Fishing Tips - Digger Creek Ranch

Located in the picturesque Forward Valley • Forward Mill Road • Manton, California

Fishing Tips

In the lakes & ponds, expect to find damsel flies, various mayflies, midges and caddis plus aquatic beetles and water boatmen. Around the edges, terrestrials (ants, beetles and grasshoppers) make their annual appearances. The stream contains various mayflies, caddis, stoneflies, and of course, terrestrials. To ensure your success at Digger Creek Ranch, you must arrive properly equipped with the appropriate flies, leaders & tippet for its waters and their condition. You will find suggestions to help you with your selections in the information below.

All season long, using a variety of flies and retrieving methods will most likely be necessary. Larger flies like buggers, and leeches or attractor flies like prince nymphs, etc. will work all year, but certainly are useful in the higher water conditions of early season. Trailing a nymph behind a bugger can be deadly. Using a variety of sinking nymphs and experimenting with different retrieves at different depths usually brings success. Bead headed patterns seem to be just the thing one time and the same pattern, minus the bead head, is needed the next time. Sometimes just slowly pulling the nymph back will work & sometimes using short, rapid twitches as a retrieve is the ticket. At times, the fish are keying in on a fly that sits on top of the surface film (meniscus) and other times they are really taking the same fly in the meniscus or just underneath it. Careful observation and the willingness to experiment are two vital traits for the successful fisherman.

For the lakes, bring floating and sink tip or sinking lines (up to type HI). You will need long leaders (12 R) tapered to 5x or 6x for the dry activity, and shorter leaders (9-10 ft) tapered to 3x or 4x for nymphs & streamers. You may have to add 2-3 ft of tippet to your dry fly leader. Expect a lot of action using emerging patterns just underneath the surface. Many of our regulars fish some type of dry or emerger with a dropper off the bend of the hook and a nymph or midge pupa attached. Many times using an indicator and various nymphs at different depths will save the day. Expect midge activity to start in early spring and continue all year. Mayflies start in late spring and early summer. Terrestrials are effective after spring has past and the warmer days of summer approach. Leeches, damsels & dragonflies patterns work from spring on. A crystal bugger or leech with a nymph trailer can be deadly. Crystal Buggers, Leeches, Damsels, Callibaetis, Prince Nymphs, Bead Headed Birds Nest, Flashback PT's, Parachute Adams, Ants, Beetles, Hoppers, Caddis Emergers, Deep Snail, Elk Hair Caddis, & Midges are all flies you should consider for the lakes of Digger Creek Ranch.

For the stream, shorter leaders tapered to 4x or 5x are more appropriate. Deer hair flies with short droppers or no droppers will produce. Nymphs of various sizes and colors should be in your box. Yellow Humphies, Stimulators & Elk Hair Caddis are high on our list for dries, but there are a number of other popular patterns that will work as well. Black AP's, PT's & Golden Stones are some of the nymphs we would try first.

For Information and Reservations
Contact Private Fly Water:
(916) 769-9112, Terry Thomas
(916) 834-9126, Jim Christensen
email: hatcrek@comcast.net