A guided day on Hat Creek

Anglers usually meet their guides either at The Fly Shop early in the morning or at the Hat Creek County Park. They can also pick you up at your hotel, campgrounds, or other convenient meeting site if it is arranged prior to your trip.
Depending on the time of year, we vary the meet times to put you on the water during the most productive times of the day.

When you meet your guide at The Fly Shop, they’ll check your licenses and ask to see your fly boxes. Most likely, they’ll make some recommendations based on what’s been working for them lately. They don’t want to load you down with flies you already have or don’t need, but they will want to make sure that you have enough of whatever’s working.

If you are scheduled to meet your guide anywhere other than at The Fly Shop, please check our general on-line trip equipment and fly checklist or give us a call at 800-669-3474 to get the latest reports and fly suggestions.

A full day walk and wade trip on Hat Creek will be about eight or nine hours long. Guides will likely take you into one or more of several access spots on the Wild Trout Section of Hat Creek, including the famous Powerhouse #2 riffle, Carbon Flats, Hat Creek County Park, or the freestone section just above Lake Britton. A few of these accesses do require some easy hiking on well-worn, low elevation trails.

During the long days of summer, our guides can fish either morning through afternoon, or afternoon through evening. Unfortunately, the days are simply too long to fish from dawn to dusk, as the guides are on the water every day. Based on your preferences and our most recent fishing reports, we’ll arrange the meet times to have you on the water during the best times of day. Sometimes a good option can be combining guided fishing trips on Hat Creek with a partial day on the Pit River, fishing Hat Creek in the morning or evening and the Pit in the middle of the day.

• All of the guided trips with The Fly Shop are fly fishing and catch-and-release only.
  
• Lunch is provided on all our full day trips. If you have any special dietary needs, you'll need to let us know in advance and, of course you are free to bring your own food, snacks, or beverages.
  
• Our guide team is on Hat Creek throughout the season. They are the unqualified experts. They know best what's working and what's not, and the list of flies that you'll need is usually very precise and accurate, and sometimes different for each guide. While spring creek trout can be finicky creatures and their diets frequently change from day to day, our guides work as a team and their intimate knowledge of the river and the current feeding habits make it an easy job to choose the effective fly patterns that will help make every day on the water productive.
  
• It's usually best to purchase flies the guide picks out on the morning of the trip. Guides don't provide the tippet and flies for your trip, and since most local trips begin with an early rendezvous at The Fly Shop, you can pick up whatever terminal tackle and flies you might need for the day before you hit the road. If you're an experienced angler and/or fly tier, call ahead and we'll let you know exactly what flies are producing so you can be sure to tie them beforehand or bring them along.
  
• Consider our "Package Deals" if you are just getting started in the sport. We'll match you up with the correct rod, reel, line, and all the flies, tippet, leaders, and terminal tackle you'll need for an extra $50 a day. The only things not included in that package are licenses or waders.
  
• The majority of our walk and wade trips are designed for one or two anglers sharing the guide for the day. Though we do occasionally accommodate three anglers (there is an additional fee for a third angler), we strongly advise against more than two fly rodders sharing a guide in most situations. Our guides have a lot of great information to share, but with three anglers they are really spread too thin to effectively help more than two anglers at a time, especially on the technical spring creek waters of Hat Creek. We never recommend attempting to take more than two novice anglers on a guided walk and wade trip to Hat Creek.
  
• Guides will either drive you to the river accesses in their vehicle, or have you follow them in yours. Most of the access spots on Hat Creek are easy to get to and do not require four wheel drive vehicles. There may be some dirt roads involved, but most two-wheel drive vehicles should not have a problem. If you don’t think your car will make it, you’re welcome to ride with the guide; to keep your gear close at hand, or have the ability to stay on the river fishing after your guided trip is over, you may want to drive separately and follow the guide.
  
• Every angler needs to have a current California fishing license.
  

To make a reservation, please give us a call at 800-669-3474 during business hours any day of the week. We can give you the answers you need or the detailed explanations to questions you might have, or check on guide availability and confirm your guide reservation in minutes.

If you prefer to correspond on-line simply e-mail us at info@adventuresinflyfishing.com and we will respond promptly.