Lower Feather River Fly Fishing

The low-flow starts at the Feather River hatchery and ends approximately 5.5 miles downstream at the Thermalito Afterbay Outlet. The high-flow starts at the Afterbay outlet and ends approximately 8.5 miles downstream at the Gridley boat launch. With roughly 14 miles of river to fish, we have many available options for both drift boat trips and walk and wade trips. The Lower Feather River offers a variety of methods to search for hard-fighting steelhead during the fall (late September to mid-December) and spring (March to late May).

The best time to fish for Steelhead on the Lower Feather River is during the fall run. The steelhead hold up behind the Salmon digging redds, eager to eat as they fill themselves on eggs, caddis, BWO, PMD. In the springtime, we use caddis nymphs and dries, PMD, Sucker Spawn, and midge patterns. We target these fish using 9’6”, #6 weight fly rods, unless we are swinging, then we use 11’- 12’ switch or 12’- 13’ spey rods. Preferred fishing methods from the drift boat are indicator nymphing, dry fly (late winter or springtime) with some opportunities to walk and wade with some tight line nymphing.

Salmon season in the high-flow opens up July 16 and closes October 15; during this time we have opportunities to target salmon and some striper in the high-flow sections (the low-flow section is closed to salmon fishing year-round). We target these fish using 9’ or 9’6”, #8/#9 weight rods, unless we are swinging, then we use a 12’- 13’ #7 or #8 weight spey rods. During a salmon trip, we use several methods such as indicator nymphing (with eggs and caddis), strip streamer (bunny leech) with sinking line, and swinging. The best time to fish for salmon is the summer months late July – September. I love chasing salmon on the fly, it feels like you just hooked a freight train!