Fishing Seasons for Battle Creek Canyon

The headwaters of Battle Creeks many forks start bubbling out of the aquifer under Mt Lassen, and they gradually carve their way through the rugged volcanic region of eastern Shasta County before draining into the Lower Sacramento River just south of the city of Anderson. Our private ranch access on Battle Creek begins just below the junction of the north and south forks of Battle Creek, and ends three miles above the Coleman National Fish Hatchery just upstream from the Sacramento River.

The advantage to these downstream waters is the possibility of hooking into a big, powerful Central Valley steelhead, as Battle Creek is one of the main spawning tributaries for salmon and steelhead that ascend the Sacramento River each fall. The disadvantage, if it can be called such, is that it is affected by runoff conditions in the early season and warm water temperatures in the middle of summer. Late spring/early summer and the fall months, however, are consistent and provide stellar opportunities on Battle Creek.

May, June, and July

Depending on the severity of each year’s runoff, high water conditions can make the fishing difficult on Battle Creek during the month of May and first week or two of June. On dry years, however, Battle Creek can fish well starting as early as the first of May. When flows are low enough to allow fishing, these early season months can be great, with daily hatches of salmonflies, golden stoneflies, PMDs, and caddis. The dry fly fishing can be as good as it gets, and anglers willing to dredge the deeper pools with nymphs and streamers will produce some of the biggest fish the creek has to offer.
June and the first half of July are consistent prime times for Battle Creek.

Golden stoneflies are prevalent, and casting big dry flies – or sometimes suspending dropper nymphs below these big dries – will produce fish after fish all day long. Nymphs and streamers continue to bring the bigger trout to hand in the deep pools, while every other pocket and riffle in the stream can be alive with aggressive wild rainbows looking for big insects.

July and August

The fishing on Battle Creek during the middle of the summer depends on the past year’s winter and snowpack on Mt Lassen. On years with good snowpack, water temperatures remain cool and summertime fishing can be phenomenal. The biggest bugs this time of year are terrestrial, with grasshoppers the main course. When the fish won’t rise to a grasshopper, they’ll eat smaller stonefly, mayfly, and caddis nymphs all day long.

On dryer years, however, water temperatures on Battle Creek can get too warm to fish during the dog days of summer, from the end of July through August and sometimes the first week or two of September.

September, October, November

By mid-September, the first cool nights of fall begin to bring water temperatures back to levels that are healthy for the resident rainbows on Battle Creek. The fall is one of the best times of year on Battle Creek. There aren’t as many dry fly hatches at this time of year, but the fish are concentrating on fattening up for the winter and eat aquatic nymphs like there’s no tomorrow. Stonefly nymphs, caddis nymphs, mayfly nymphs…they’re all affective throughout the course of each angling day.

As an added bonus, Central Valley steelhead that can push 6-8 pounds or bigger make their annual migrations up Battle Creek to spawn. These steelhead can be found in the stream anytime from mid-September until closing day of trout season (November 15), although the end of October and first two weeks of November are certainly the best weeks of the year to hook a monstrous adult steelhead in the narrow canyon waters.