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.
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.