Bill Heger Guide Service

I fished the Mokelumne River yesterday with my friend, and fellow AFF Member, Bill Heger.  We launched his drift boat at his friend Jim's house, just below the park at Camanche and floated down to the Mackville Road take out.  I met Bill at the takeout and drove back up to Jim's.  When we arrived streamside there were fish rising to something.  We fished there with Jim for an hour and a half with Jim being the only one to have his fly touched (he landed 2 or 3 on a Griffith's Gnat).  I was using the same fly, thought I am not sure if they were the same size, and I didn't get a bump.  We gave up right about the time Jim had to go back in the house for a phone call ~08:30. 

We floated downstream a little ways with me casting to some more rising fish with no luck.  I think I threw dang near my whole dry fly box at them with no such luck.  Due to the heat we decided to forego the waders and just wade wet.  It made the 105 degree heat a little more bearable.  Thanks for the idea, and for the Simms wading socks Bill!  It would have been miserable, even with breathable waders on, in that heat. 

We acnchored the boat and got out to fish a riffle a little ways downstream.  Bill has names for the different holes on the river but I have trouble trying to keep them all straight!  Anyway, Bill picked up a couple of nice fish on nymphs, I believe he had a Prince on.  I picked up one fish but lost it during the acrobatic fight. 

We loaded up and floated downstream a little bit farther, once again stopping at another riffle and dismounting.  I tried nymphing for a little while before switching to the rod I had rigged up with a Teeny 200 and swinging a Rickards Seal Bugger.  I managed a nice wild, hard pulling 14" Rainbow and bill had a few grabs on the streamer he was using, I did not see what it was.  We stopped at the hole where I caught the 24" fish a few years ago adn I headed straight back to that spot.  Either he wasn't there anymore, or was not hungry for a streamer for lunch.  I worked my way back to the top of the run where Bill was nymphing.  He had picked up a couple of fish while I was flailing at the water with a Teeny 200 setup.  I switched over to the nymphing rig and managed to hook and land three more fish, getting progressively smaller, from the same water Bill had just caught his three fish in.

We loaded back up and moved farther down stream stopping to fish a tailout and a nice riffle below that.  I managed to hook but not land two fish on a Hare's Ear.  The nymph that had been working for me all day (granted I had to go through 3 different variations due to running out of two because of donations to the fishing gods)... 

We stopped just above the Highway 88 bridge and I picked up a nice 12" Rainbow (Hare's Ear again).  Bill had several strikes, but was only able to land one fish that I saw.  By the time we had finished fishing under the bridge and loaded up it was already 1:00.  Man time flies when you are having fun!  We had stated that we would eat lunch at the bridge, but forgot all about it until after we were already moving downstream.  Dang, I hate it when that happens!

We fished several more spots on our way downstream and i picked up a couple of tiny fish that jumped like mad before spitting the hook.  Did I mention that it was 105 degrees yesterday?  We finally stopped in a shaded area about 3:40 and I was getting a headache and felt nauseous.  We had mentioned waiting to eat until the takeout, but I needed food now.  We made up sandwiches and then fished the riffle and run where we had parked with no real luck.  We then packed up and moved again.  At least I started to feel a little better...

We stopped at a really nice looking hole where a riffle and run dropped into a big hole right next to a vertical wall.  Bill mentioned that someone else had told him tha the had caught a hog in that hole.  So while he tried to steady the boat and got the anchor set I made several feeble attempts at getting a drift along the wall.  Apparrently my indicator was set too shallow because I did not get a bump from anything.  We stopped at one last spot and fished a really nice looking riffle that was dropping into a run.  I picked up a nice 12" Rainbow, again on a Hare's Ear, at the bottom of the riffle where it was funneling into the run.  Then it was time to hop in the boat and row like crazy to get to the takeout by 5:00. 

All in all a nice, albeit VERY HOT, day on the Lower Mokelumne River.  The only drawback to the day was the trash and empty cans that were strewn all over the place.  I wished I had had a gaff or pike pole to retrieve the cans that were on the bottom of the river.  We picked up enough cans, bottles and trash to make a nice pile in the back of the boat.  When we got to the takeout the place was crawling with people, and more were showing up!  I found some spare plastic grocery bags and filled two of them to teh top with recyclables.  We threw the trash away at the dumpster.  If everyone that recreated on the river would do the same it would drastically improve the experience.  Please try to leave the places you visit cleaner, or better, than when you found them...