I headed down to Northern California last weekend for my annual “guys fishing trip” with some friends from the San Jose Area.  We’ve been making this trek every Memorial Day Weekend for the past 30 years.  Hat Creek is a great little stream that gets pretty low fishing pressure in the lower stretches.  One evening, using a 7′  6″  medium fast action 5 wt bamboo rod, I picked up several fish on March Brown dries and Golden Stonefly nymphs.  Here I am getting started and a typical Hat Creek rainbow:

Hat Creek – May, 2015

Hat Creek Rainbow that took a golden stonefly nymph.

We also fished the Pit River one evening.  The Pit can be a treacherous river to wade, and it was a little on the high side last weekend.  But, we found a spot we could safely access the water and tried some dries.  I used my 8′  3″  medium fast action 5 wt bamboo rod.  The fish weren’t all that selective, and were happy to come up for orange stimulators, large salmonfly immitations, PMDs, and green drakes.  Here is the group of 3 great anglers, Ted, Ken, and me, and a nice fish that took my favorite parachute green drake dry.

Ken, Ted, and I getting ready to hit the Pit River.

#12 Parachute Green Drake

A Pit River Rainbow