Here's a tip to enhance your bank fishing experience...highly recommended!

A fellow fisherman, Mike, was using these items in his boat for stripping baskets.  They are pop-up leaf bags that are roughly 16" across by 17" deep.  They collapse down into a package 1" high.

These things work like a charm to keep your line from tangling in weeds and branches, always a pain when you're zeroed in on a big trout, and then blow the cast because of a line tangle.

http://tinyurl.com/2aflq6a  (opens a separate new window)

I ordered mine here, and they are a professional outfit and dependable.  The price is good as I have found anywhere.   

If you want a more compact model at 12" x 13.5" go here: 

http://tinyurl.com/29gwfpn

I am keeping one of the larger ones in my car, and it accompanies me to bank fishing sites to make my line behave itself. 

Wes Wada

Alder Pond is the Ranch's smallest and prettiest pond, one of the reasons it is also the site of the group picnic area.  Alder is the southernmost of the four middle ponds. At most 5-1/2' deep, the pond is prone to masses of aquatic vegetation, which are a real job to remove!  

The picture above was taken last week, showing the pond's surface free of weeds and very fishable. This is currently a site for fast fishing and dry fly action for smaller trout.  Sometimes that's a welcome break from the challenge of fooling the big PhD trout in the north ponds.

Wes Wada

Between the three of us, some 20-24 fish larger than 20" were hooked, netted, revived and released.  The best topwater action was on dry terrestrial patterns.  Walt caught four huge 'bows the first time out using a black midge pupa below an indicator.  A variety of buggers produced a good number of big fish.

It was quite a different trip. 

 Wow, it was a wild, wooly, wet and windy spring on the west coast.  Am very glad good fishing weather is finally here, even if it really didn't arrive until June 1st.

I'll been doing more fishing than the usual in my home state of Oregon, and if there is one thing that stands out, it's the average Oregon fish pales in comparison to the feistiness of a 15" Sugar Creek Ranch rainbow. I found myself reeling in 19-inchers in Oregon's lakes, and wondering where the fight was.  Boy, have I gotten spoiled!

Driving home from a day's fishing, I mentioned to a fisher friend that SCR's slogan is "The Hottest Rainbows in California".  He shot me a look that said "hype!"  Well, he'll be at the ranch some day soon, and will get a personal introduction to the rod-wrecking, reel-smoking rockets in this pleasant little fishery.  You may not catch the biggest fish or the most fish, but you'll remember the strength and tenacity.

I will be a the ranch soon for a brief stay.  Will be guiding Jerry from Long Beach, CA and fishing with friend Walt from the Redding area.  Going to be a fast, full and friendly outing.   

Wes Wada

 Frank Hatanaka sent a fine fishing report from his visit of May 16-17.  Mike Kalpin praised the detail of the report, which can be helpful to anglers who haven't fished the waters before.  The report is here.  Thank you, Frank!

I personally had a brief visit to the ranch fishing a bit Tuesday evening, May 18th.  That was followed by a two-day visit to Redding hosted by new Sugar Creek Ranch friend Walt.  We fished Clear Creek west of Redding and generally had a great time comparing flies, books, gear, tips and fishing influences.  Nice to have such a great time with someone I met just briefly at the ranch one visit.

After the Redding visit, I returned to the ranch via Weaverville and the Trinity Lake road.  Some pretty spectacular scenery, though the driving is slow-going with some sharp turns and steep grades in spots.

The entire trip was hammered by bad weather.  Very unsettled, windy, rainy, light snow, etc.  Poured rain the first day in Redding.  The good weather fishing opportunities at the ranch presented themselves in spurts, and when that happened the fishing was pretty good!  So I was pleased there.  The last afternoon was quite fast fishing... I fished 2-1/2 hours, had seven hits, and brought five fish to hand.  Hot flies included a new original pattern, Snake Eyes, which is a bottom bumping bugger.  The best color combo was black with wine.  Also got a 19" male bow on a small red midge pupa below an indicator.  Best fish in rather limited fishing was a 22" male on another original fly, the Hunch Bug (black and chartreuse bugger).

