North Coast Rivers Wrap Up:
All rivers remain high and muddy and with the exception of the Smith most will remain so through the New Year. Currently at 7:AM Christmas eve the Smith is at 14 feet and dropping ever so slowly. One more system is expected Christmas day and Wednesday with dry weather returning Thursday and now very possibly through the weekend. The guidance plot calls for the Smith to be back to 12 feet and fishing on Friday and if conditions remain dry the Smith will be in PERFECT shape next weekend and going into next week. There is a huge snowpack in the lower elevations and this means that rivers will drop a bit more slowly than usual. Other than the Smith, far upper Trinity (or lining on the muddy Mad) there will be few opportunities available. I would expect the Smith to be very crowded at least until the Chetco comes in on Sunday or Monday.

The Trinity with it's dam controlled flows is a green spot and an otherwise brown and muddy map. Releases off of Lewiston are just 300CFS and at Douglas City the river is flowing at 700CFS. We will track down a report from Steve Huber but in the mean time the far upper Trinity looks to be an excellent bet but the river below Burnt Ranch is high the lower river  will be out for some time.

The upper Klamath is having a very white Christmas with 2 to 3 feet of snow on the river river. Wally Johnson reported yesterday that the whole upper river was without power for the three days due to the snow taking out 100s of trees. He is concerned that with the huge snowpack a "pineapple express" type storm could result in some significant flooding on the lower river. With more snow forecasted Tuesday and Wednesday any increase of rain in the high elevations will push the Klamath up very rapidly.

The Russian crested last night at 16.34 or 32K CFS at Healdsburg and is slowly dropping and currently at 14 feet or roughly 23K CFS. One thing to watch on the Russian is dam capacity at both Lake Mendocino and Lake Sonoma. Both are presently at respective 72% and 71% capacity or 136% and 140% of average for this date. As these lakes continue to fill dam releases will become higher and more frequent and can often ruin an angler's best laid plans.
Before this latest set of storms local guru Hunt Conrad reported that a handful of boats drifted below Healdsburg and saw 1 to 3 fish counts apiece early last week. Hunt said there was even a rumor of one boat landing 5 and bankies taking a few scattered fish at Dry Creek. Counts did improve here last year and hopefully the uptrend continues after three very slow years.

The Mad is still very high at 11.2 feet but should to giving up some fish to the line crowd as flows drop under 10. It will remain very muddy until we see at least a week to 10 days of dry weather. 

The South Fork Eel crested at 20 feet last night (Miranda) and has since dropped to 16. It will take a week of dry weather for the lower South Fork to fish but the section above the East Branch could fish by New Years day. After a HUGE salmon return this fall we should see a another strong steelhead season here IF Ma Nature gives us a break from all the rain.
All watersheds are very saturated and with the heavy snowpack all rivers will take a bit more time to come in. When you do go, have a Plan B and be prepared to move around to find better conditions.

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Trinity:
 After a series of storms blew out all rivers earlier this month nearly all are back in play. The weather has turned much colder and water temps on the Trinity have dropped over 5 degrees in the past week. Steve Huber checked in on Friday 12-14 to report that fishing is decent and they are able to put their groups into 2 to 5 steelhead per day. Plugs have been very productive with the colder temps but Steve says in some spots roe is a better choice. The action has been best in the late morning and early afternoon hours once the sun is on the water and the fish get a bit more active. A warm rain could spur the bite but for now it's winter time tactics.

Steve has also announced dates for next spring's Rogue river specials. These trips sold out in a very short time last season and with dates already booked we expect the same this year. Four of us joined Steve last season and really enjoyed being back in Gold beach. The dinner and ocean front rooms were first calls we had two fish to the boat to nearly 30 pounds and messed a couple of others.