Smoke here, yes. Fire, no. The wind keeps shifting directions so one day the canyon is filled with smoke and the next it’s clear. Dunsmuir’s probably about the best place to be in the whole north state. There’s no fire here and the fishing’s been excellent.
Filed under: Fishing, dunsmuir, dunsmuir vacation rental, dunsmuir vacation rentals on June 30th, 2008 | No Comments »
Over the past few months, we’ve had one complaint from a guest: the mattress on the queen sized bed sagged a bit. To some, that’s not a big deal, but for those of us who’ve had back problems, it can be a deal killer. So…out with the old, in with the new (mattress).
As for the river flow: the USGS data is back online. Yep, the river’s been up, but the latest data shows it’s waning. With the cooler weather expected through the rest of this week slowing the snow-melt, we should be at a real fishable level by weekend.
And the final noteworthy bit is our Father’s Day Weekend Special. It’s a healthy discount off the normal three-night charge plus a couple of perks; something we think will be right up Dad’s alley. Your Dad doesn’t have to know you were bargain shopping, so we won’t say a thing…
Filed under: Father's Day Fly-Fishing, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Rainbow Trout, River Flows, Spring, Upper Sacramento River, Upper Sacramento River Fly Fishing, dunsmuir, dunsmuir lodging, dunsmuir vacation rental, dunsmuir vacation rentals, upper sac on May 20th, 2008 | No Comments »
Well, how was my last prediction…? Not too good, but the authorities aren’t talking about it. We’re getting no readings from the gauge - last report was mid-day on Wednesday after the river spiked a bit. It’s definitely higher and doesn’t look very fishable right now - unless you’re really jonesing to fish. We’ve had some real warm temps and the weather’s supposed to be quite warm through the weekend. No telling what’s in store.
This may be a good time to sneak off to a local lake or spring creek…
Filed under: Fishing, Flows, River Flows, Spring, USGS, Upper Sacramento River, dunsmuir, dunsmuir lodging, dunsmuir vacation rental, dunsmuir vacation rentals, upper sac on May 17th, 2008 | No Comments »
As predicted in my last post, the river was rather fishable for the season opener, with flows under 1,000 CFS (as measured at Delta). Since that weekend, the river spiked again. It seems to have stabilized at this point and with the warmer air temperatures in Dunsmuir lately, it doesn’t look like there will be a surge from heavy snow melt. In fact, our snow pack is rather meager again this year despite the big storms in February. What this means is that the old Upper Sac should be down to real fishable flows by this weekend and we’re all looking forward to that.
Those springtime stone flies have been bouncing around town lately, ending up on porches and lawns and providing batting practice for our cats. I haven’t heard of any fishing successes with the stones though. I fished mid-river last Friday afternoon/evening and there was some definite though sporadic surface action. There were caddis and several varieties of mayflies as potential suspects and after trying an assortment of candidates, I managed to coax one nice fatty to an Adams, but an overly aggressive hook-set on my part sent the rainbow back to the depths with my fly in its mouth and no line attached. Damn! As the season develops, I usually calm down enough to avoid such problems…
Anyway, The Trout Underground has a link to the river flow data from the Ca. Department of Water Resources. Or you can try the USGS site. They’re both taken from the same gauge, but each has its own format for delivery. Lets watch our river get really fishable, really quickly.
Filed under: Fishing, Flows, River Flows, Trout Underground, USGS, dunsmuir, dunsmuir lodging, dunsmuir vacation rental, dunsmuir vacation rentals, uppersac.com on May 13th, 2008 | No Comments »
With the season opener a mere 2.5 weeks away, it’s a good time to try to predict the flows. Flows are about the same as they were this time last year, with last year’s opener figures below 500 cfs. Could this mean two consecutive years of relatively calm, readily fishable water on opening day?
I’ve been invited to fish the Eastern Sierras on opening day. As much as I love it over there, I’m just not going to be able to tear myself away from the Upper Sac… It’s tough, I tell ya’.
