Oroville camping and fishing

Marsha/CA said:

If you get up to Oriville, Ca there is a great RV park up there.  Feather Falls RV Park and Casino.  It is very very nice.  Infact I'm thinking of doing a Flyfishing Rally there in the fall.

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Hi Marsha,

We move down to Oroville tomorrow. Checked out the Feather Falls RV Park online, and it looks like a nice park (operated by KOA). Were you thinking of this as a base for fishing below the dam, on the lake, or above the lake? I'm trying to decide if we'll look for a park on the Feather above the lake.

In any event, we'll check out Feather Falls.

Do you have possible dates for the rally?

TIA.

Hi Tom, we just got home from visiting our youngest son in Idyllwild, CA and looking for a place to take the coach over Thanksgiving week. 

This is just preliminary and in the planning stages, so don't hold me to the dates, but I'm looking at the first several days of October of 2011. 

I've gathered info on flyfishing for a guide service up in Oroville.  They will provide boats and guides and will also provide full equipment (waders, tackel and instruction) for an additional fee for those who have never fly fished and want to try it.  They can guide the Feather River, The McCloud and the lake.  Apparently fishing is not as good during the summer months, but beginning in October the trout pick up, as well as, inland steelhead.  Also I can picture Oroville being hot in the summer months.  It was in the 100s when we were there in August.

I'm lining up a photographer to put on a photo seminar.  And will possibly have a horseshoe tournament, a game night and a "Husband Cook" Breakfast like Gary did at some of the East Coast Rallys. 

The campground is located on an Indian casino so there is gambling, a buffett and a lounge with entertainment.  The campground also has a pool, hot tub and a dog run.  There are full hooks with 50 amp and cable TV.  The only draw back to the location is not alot of shopping for those who don't like fishing or photography or sitting by the pool.  The campground is a small (under 50 sites) very nice facility.  It's satellite friendly, grassy sites, has a "meeting room". 

I have in mind recruiting a couple to help with this.  Tim and I will be Alaska all summer and may not have cell service or internet for some of the time prior to the possible rally.  It would be nice to have someone else be available to answer questions and/or to interface with the campground if we can't be reached.

So those are my thoughts.  My plan is to solidify my reservation sometime this week.  They need a minimum of 8 rigs to give us a 10% discount on the campsites.  The sites will all be in a specific area with 4 sites on one side and the other 4 on the other side.  Here is their website  http://www.featherfallscasino.com/koa-kamping

Marsha~

Sounds great Marsha, and you're well into the planning.

We arrived at Feather Falls this afternoon. A really nice RV park.

I spent some time checking out the river, visited a couple of tackle shops, and talked with a couple of local fishermen. They seem to be using worms or spinners. Plenty of access places, but doesn't seem good for wading and fly fishing; This is obviously where a guide earns his money. Plan to check out some more places and talk to more locals tomorrow.

Saw lots of good sized steelhead leaping out of the water. Couldn't get a good shot with the camera because I couldn't anticipate where the next one would jump.

Best I could do for pictures. I'll try to take some better ones tomorrow.

Tom, I'll be interested in hearing what you find out re the fishing.  One of my worries about the Oroville location was poor fishing and poor photography subjects.  We've not fished the western side of the Sierras, we are usually on the eastern side.  Maybe I'll rethink this.  Tim and I will be up and down Highway #395 in October and I'll do more scouting.  Maybe the Bishop area would be better.

Marsha~

Marsha,

I'm trying to keep an open mind, at least until I've had a chance to do more research, but I already decided I won't be fishing today.

If you're re-thinking it, there are a number of great locations along hwy 395, including Bridgeport, Mammoth Lakes, June Lake Loop, and the Owens River.

If you haven't been there, check out Browns Owens River CG on your upcoming trip; A few miles south of the Mammoth airport you'll see a small green church on your right (as you head north). Turn right at the church and approx 7 miles down that road you'll cross the river, and Brown's will be on the right shortly afterwards. Large CG alongside the river, with lots of places to fish, including several stretches of the Owens and Crowley Lake.

BTW Marsha, there were some definite clues at the local sporting goods/tackle shops; One had lots of lures but no fly fishing gear at all, and the other had one fly rod, some spinning rods, and a huge display of handguns, shotguns, rifles, and trapshoot gear.

OTOH if anyone hasn't seen the windows in the fish ladder when the salmon come upstream, it's quite something to see.

Marsha,

Here are some fishing notes from our trip down 395 last year. Here's hoping you'll post something similar from your upcoming trip; I suspect you know a lot more places to fish.

Tom, since you aren't catching any fish, you will be happy to know that you can now come home and drive down our street.  We came in today, but had to come around from the backside.

We were out most of the day driving around and checking some stuff out. Bottom line is that I don't see fly fishing being a good option below the lake. Several branches of the Feather empty into the lake, and these upper forks offer good fishing, but they're a long way from here.

