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November 8, 2009 - Clint Barton

I fished the South San Gabriel Sunday afternoon during the light rain showers. The water is great and the flow was just about perfect. I met two ladies from the Texas Women Fly Fishers who had caught a few small fish during the morning. I managed to catch 3 bass in the 10-12" range and a couple of hand sized sunfish. I didn't see an overabundance of fish but they are definitely on the way back!

October 18, 2009 - Tim Nickels

Begin and end times: 11:00-2:00
Air Temperature, weather conditions: 70's. clear, slight breeze
Water temperature, water condition: Comfortable for wet wading, gin clear water
Flies that worked: small Llano bugs, conehead black wooly bugger, small beadhead streamer in olve & white

Exquisite. Perfect weather. Previously I'd only caught small sunfish out of the S San Gabriel and suspected all the mature fish were lost in the drought. Today I came across a dozen or so 8-12" bass that were very healthy. They let me fish for them for about an hour, I brought a couple of 10" fish to hand and missed around 6 due to a variety of ineptness. The bottom of the river has been scoured clean, water is perfectly clear, great cover along the banks.

April 18, 2009 - Tim Nickels

Begin and end times: 2pm – 6pm
Air Temperature, weather conditions: Clear, sunny, 80°
Water temperature, water condition:Water was comfortable wading temp. River was quite full after last 2 days of rain, slightly off color but had cleared a lot in the 4 hours I was there. Water level appeared to still be rising. Lots of bigger pools were un-wadable due depth/visibility.

This was my first visit to fish the South San Gabriel, I know it has been ridiculously low for a long time. The river was in great shape, lots of water and lots of flow. Small fish were plentiful, lots of small sunfish and bass. No bigger fish were caught or seen, in spite of the incredible fishiness of the bigger pools now. I hope that the extended drought conditions didn’t impact the bigger fish too much.

The photos show the water color and flow in the area upstream from the River Down access point.

July 4, 2008 - Alex Argyros

DATE: July 4, 2008
BEGIN AND END TIMES: 4:30-8:30
AIR TEMPERATURE, WEATHER CONDITIONS: Hot
WATER CONDITION: Very Low
FLIES THAT WORKED: Black popper, olive cat's whisker

Fished from River Downs downstream for about a mile. River is very low, but there are still some pools and runs that hold a decent amount of water. Caught two diminutive bass and countless panfish. Almost all of the panfish were caught on a motionless black popper.

On a slightly different note, I'm concerned about what appears to be a new subdivision going in at the River Down Access. Will access to the river be affected? And how will the river fare with a bunch of new houses on its banks?

September 3, 2007 - Bruce Wilks

Went fly fishing on South Fork of the San Gabriel at River Down Road last Monday 11:30am to 5:30pm with Chris Johnson, We Started wading about two miles upstream above the hospital, wading down to the hospital, waded to IH-35, then back upstream to where we started. Fished with my new ADG 5wt TF 905/6-4 and caught 5 small bass and 29 sunfish. Caught about 17 fish on #10 olive and black beadhead buggers and the rest on #10 green and white foam spiders. I am sure Chris caught at least 45 fish... This 5wt is very easy to cast with little effort. While wade fishing and casting for 6.5 hours, had little or no fatigue in my arm. With over cast conditions, very clear water with a hard bottom for easy wading and sight casting, along with lots of structure along the bank and sub surface, so accurate casting to visible fish was very important, which this rod allowed me to do. Lots of fun...!!!

August 13, 2007 - Don Johnson

I fished from about 7:00 AM till about 10:30 AM. The tempature rose from about 75° to about 90° while I was fishing. The water was very clear and the river was beautiful. I fished downstream far enough to see the Wolf Ranch shopping center at the top of the bluff on the north side of the river. I caught: a lot of small sunfish plus two in the 8 inch range, one small 8 inch bass, and one quite nice 17 inch bass (see photo - I only had him on the bank long enough for the photo, then released him, frisky and healthy). All the fish were caught on an olive woolybugger tied on a 1/64 ounce micro jig.

The river flow at the USGS gauge downstream at I-35 was 30cfs.