American River Steelhead report

[Andy Guibord]

I returned yesterday afternoon from a wonderful week's family visit. I hugged my cat, unpacked, then decided to squeeze in some casting for half pounder steelhead wanting to rinse off the concrete and sofa from my vacation..

It felt good to wade into the water. I tied on an olive and white streamer( my version is called the, U Name It ) trailed by an olive, #10 caddis soft hackle. I was swinging with my #4 switch rod lined up with a Scandi body head and a 10 foot, 2x leader.

Ten minutes into fishing I had two good pulls but no hook up. I was fishing for about 40 minutes or so , thinking I was going fishless, but I ended with a solid hook up and landed a nice aerialized 18 to 20 inch hatchery steelhead- took the streamer. Fun.

So head on out there and wet your line. This may not be a large run of fish but it has been the best one in at last 6 years. Here's hoping for a good winter run.

[STEELIES/26c3]

10ft leader? anadromous waters?

2.05. Leader Length Restriction.
It shall be unlawful to use any configuration of
fishing tackle in anadromous waters unless the
distance between the terminal hook or terminal
lure and any weight attached to the line or leader,
whether fixed or sliding, is less than six feet. For
purposes of this section, “weight” includes any
product used to submerge the line or leader, including
non-buoyant artificial flies or artificial lures, but
does not include integrated or sinking fly fishing
lines, lead core lines used while trolling from a boat,
dropper weights used while trolling from a boat,
or clipped weights used with downrigger systems.

I believe a swung fly on a weighted line attached to a leader of any length is 100% legit.
A fly or flies tied to a line with a split shot or other weight >6' from said flies would be a violation of the anadromous waters leader law of 2018

[itsbenlong]

I am guessing that Andy meant a 10' Versileader or some other type sink tip! Although, Steelies is correct in stating that a 10' leader would be fine in this case.

[itsbenlong]

Nice one Andy! I fished it for awhile yesterday and only caught one around 15". Spent most of the time trying to row into the wind on my raft in all that frog water.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Call Andy or go by Kiene's on the weekend to get some good info and equipment for Half-pounders.

https://andyguibord.wordpress.com/guiding-instruction/