I tried researching campgrounds above the lake before we came here yesterday, but was unsuccessful. We were told at the visitors center today that a couple of state campgrounds on the lake would "accommodate motorhomes up to and including 40 feet". The ranger even showed us her cheat sheet showing the length limit, but I'm still skeptical. We ran out of time and didn't physically check out the campgrounds.

The lake itself is very low, with several boat ramps closed. This will obviously change during the spring runoff from snow melt. I didn't talk to anyone who fished the lake recently.

We attempted to check out Feather Falls, and it seems that this casino and campground aren't anywhere near, despite their name. It was a 50 miles round trip by car, much of it on a very narrow twisty road, and another 10 miles round trip hike to the falls. Since we weren't properly attired for a long hike, we only hiked in part way.

The river at the fish hatchery is literally teeming with salmon returning from the Pacific to spawn (tough to see, but look at the dark masses in the photo). On some magical date, which happens to be tomorrow (9/15), the hatchery staff open the fish ladder, allowing salmon to exit the river. There are underwater windows that allow you to view the salmon ascending  the ladder. It's been 25 years since we last saw this, but today we had  to settle for watching a video at the visitors center.

The fish are anaesthetized before hatchery staff sort the males from the females, remove the eggs, fertilize them with milt from the males, and put them in an incubator to hatch. Since Pacific salmon die after spawning anyway, the fish are humanely killed during the process.

I'm beginning to think that the steelhead I saw lower down the river yesterday were actually salmon.
edit: fixed typos.

[quote author=caltex]... you will be happy to know that you can now come home and drive down our street.[/quote]

Thanks Robert, but you were supposed to say that the street was still blocked, so I'd have an excuse to go in search of more fishing.

This was primarily a fishing trip with a secondary mission of checking out future fishing opportunities. However, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the opportunity to play Dorothy and the Tin Man; The City of Oroville has provided a fun and interesting way to explore the area: A green line painted on the roadway alongside the yellow lines.

Aptly named The Greenline Tour, you can follow the green line and discover a number of local attractions and landmarks.

On some magical date ..... the hatchery  staff open the fish ladder, allowing salmon to exit the river. There are  underwater windows that allow you to view the salmon ascending the  ladder.

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We decided that we couldn't miss the spectacle. We arranged a "late checkout" (2.00pm) from the campground, allowing us to visit the hatchery today. They'd opened the fish ladder, and we watched for an hour or two, awaiting the first fish. Hatchery staff, local dignitaries, and a press photographer were on hand for the event.

Our wait was rewarded as the first couple of fish ascended the ladder and reached the underwater viewing area. They were followed by a number of other salmon, and they eventually reached the gathering tank at the top of the ladder (a half mile trip from the river).

I was getting a little frustrated trying to 'catch the action' at the fish ladder, when Chris mentioned a video camera. That's when I remembered that my digital camera could take videos. I've uploaded a couple to YouTube; The first shows salmon schooling in the river, near the entrance to the fish ladder. The second shows a female salmon visible through a viewing window while ascending the ladder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOCfQQW1Hhg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z_f_oA3C94

Tom said:

Hi Marsha, We move down to Oroville tomorrow. Checked out the Feather Falls RV Park online, and it looks like a nice park (operated by KOA). Were you thinking of this as a base for fishing below the dam, on the lake, or above the lake? I'm trying to decide if we'll look for a park on the Feather above the lake.

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Have you been to the Sycamore Ranch RV Park & Campground in Brown's Valley? Our two doggies especially liked it. Shady, with a slow moving part of the Yuba River right in it, complete with  lots of mosquitoes.  We were there a couple of weeks ago.   

See:
http://www.travelingusa.com/business/sycamoreranch/index.html?from_cat=Activities%20and%20Entertainment

But if you put their address in your Garmin GPS, it will take you about a mile or two east of it.

It's really at:

  N39.22630
W121.40643

-Don-                                             

Hi Don,

Sycamore Ranch is where our coach got some (permanent) scratches from "shady" when we stayed there a couple of years ago. We wondered why we were the only folks in the whole park.

I fished that section of Yuba, and also checked out other parts of the river and talked with a guide. One of these days I'm going to fish the main Yuba. Float boat is the way most locals fish it; Park your car, put in at the nearest spot, and fish the river while floating several miles downstream. There are places you can take out and get a ride back to your car (for a fee).

BTW if you look closely, a couple of fish in the photos I took had previously been tagged. A hatchery employee explained that they were spring run salmon that were tagged at the top of the ladder, and returned to the river unharmed before the gate was closed. They've been in the river until the gate was re-opened yesterday. Another employee explained that biologists are running various experiments/collecting data using tagged fish.

Tom said:

Hi Don,
We wondered why we were the only folks in the whole park.

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There was only one other RV when we were there. We wondered the same thing. But the doggies (their little doggy and our two) got to run around free and had a blast.

I think the heat (during the day) and mosquitoes (all day and night) were too much for most people.