Fly Fishing the Lower Sacramento River. Mike Mercer

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      Lower Sacramento River (Northern California)

       Location: Redding, California, a 4-hour drive (or 1-hour commercial flight) north of San Francisco; a 2¼-hour drive from Sacramento.

      The Lower Sacramento tailwater was created by the Shasta Dam in 1945; at the time it was the second tallest dam (behind Hoover) in the United States, and considered one of the greatest engineering feats of all time. It collects the

      flows of many rivers, creeks, and tributaries, including the McCloud, Upper Sacramento, Pit River, and, indirectly, Fall River and Hat Creek, into Shasta Lake. Below the dam, the Lower Sac is the major aquatic artery of California, supplying a home for many species of both cold-water and warmwater fish, agricultural water for the verdant farmlands to the south, and hydroelectric power to Northern California. It runs high in the summer (10,000-15,000 cfs on average) for agricultural water delivery, and low in the fall, winter, and spring (4,000-6,000 cfs on average), when that demand dwindles.

      The river flows clear and cold through the city of Redding, then bisects a vast and largely rural/agricultural watershed for many miles, before becoming a largely channelized water delivery system downstream. The stretch of most interest to trout and steelhead anglers begins in Redding below Keswick Dam, and starts to falter about 75 miles

      downstream, around Chico, as the water warms. The most impressive reach for numbers and size of fish is the upper 30 or so miles, from Redding to Red Bluff. The Lower Sac is open to fishing all year long, and because of the low-elevation ecosystem it flows through, it actually does fish well every month of the year—there is no snow or exceptionally cold weather to negatively impact conditions. Local air temperatures do get quite hot in summer, but because of the coldwater releases, the fishing remains exceptional.