Still to many Salmon in the feather to effectively fish for Steelhead

[Bluegrass Bill]

The last time I was on the Lower Feather around the first of October there were so many salmon in the river it was virtually impossible to fish for steelhead without snagging a salmon. I was up in Yuba City today and decided to run up and take a look at river conditions now just below highway 162. I found there are still tons of salmon in the water, There are now however a lot more dead ones along the bank and littering the river bottom creating quite an odor problem. I had high hopes that indicator fishing with a bead on the bottom and a small nymph above that would interest a steelhead but no luck there. And there were still problems with to many Salmon running into the setup and getting hooked. It has been an Incredible salmon run on the feather this year but I am ready for them to finish their thing and make room for the steelhead!

[winxp_man]

The steelies are in there just hard to get to like you said. And I can not believe that there are that many still that it makes it hard to fish for steelies! Just a bit longer and all will be well. As for the odor that's part of nature and cant argue with that :D It personally does not bother me at all.

[Jeff F]

As for the odor that's part of nature and cant argue with that :D It personally does not bother me at all.

The odor didn't bother me until my freakin' dogs found it fun to roll on mushy dead salmon! Took a week to get that stink off them. Funny though.....when I lived in Sac, I used to fish H Street alot from the golf course side. I remember seeing people walking their dogs on the River Park side below the bridge. The dogs would bolt down from the top of the levee down to the shore and start rolling on the dead salmon. Then they'd run back up and give their owner a real treat! "Bad Dog"!!!

[Bluegrass Bill]

After reading your response Aron, I have to agree that my initial subject line was probably a little overstated. Probably a better subject line would have been:

“Lots of Salmon still in the Feather make steelhead fishing a challenge”

You can indeed fish for steelhead and I would imagine it would be much easier to avoid the salmon running the river in a drift boat versus wading along certain riffles where the salmon are still really stacked. Regarding the odor, it was just a statement of fact and does not bother me either. Where I was there yesterday you literally had to watch your step walking along the bank to keep from stepping on the salmon. It was a dead calm day, very warm and that certainly brought the "aroma" to a higher than normal level :). Like you said it is part of the natural process of the great salmon runs we enjoy. I will be up there again soon and maybe look for some other stretches to fish :)

[Jeff C.]

I love that smell because it normally means steelhead time!