations and articles — he surely was one of the most-published guides in California. And here is the last article he sent to this magazine, just a few weeks before his death. Jon took justifiable pride in his written work, and I very much wish he was still around to see this piece in print.
Our lives pass all too quickly. Jon lived his fully and well, following his passions, which perhaps is the best lesson he can give us.
— Richard Anderson
A trout in a river needs three things: to be safe from predators, to live comfortably in relation to water temperature and water-borne oxygen, and to have access to an adequate supply of food. Trout therefore usually will be found in spots where these conditions exist, and most experienced fly fishers have a mental list of reliable kinds of holding water. Undercut banks, boulders, drop-offs and slots, depressions in riffles, deep runs, sweepers, and overhanging vegetation all can provide protection; riffles, runs, and the heads of pools below white water can provide oxygen; cold springs and the mouths of tributaries can cool the water; and seams and other transition zones, including tailouts and where two main currents come together, can serve as conveyor belts for food items, while riffles also can be food factories.
However, fish do not have access to all three essential conditions in the same spot throughout the year. The variables of security, comfort, and food supply change with the seasons. They also differ in different stream environments. Where fish hold in an undammed freestone stream in a given season may not be the same as where you’ll find them in a tailwater, and in freestone steams and tailwaters, fish will be found in different places as the seasons change. The cycle of the seasons is one of the wonders of nature. The fish adapt to its rhythms, and a successful fly fisher needs to do so, as well.
Seasons for Freestone Rivers
In a freestone river, because where a trout lives depends on local conditions that are always in flux, they sometimes will travel miles to find the conditions they need. Let’s start at the beginning of a new year and follow the fish around the calendar and around the stream.
In the very cold water of winter, the trout spend as little energy as possible to acquire the food they need. When winter flows are at their lowest, trout can be found in the slower currents of tailouts downstream of major runs that oxygenate the water and in transition zones of deeper-to-shallower water or vice versa. If flows increase when air temperatures rise above freezing or if a warm storm rolls through and increases the f lows from snowmelt, trout seek the softer water on the edges of the river. Deep holes and the calmer hydraulics on the bottom of a river also provide holding areas when flows increase. Because in these conditions trout won’t expend energy to get to food, your drifts through likely holding water must be as accurate as you can make them, targeting prime lies. Small flies, perfect presentations, and an acute awareness to the subtle grab will reward you.
Fishing 49-degree water as opposed to 39-degree water also requires different techniques. As spring approaches and water temperatures start to creep up by a few degrees, trout are more willing to move into riffles, pockets, and faster water in search of insects or baitfish. As they begin to venture abroad, they enter into competition with other trout, which makes them feed more aggressively.
When spring arrives, depending on the snowpack and the rate at which it melts, flows can vary from moderate to heavy, and as a result, trout move around in a river system more in the spring than at any other time of year. In a matter of a few months, Sierra freestone rivers experience prerunoff, runoff, and postrunoff conditions. Water temperatures slowly rise as well, igniting aquatic insect activity, prompting forage fish to move, and awakening crayfish to roam the bottom. The transition period from winter to spring is a transition from famine to feast for trout in freestone rivers.
When freestone f lows are heavy during the spring, trout seek areas that provide shelter from the heavy current. Side water is a trout’s friend during this time, including back eddies and calmer “soft” water with some depth to it. If the water is off-color, the clarity of the water is slightly better at the sides of a river than in the main current, and during the runoff period, Skwala, Golden, and Pteronarcys stoneflies migrate to the edges of the stream to crawl out and hatch, so there are incentives for trout to hold close to the banks. There, they can also feed on female stonefly adults that enter the water to oviposit and the clumsy ones that fall into the river. So in the spring, don’t immediately begin wading, but fish the side water without wading at all.
Water temperatures vary a lot during the spring, from day to day and even from hour to hour, as well as from place to place. Use a thermometer to check the water temperatures where you’re fishing. Snowmelt on a warm day will add frigid water to a stream that’s already on the cold side. Downstream of feeder creeks and other sources of runoff, the water temperature will be colder than upstream, especially if the upstream water has had a chance to warm up in long stretches of slower-moving water.
Not all fish respond the same way to the same conditions, though. The bigger the trout, the more efficient it can be at feeding as it powers through the stronger spring currents when it needs to. And depending on the watershed, some trout may feed more vigorously at colder water temperatures than others. A good example is the Truckee River, where fish will eat flies at a much colder water temperature than those in the Middle Fork of the Feather River. However, no matter the watershed, a rise of a few degrees in water temperature during the spring runoff can make all the difference for good fishing,
As spring progresses and hatches become more pronounced during the spring runoff, the trout move to the middle of runs and to riffles to feed on Baetis mayfly nymphs and midge pupae. With continued warm weather in late spring, trout often stack up in the faster riffles eating caddis larvae, pupae, and emergers. Find the food source, and you will find the fish. In the summer, in contrast with their movements during the spring, trout tend to set up a permanent home in a small section of a river. However, they will move within a run to seek oxygenated water. During the morning hours, when summertime f lows are at their coolest, trout will hold in the middle of a run or near the tailout. As water temperatures rise, there is less oxygen they can use, so they move upstream into the faster white water, which has more bubbles and aeration and also offers superior protection from predators overhead. The shade in canyon sections of a river likewise provides some protection from predators and from the hot summer sun, as does overhanging vegetation. The shady side of rock formations close to the water’s edge does so, as well. Canyon water also offers deeper pools, slots, and pocket water with cooler water and good access to food.