While there, I talked with Rick, a first-time guest from San Jose.  He was on a two-day stay with his wife, and also had the challenge of fishing in unsettled weather, more akin to early spring than late May.  Rick worked hard and should be complimented for his persistence.  On his last cast, in his last evening, he hooked a monster 28" bow using an October caddis pupa!  After a long, tough battle, he was thrilled to net the largest stillwater trout he has ever caught.  Rick hopes to bring a friend back to the ranch in July or August.

The entire west coast is experiencing a cool, unsettled, lengthy spring.  Great weather for morel mushroom hunters!  Not that great for bug hatches.  Seattle, Portland and San Francisco have averaged -4F off historical normal average highs for May.  Bend, Oregon, Redding, and Callahan at the Ranch have averaged -6F daily, which is a huge drop off the average.  Los Angeles is normal temp and normal precip for May.

So we west-coasters could use a bit more sunshine and warm, stable weather.  But as you can see from the Hatanaka report, the rewards when the fishing is good are very satisfying.

Wes Wada

Thank You Wes Wada and Wadaworks.com for getting all the behind the scenes key punching, thing a mabobby stuff completed on the newsletter system.  Some of you had received my email promoting the FREE Lodging offer for May.  With the new newsletter system, subscribing to, unsubscribing to and receiving topical information and special promotions from Sugar Creek is finally here.  Of course you need not subscribe to get all the latest news and promos, periodically check the News page for our discounted offerings and notices.

Mike Kalpin

The Siskiyou Fly Club has once again come to the rescue of the Ranch and it's landscaping staff of one.  The generous, hardworking and overtly friendly members of the club held their now annual spring clean at Sugar Creek on May 1st.  This year they completed the walking trail around the South shoreling of the Lone Bear pond.  No more fighting the tall brush in order to access some of the best fishing that pond has to offer.  The trail allows one to comfortably walk and stalk from the parking area along the entire South shoreline, over the small creek and waterfall, to the lawn on the East side.  In addition they absolutely attacked the overgrown brush and huge blackberry patch along the West side of the Lone Bear road.  The lunch served by club President, Jim Erizer, was the best yet.  Great BBQ, lots of side dishes and for desert Fred Lennard put out some of his TWBC's, "the world's best cookies".  Trust me, as a baker of tasty treats most of my life, these cookies are indeed the best.  Thank You Siskiyou Fly Club.

Mike Kalpin       

 We hired our subcontracted software programmer to fix the Newsletter Subscription function in the signup box on the right side of this page.  Sign up, then confirm your registration by clicking on the link in the email sent to you, and you are good to go.  For example, you would have received the special lodging discount offer for May in an email.  

We will reserve the Newsletter for special offers and discounts.  All other news will continue to be posted here in the news page.  You can also unsubscribe at any time by clicking the Sign Off button in the same area.

Sign up!

Wes Wada

 It's here!  View Mike Pawlawski's "Familiar Waters" Father's Day program as seen on the Outdoor Channel this past January.  In April 2009, the Familiar Waters crew filmed for two days at the ranch.

The video is a great opportunity to see the ranch waters and some of the feisty rainbows.

Here are links to two video formats.  We are in the process of creating a more formal video page for this feature.

Congrats to Mike Pawlawski and Mike Bias and thanks to all who were part of this program.

Note: these are large files, so don't exceed your broadband usage quota!

Quicktime Video:  http://sugarcreekranch.com/vids/familiarwaters.mov  (78mb, 16:22)

Windows Media Video:  http://sugarcreekranch.com/vids/familiarwaters.wmv (70mb, 16:22)

If you are on a slower connection, let the whole video play first to get it into your computer's file cache.  The second time you play it, the playback will be smooth.