Salmon moving up the Mad River near...

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

.....Blue Lakes in Nor Cal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOvEPPpRioU&feature=player_embedded


It is a big year for salmon in California.

Just part of the big cycle of nature.


.

[Jeff F]

Wow! That's pretty cool. Won't see the Mad that low and clear again until next July, that's for sure!

Once they get past those little riffles, they have to run the gauntlet of 1000's of big red Gamakatsu's! Good luck salmon. You too steelhead!

[Jeff C.]

I witnessed something more impressive than that on the Lower American about 10 years ago. I went to Hud's Riffle (now long gone) at Lower Goethe two days after a big rain and saw groups of birght chrome salmon shoot up the riffle in groups, 8-10 at a time. There must have been hundreds that pasted me on theri way up the riffle. I hooked three but couldn't slow those silver bullet freight trains because I only had an 8 wt rod. The first one I hooked I had my finger on the line and it burned a groove in my finger. The second one, I tried palming the reel but it spun so fast the knob kept whacking my thumb. The third one, I tried my drag but it just snapped off. Guys with 10 weights were landing them but they had to chase them downriver.

[winxp_man]

I was on the American river (October 31, 2012) and wished I would have recorded some video of what was going on that has not happened since I last fished the American for salmon back in 2006.

The salmon were going nuts and the amount of fish what where in the water was incredible! At sunrise above the main bridge there are fish everywhere some spawning some going further up fish everywhere plain and simple. I will try to go out tomorrow morning and get some videos of some nice scenery.

[golfish]

Here's some clips from the Iron Gate Hatchery open house from a month ago when I took a little break from fishing...

https://vimeo.com/52826856

[RedSnapper]

I took a ride out to Blue Lake this afternoon to have a look around. The river is currently closed due to low flows, but the run at the bridge was holding a good sized pod of huge kings. There were plenty of steelhead holding all around them also. We need more rain, hopefully this week..