Jeff F
02-12-2018, 09:59 AM
We floated the big Eel on Friday (Holmes to Stafford). River had beautiful color and good flows. However, like the lower Yuba, the Eel has significantly changed due to the deluge last winter. It's much wider in most spots, and somewhat featureless. Lots of the small deeper runs are completely gone. It's just a big wide flat river. Some spots were just devastated, like the Bear Ck area. The old bridge pilings are totally gone and the beautiful drift below there is really swift and somewhat lifeless. The side channel below there all filled in too. The power of water is just amazing. So, our drift was much shorter than it should've been due to lack of spots to get out of the pontoon and kayak to fish the bars. A driftboat would make a huge difference cuz you can indo-fish eggs out the boat. But shore fishing in that stretch is pretty limited.
As for the fishing.....not a touch on the Eel. However, a strong north wind blew us off the river around 1pm. Only saw a few boats, so not much pressure on the river. The bait guys got into a few fish.
Saturday, we decided to avoid fighting the wind in our watercraft. We walk/waded the lower Van Duzen instead of the Eel. We walked upstream from the 101 bridge about 3 miles, and fished back to the car. The VD was in prime shape, beautiful color. Flows were probably too low for driftboats, so traffic was very light. We ran into a guy in a pontoon who hooked a big fish in a spot that we previously fished. Further on down, I hooked a really nice fish under an indo with a glo-bug. Unfortunately, I got snapped off. But I did get a quick look at him/her. It was a large chromer, probably 10-12lbs or so. That was it for the day, and the trip. That's steelheading for ya.......
We talked to a few guides at our hotel in Fortuna. They said they scored on the big Eel drifting eggs out of the boat. They got a few on the SF and Mattole also. So there are fish to be had up there. Just go when it's not windy. It was brutal.
~Jeff
As for the fishing.....not a touch on the Eel. However, a strong north wind blew us off the river around 1pm. Only saw a few boats, so not much pressure on the river. The bait guys got into a few fish.
Saturday, we decided to avoid fighting the wind in our watercraft. We walk/waded the lower Van Duzen instead of the Eel. We walked upstream from the 101 bridge about 3 miles, and fished back to the car. The VD was in prime shape, beautiful color. Flows were probably too low for driftboats, so traffic was very light. We ran into a guy in a pontoon who hooked a big fish in a spot that we previously fished. Further on down, I hooked a really nice fish under an indo with a glo-bug. Unfortunately, I got snapped off. But I did get a quick look at him/her. It was a large chromer, probably 10-12lbs or so. That was it for the day, and the trip. That's steelheading for ya.......
We talked to a few guides at our hotel in Fortuna. They said they scored on the big Eel drifting eggs out of the boat. They got a few on the SF and Mattole also. So there are fish to be had up there. Just go when it's not windy. It was brutal.
~Jeff