Filed under: Fishing, Season Opener, Season Opener 2008, Spring, Trout Season Opener, Upper Sac opening day, Upper Sacramento River, dunsmuir, dunsmuir lodging, dunsmuir vacation rental, dunsmuir vacation rentals, upper sac on April 8th, 2008 | No Comments »
I pointed towards Tom Chandler’s site last week when he posted his first installment of Zen Photography Tips. He’s just posted the second part of this piece, which features more of his photography largely shot in and around the waters of Siskiyou County - centering around the south county area, specifically Mt. Shasta and Dunsmuir. While mother nature helps him out a great deal with the stunningly beautiful scenery of the area, it takes someone with an artist’s eye to bring that scenery to life in a photo. Whether you’re interested in learning some great tips on photo composition or not, just looking at the samples of his work will give you a good idea of the beauty surrounding Dunsmuir. Check it out here.
Filed under: Fishing, Upper Sacramento River, dunsmuir, dunsmuir lodging, dunsmuir vacation rental, dunsmuir vacation rentals, upper sac, uppersac.com on March 19th, 2008 | No Comments »
I never check stats to see if anyone actually reads my comments here, but just in case someone does who doesn’t know much about the beauty of this area, here’s a link to a blog post about composing photographs - and many of the photos were taken here in Siskiyou County and on the Upper Sacramento River - part of which runs right through Dunsmuir. Here’s the link.
Tom, who runs the blog, is quite a talented writer/photographer/fisherman who, like us, fell in love with this area so much so, that he ended up leaving the big city to live here full time. While the winters here are beautiful, spring is busy springing in Dunsmuir and the sunshiny days are now upon us. That’s not to say we won’t get another snowstorm within the next month or two, but even if we do, it’ll probably be short lived. So check out the link above, dig the photos, and consider making Dunsmuir your next vacation destination. If our vacation rental is booked when you want to come, give us a call anyway and I’ll give you some contact info on other nice places to check out…
Filed under: Fishing, Upper Sacramento River, dunsmuir, dunsmuir vacation rental, dunsmuir vacation rentals, upper sac, uppersac.com, winter on March 13th, 2008 | No Comments »
this time of year in Dunsmuir. The daytime temperature is into the 60s regularly now, the snow has melted considerably, yet the river is running at a very fishable level. Shhhhh - I also hear regular rumors of March Browns - ohhhhhhhhhh. My favorite Dunsmuir vacation rental is beginning to book for the season, so you may want to think about reserving a time-slot now.
Filed under: Spring, Upper Sac opening day, dunsmuir, dunsmuir vacation rental, dunsmuir vacation rentals, upper sac on March 9th, 2008 | No Comments »
Our web-site finally made it to page one on google organic searches for “dunsmuir vacation rental” and “dunsmuir vacation rentals”. We’re still several spots down the page from Louie Dewey’s Cave Springs Resort, but making page one is big progress. Besides, we used to regularly stay in the Cave Springs cabins before living here - it’s a great spot which we heartily recommend… but only if ours is booked.
Filed under: Fishing, Uncategorized, Upper Sacramento River, dunsmuir, dunsmuir vacation rental, dunsmuir vacation rentals, upper sac on February 13th, 2008 | No Comments »
Living in Dunsmuir, the only opportunity for winter fishing used to mean traveling to the north part of the county and beyond. But since the DFG has seen fit to open the Upper Sacramento River to fishing year-’round (granted, it’s catch and release only this time of year), Dunsmuir makes a great central location for “home games” in the post season, while you can still travel a short distance to anadromous waters for the “away games”. And unlike the Yankees, Dunsmuir is now guaranteed a spot in the post season.
Although I’ve only played in a few “games” this winter, they’ve been pretty productive - if quality rather than quantity is what you’re after. I landed my first sizeable steelhead (24″) fishing the Scott River the day after Thanksgiving. And this past Sunday, I hooked and landed a beautiful, fat Rainbow right here on the Upper Sac. This one’s immortalized in photos on my friend Tom’s site at : www.troutunderground.com In both cases, those fish were the only ones I caught each day. But in my book, I’d give up ten average sized fish for the chance to have caught each of these specimens.
One of the best aspects of this post season fishing is that almost no matter where you go on the river, you’re nearly guaranteed being the only one fishing. Oh yeah, you hear all about how someone “lives to fish”. But most of those folks really mean they’ll only fish when the weather’s nice. Good for us then.
Filed under: Fishing, Rainbow, Rainbow Trout, Upper Sacramento River, anadromous, dunsmuir, dunsmuir vacation rental, dunsmuir vacation rentals, post season, steelhead, troutunderground.com, upper sac, uppersac.com, winter, winter fishing on December 11th, 2007 | No Comments »