Freestone streams that are fed by the warmer surface water of lakes tend to warm up in the summer, so when the weather gets hot, it pays to seek cooler water in the more intimate small streams and creeks at higher elevations. You won’t f ind many large trout in these smaller watersheds, but you will both find solitude and give trophy trout in the larger streams a much-needed break when they are stressed by warm water.
In the fall, trout are on the move again. Low water levels and clearer waters are common during the early fall, and these tend to concentrate the trout in the deeper runs, pockets, slots, and pools. They don’t really have an option. Fish are more conscious of the need for the security of structure, be it a submerged log or a large submerged boulder. It’s easier to find them, but a stealthy approach is necessary, as are longer and lighter leaders and tippets.
They still may move into the riffles to feed on nymphs, such as during a BlueWinged Olive hatch, then a little while later move downstream to intercept the duns on the surface. In the afternoon, they may move to the side water looking for terrestrials such as grasshoppers and beetles or for ovipositing October Caddis. Later in the fall, as the days become shorter and the angle of the sun lowers, freestone trout begin to feed aggressively, knowing that winter is coming. This is great news for the fly angler, because the fish tend to drop their guard due to their need to fatten up. In addition, brown trout begin their spawn, supplying other species with high-protein drifting eggs. At the same time, anglers need to be especially observant, because for the health of all wild trout, steelhead, and salmon, a fly angler should avoid wading around redds. During any season of the year, if you wade through a redd, you are crushing many eggs that will never be able to hatch.
I’m amazed how many of my clients have no idea what a redd looks like. An active trout spawning bed will be in an area of a river that has minimal f lows. A redd is about four feet long by three feet wide, though the size varies. Several are often in the same area, often linked together. Redds look like a depression in the smaller cobbles and have a very clean look that differentiates them from the rest of the streambed. Clean gravel is the first thing an angler should look for.
Most hatches wane during the fall, and only a few types of bugs are available to the trout, which can be advantageous to the angler, because it simplifies fly selection. During the fall, trout tend to move more, responding to changes in the weather and the available food sources. An angler needs to move, as well, and be attentive to how conditions change.
Seasons for Tailwaters
Tailwaters differ from freestone rivers because the volume of their flows is regulated by releases from a dam, and water temperatures, if the releases come from the bottom of the impoundment, are colder year-round and more consistent. The colder water makes for a more vibrant and healthy food base of macroinvertebrates. The Yuba River below Englebright Lake and the Little Truckee River below Stampede Dam are good examples of thriving bottom-of-impoundment-fed tailwaters.
In bottom-fed tailwaters, winter water temperatures have a small range of variation. The lower Yuba’s range, for example, is from 49 to 52 degrees. Aquatic hatches are more abundant and predictable, causing trout to migrate along a particular corridor of the river for miles to find the richest food source. This is true not only during the winter, but throughout the year. A particular riffle may host an abundant Baetis hatch for a few weeks, and the fish will be on it, but when the hatch wanes, they will move to a different location. The consistency and predictability of tailwater hatches is a boon to the fly fisher, because it minimizes guessing in fly selection. You actually can match the hatch. However, during the winter, Yuba trout favor food sources such as eggs from spawning salmon, freshly hatched alevins around salmon redds, and salmon fingerlings that hold closer to the slow side water.
Tailwaters tend to be found at lower elevations, and in the spring, on our Central Valley tailwaters, for example, you won’t find extremely frigid water temperatures, as you would in the Sierra freestone streams, though they’re still cold. Tailwater hatches increase and nearly peak in the spring, and caddisflies are out in force, along with mayflies — March Browns, Gray Drakes, and Pale Morning Duns. Trout will be stacked up in the transition zones of larger pools and will move into riffles when the hatches begin. When the hatches fade, they drift back to the secure holding water that a deep pool provides or move near the tailout of a run, looking for adults and spent spinners on the surface. On tailwaters, spring brings some incredible fishing opportunities. It’s also the time of year when rainbows will be spawning, so again, it’s important to know what a redd looks like and avoid them when wading.
In the summer, bottom-fed tailwa- ters provide resident trout with much cooler water temperatures than are found in an average freestone river. The height of the dam and the depth of the reservoir significantly affect the outflow water temperature. The deeper the water behind the impoundment, the colder the water, though tailwater temperatures also are affected by exposure to the sun and can vary with the time of day. Because the water is coldest in the morning, a great approach is to begin by nymphing with stonefly or small, flashy mayfly and caddis patterns, then fish high-floating hoppers in the afternoon, followed by fishing the evening caddis grab on the surface. Though the weather can be Africa hot, the fishing can be really hot, too.
In the fall, anadromous fish enter the streams and affect the tailwater trout fishery. Resident trout and steelhead follow salmon to their spawning grounds with one thing on their minds — eggs. Find the salmon redds, and you’ll find feeding fish. Salmon are an extremely important part of the ecosystem of an anadromous fishery. Everything revolves around them, from the eggs, alevins, and fry to the lifeless, decaying bodies of adults, which provide the essential nutrients to the many different animals and organisms. Trout and steelhead hold just below the redds for months, and their aggressive addiction to this valuable protein source often makes for incredible fishing.
Getting in Synch
Understanding where trout like to hold during a different times of year and in different kinds of rivers a can be a big part of solving the riddle of where to find feeding fish. It’s always to wise to try to be in synch with Mother Nature and her seasonal rhythms. As the seasons turn, knowing how to adapt to their changes will bring you more fish and more pleasure from being on the stream and in harmony with changes in the natural world.
