Fishing near Willits

[Loren E]

Hey all, my buddy has a place near the town of Willits, and we were thinking of heading up this weekend (no homework weekend from school). Any good steelheading water in that area? I think it is pretty close to the Eel River, but might be pretty high up. If you would prefer to respond through email, my address is lse@sonic.net. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! thanks in advance -Loren

[Rick J]

Actually the South Fork Eel looks like it could be in shape by the weekend up high - I would drive north up towards Garberville but stay higher up river - around Ricahrdson Grove or there abouts and you should find some fishable water - good luck

http://ahps2.wrh.noaa.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=eka&gage=mrnc1&view=1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1

[Loren E]

Rick, thanks for the info! How would you reccomend fishing this water? Swinging streamers? I really havn't fished coastal steelhead before, so I'm not sure about patterns and heads. I don't have any two-handed equipment, but do have 7-9 weights. That report you posted was awesome! I'd love to get into a chromer like that. I guess the river is high and hopefully will come down to a fishable level by this weekend? Thanks for the help man, greatly appreciated -Loren

[Rick J]

Loren,
I would for sure opt for the 9 wt - not sure what lines you have for it. If you have any very fast sink tips I would likely start with that or if you have shooting heads you might try them. For flies, with a single hander, the real big stuff is a pain to cast so I would opt for smaller flies but likely stick with marabou type patterns and maybe even some commets. Use a short leader and fish the edges - do not overcast the water - with a single hander, it is harder to keep line off the water so fish closer and fish the water well - try to look for runs that have some structure to them - sandy bottom runs usually don't afford much cover or breaks in velocities - look for runs that have bigger rocks and cast out just into the fast water and try to let the fly swing right along the edge then let it swing all the way in to the hang down below you. During heavy flows I will often opt for lighter stuff and tips that don't sink so fast as I concentrate on the edges in the slower current - that is where many of the fihs will hang

[Loren E]

what about these bugs for the eel this weekend?

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p295/lorenelliott/steelheadflies008.jpg

[nrthcsteel]

Those are looking good, looking real good... If you happen to not make it for some reason you can just send em my way and Id be happy to try em out for ya! :D kevin

[Loren E]

Kevin, hope to see ya up there Saturday man! I'd be happy to share!

p.s. i'm a total newbie and really don't know anything about color selection here. Blacks if its cloudy, brights if its sunny? Doesn't matter? What would you other steelheaders tie on first this Sat. on the eel?

[Rick J]

No Loren - those won't work at all - you should just put them in an envelope and send them to me so I can fix them :)

Any one of those will be great - If I had to pick one to tie on first it would be the purple and pink pattern - those are probably two of my favorite winter colors but if a steelhead wants to open up I expect he would grab anyone of those flies!

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Those are beautiful patterns..............thanks for sharing Loren.

[nrthcsteel]

Loren what I normally do is decide which fly to use once I see the water. Ill take color/flow/type of water into consideration then decide. But really I ususally open the box have a looksee and just put one on that happens to look good or feel good to me at the moment. It might be black, red , purple , blue , yellow , whitle, pink , green, etc etc. Just tie something on you like and feel good about and MOST importantly fish it confdently and try and make as good a presentation to Mr and Mrs steelhead as you can and they will let you know what THEY think about your fly. For what its worth I would put that red marabou on in a second if the water conditions were lower and clear. Ive had a few steelhead give me some GOOD opinions about red flies in low/clear water conditions. Kevin

[Loren E]

Very cool guys, and I'm assuming its a barbless only river.