Railroad makes Upper Sac a river of fear
San Francisco Chronicle - 9/7/03
By Tom Stienstra, staff writer

The rumble in the distance sounded like a swelling earthquake, a growl glancing off the canyon walls. The first roll was a distant thunderclap, but then the pounding grew closer. As the Union Pacific freight train neared the bend in the river, the roar of the engines was deafening, spliced by screeches from rocking wheels and interlocking freight cars.

Thigh deep in the river, I cast to the edge of a slick at the end of a long riffle, mended the line to keep the fly drifting straight, and watched the train go by. It had monstrous tankers placarded with toxic warnings. What could be in them? Kill-everything poisons like hydrochloric acid? Sodium hydroxide? Hydrogen peroxide? Yes, these and many others.

Right then, a big rainbow trout, maybe 15 inches, surged from a deep tail- out and tried to grab my fly on the surface. But I was watching the train and was late on the set, and missed it.

That's how it is on the Upper Sacramento River. The fishing has been great most of this year - with conditions ideal for the late summer caddis hatch - yet over and over, you find yourself looking over your shoulder at those trains.

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