North Fork and Middle Fork Cosumnes River

Suggested Flies for North Fork and Middle Fork Cosumnes:
Sierra Tahoe Hatch Selection

Other Local Favorites:

Dries:
Clark's Little Yellow Stonefly #12-16
Yellow Madam X #12-14
Stimulator #6-12
Royal Trude #12-14
X-Caddis,Olive #14-18
Elk Hair Caddis #14-18
Brown Comparadun #12
BWO Quigley Cripple #16-18

Directions:

From Placerville, take Highway 50 east to Pollock Pines and exit Sly Park Road. Sly Park will go past Jenkinson Lake and proceed to the community of Pleasant Valley. Take Mt Aukum Road to the North Fork Cosumnes near Somerset.

Notes:
The North Fork of the Cosumnes River is one of the few rivers on the west side of the Sierra without any dams. It flows for 40 miles starting at the headwaters of Singleton Springs just east of Leek Spring Hill and flows west through the community of Meiss and picking up more water from Van Horn Creek, the Steely Fork of the Cosumnes, and Butte Creek until it reaches the community of Somerset where Camp Creek, it's largest tributary, joins the river. There are a number of diversion ditches that divert flow from the North Fork at the confluence of the Steely Fork and Camp Creek and this creates a low flow during the summer months with warm water temperatures. The flows become almost nonexistent between August and October with the lower elevations of the Cosmunes. Small rainbows and browns are found throughout the North Fork with some Brookies in the higher elevations above Meiss. Since the headwaters are below 5000 feet, the Cosumnes does not recieve a great deal of snow melt and this allows the river to be fished in early season. However, the lower elevations warm up fairly quickly, so trout fishing is best above 4,000 feet. The lower portions of the Cosumnes has a number of warmwater species starting with Smallmouth Bass in the upper reaches and transitioning to Largemouth Bass, Sunfish, Bluegill, Sacramento Suckers, and Pacific Lamprey. The transtion zone between warmwater and coldwater species appears to be near the Sweeny Crossing bridge. The Steely Fork of the Cosumnes has small rainbows and browns above Grizzly Flats but flows are quite low and the fish struggle to maintain a viable population.

Camp Creek: A freestone stream with riffles and pools. Best fished above Bonetti Road as the canyon water is very inaccessable. Holds a good population of Browns and Rainbows, the rainbows becoming more dominant as you proceed upstream. Camp Creek is the main tributary to the North Fork Cosumnes..

Jenkinson Lake: (640 acres at 3,400') Also known as Sly Park Lake, the lake is fed by Camp Creek and is released into the North Fork Cosumnes. A very popular lake with a close proximity to Placerville, the lake has Lake Trout, Rainbows, and Browns as well as Smallmouth and Largemouth Bass. CDFW stocks over 8,000 pan-size rainbows each year as wekk as over 10,000 fingerling browns annually. Best fly fishing is during March and April when the fish are within the shallow coves.

Dogtown Creek: A freestone stream with riffles and pools. Has small browns and rainbows. Best fished upstream from Caldor. A trail follows the creek upstream from the Caldor Ranger Station. Caldor is an old lumber mill town from the 1900's when a company known as California Doors bought the land and established a mill at the site to make door and sash items. The mill burned in 1923 and logging continued within the area until 1970.

Fishing Regulations (Effective March 1st, 2021)

North Fork and Middle Fork Cosumnes River:

All Lakes and Reservoirs:

Open all year. No restrictions. 5 trout per day. 10 trout in possession.

All other creeks and tributaries: