Upper Sac and McCloud River recap

There is no better way to start summer than hot dogs cooked on a campfire after a day of fishing.Tuesday my buddy Kurt and I drove to the Upper Sacramento River for a three day, two night trip. It took all of five minutes to net the first fish just up from Lake Shasta. We got into good fish on the section around Sims Flat fishing the obvious runs with the obvious Upper Sacramento nymphs and stone fly patterns.The next morning we headed to the McCloud River.We saw more snakes than fish at first, and the first rainbow I brought in was far from impressive.Outside of its beauty, the first impression wasn't great, but things warmed up once I bounced a rubber legs pattern off the center, back side of a boulder and it was taken by a 16-inch brown. It was a stunning cast and beautiful fish. Naturally it flopped out of my hand before I could get a picture, so you'll have to take my word. Both Kurt and I hooked up a few times after that and then decided to spend the afternoon back on the Upper Sac.On the way back, an arm of Lake McCloud had a bunch of cruising trout we couldn't resist casting to.Back at the Upper Sac...The last morning we visited the Conant, Gibson, Pollard and Delta exits off I-5. I finished the trip with unusual encounters with squawfish. Some consider them poor-man's bonefish. Though I've never fished for a bonefish, based on what I've read and where I see people fish for bonefish, a squawfish is more of a dirt-poor, poor-man's bonefish, if that.I want to tell you about the next fish, but I'm not going to bother, becauseA) you wouldn't believe meB) there is no photographic evidenceC) it got awaySo I will skip to the last fish of the trip...another squawfish.Of all the time I've spent on the Upper Sacramento, I've never seen one, never even knew they lived there. And I catch TWO.I'm not going to look too deeply into that.