Meandering Angler: Forecasting fishing in 2020

Is 2020 going to be a good year for anglers? My answer is yes. I always answer yes, because just about any day fishing is better than a day without it.

That said, I also watch the usual indicators for fishing’s number one prerequisite, water.

Rainfall totals so far are about average for this time of year, and our rainiest months are still ahead of us. Regionally, Lake Sonoma is at nearly 90 percent of its capacity, and Lake Mendocino, another major source of the Russian River, is at almost 102 percent of capacity.

The Sierra snowpack is 113 percent above average, the highest for this time of year in a long time. The other good measure, water content of the snow, is also up. The Cascades at the north end of the state are also ahead of average snowpack.

My interpretation is that this is good news. There will be water to fish in.

Trying to read the forecasting tea-leaves can get far more complicated.

Mike Geary, proprietor of Healing Waters Lodge in Twin Bridges, Montana, found this Arctic Oscillation and Polar Vortex Forecast from the AER company:

“This week the predicted pattern across North America is troughing/negative pressure/geopotenial height anomalies with widespread normal to below-normal temperatures across Alaska and Western Canada and the Western United States (US) with ridging/positive geopotential height anomalies and normal to above normal temperatures widespread in central and eastern North American...”

Huh?

Mike’s guess is that this means there will be an average snowpack providing Montana’s rivers with a healthy supply of water for 2020. Check out Mike’s website at hwlodge.com.

While I’m waiting to see if our predictions come true, I have a stream on my bucket list that I’d like to try sometime soon. It is Putah Creek, the trout stream closest to Sonoma for winter fly-fishing.

It runs out of Lake Berryessa along Hwy. 128 toward the town of Winters. The easiest way to get there from Sonoma Valley is to drive east on Hwy. 80, then take Hwy. 505 North to the Winters turnoff.

One time many years ago, Fernando Tabor and I tried to fish Putah Creek without any advance research or the use of a guide. We got skunked. Our conclusion was we should have hired a guide.

There are several listed who guide there including Richard Loft, of Napa Valley Fly Guides, 294-4738, napavalleyflyguides.com.

Others include: Off the Hook Fly Fishing, 287-2939, and Greg Bonovich, putahcreekflyfishing.com, 480-3809.

Other good winter fishing spots right now include the lower Sacramento River where guide Kirk Portocarrero reports outstanding fishing for rainbow trout from Kewswick Dam near Redding down to Anderson. Call Kirk at (800) 670-4448 or (530) 515-5951, Sacriverguide.com.

If you want to catch steelhead, the Trinity River and Klamath River are both good now. The Fly Shop in Redding offers guiding on both those rivers. Call (530) 222-3555.