Flyfishing the Upper Drainage of the American River

Bill Carnazzo 

July 9, 2009

Bill Carnazzo will be the guest speaker at our July 9 meeting. Bill has been fly fishing for nearly 50 years, and guides on the Upper Sacramento, McCloud, Middle Fork American drainage (including the Rubicon, the North Fork of the Middle Fork, and all other streams and tributaries of this drainage), and North Yuba rivers. His guiding career began approximately 17 years ago when he bought his first home in Dunsmuir.

Bill is also a master fly tyer who ties at many fly fishing shows; he also is responsible for the “Fly-Tying How-To Center” at the International Sportsmen’s Expo show at Cal Expo each January. He was recently awarded the coveted “Ned Long Fly Tyer of the Year” award by the Northern California Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers. He has designed many original fly patterns that are known as “fish catchers,” including Bill’s Stick Caddis and other October Caddis imitations.

Bill works part time at Kiene’s Fly Shop in Sacramento, and teaches fly fishing courses at Sierra Community College and San Mateo Community College. He has authored a number of articles for The Sierra Fisherman and the California Fly Fisher magazines on a variety of topics, the latest of which was on the Middle Fork American drainage. He is a founding member of Granite Bay Flycasters and has been club president twice. When not guiding, Bill teaches fly tying classes for GBF and clinics on nymphing and pocket water flyfishing.

For our July meeting Bill will present a program on flyfishing the Middle Fork of the American River in the Upper American River drainage. He will cover places to fish on the Rubicon River, the Middle Fork above French Meadows Reservoir, Duncan Creek, Long Canyon Creek, the North Fork of the Middle Fork, and other venues. He will also talk about strategies, techniques, rigging, and flies. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about fishing locally for wild trout.