(Redding) The weather is great, the flows are stable and the trout bite on the upper reaches of the lower Sacramento River is pretty much red hot.
“We’ve had a great week,” exclaimed Captain Kirk Portocarrero. “I’ve spent a good amount of time guiding turkey hunting clients, but when I’ve been on the river the trout fishing has been incredible. We’ve been seeing a steady stream of rainbows that average 15 and 16 inches coming to the boat and it seems like every day we are seeing rainbows in the 20 to 23 inch class.”
“This week was memorable in that we picked up another big brown while working the Sacramento. The fish weighed about 6 pounds. Last season my wife got one over 10. In my more than 25 years of guiding on the river those are the only two browns I’ve seen. In both cases I thought we’d hooked into a salmon, because the fish were so big and powerful,” said Portocarrero.
“Right now the fishing is pretty simple. We are getting almost all of our trout while drifting egg imitations on spinning gear. You can catch fish throughout the system, but the biggest fish are definitely holding up high in the river within Redding city limits,” added Portocarrero.