Hogan Brown is a known name in the fly fishing world, especially in the West. He’s a well rounded, seasoned veteran, and his trout flies are some of the best around. Ironically, if you talk to Hogan, you’ll quickly realize he’s actually not that much of a trout guy — or at least not anymore. These days, Hogan prefers to chase larger fish with more pound for pound fight. Hogan is one of the top dogs in the game of river striper fishing and has carved out a name for himself in the Northern California guide scene for years. Coming up alongside California Delta striper savants like Mike Costello and John Sherman — Hogan is dialed. Before his guide season kicked into full swing, we asked him to share his story and tell us more about making the switch from being a drift boat trout guy, to a dedicated river striper fiend.
~ Simms Fishing

In Northern California, when you say you’re a fly fishing guide or that you fly fish, most folks have a fairly pointed preconceived notion as to what that looks like and/or what that means. By and large, people envision drift boats, big western tailwaters, cascading coastal rivers, trout, and steelhead. The picture they’re painting in their mind is what I consider to be Instagram’s ideal image of the sport. It’s always interesting when I explain to them that no I guide and fly fish for bass. More often than not, that commentary results in a complexed look at best. Then, as I explain where I fish and how I do what I do, a perplexed look turns to a glazed over and confused look. It’s almost like the processing power of the human brain just can’t handle the idea that someone would want to fish for bass with a fly rod — let alone be able to stay busy guiding fly focused clients for bass. Like holding down the power button and running a forced restart, this is when I typically change the topic of conversation. I have been lucky enough to earn a living as a fly fishing guide for many years now. And while these conversations have become less common, they are still the norm.

Now — I did start out as a trout and steelhead guide, shoveling water and pushing a drift boat down the rivers of Northern California. In fact, that was my program for over a decade. However, over time, I realized that rowing a drift boat 200 days a year speeds up the expiration date on the functionality of certain parts of your body, usually the spine and the shoulders. I figured if I was going to guide and fish for the duration of my time on earth, I may need to work smarter, not harder.

In 2004 I started spending a lot of my free time chasing largemouth bass around ponds and small creeks surrounding Chico, California. I even found enough clients that wanted to fish for bass that I started sliding my drift boat into a few of these ponds to make a day of guiding out of it. The real gem though was the migratory run of stripers that would swim up the lower Sacramento River from the California Delta and San Francisco Bay through the Chico area.

At the time, the common understanding was that these fish would only eat sardines soaked on the bottom of the river or live minnows drifted down river — and, you only had until late May to do it. Essentially, when the American shad showed up, the striper window was closed. However, I started running into some, what I will call cagey old timers at a local watering hole that spoke of resident stripers that lived in the river year-round, which obviously sparked my curiosity.  Cagey is like saying the cartel or mafia is moderately private about their operations. By the time these guys were out on the river, the crowds of shad fisherman were gone and the hordes of salmon anglers had yet to show up. The river was pretty much empty, aside from the college tubers and occasional family jet boat trip out to cool off during the triple digit heat of the Northern California summers.

Many of these guys were still not happy with the level of anonymity that the lack of humans on the river provided, so some would fish at night exclusively. For me, it took quite an investment of bud light at said local watering...