Lots of Salmon in the Feather

[Tony Buzolich]

At least once a year about this time my wife and I head to Oroville for some of the best Chinese food there is, at Tong Fong Lo's. It's also the oldest Chinese restaurant in California. After lunch today we headed over to the hatchery to see how many salmon have actually returned. Like John said below they are thick, and you'd never know there was any shortage.

The ladder was full of salmon from the viewing window, all the way down to the dam. At the dam the river was black with fish all stacking up waiting to head up the ladder. Many were jumping airborne, trying to head upstream. Neat.

So, last weekend was the salmon festival in Oroville, and next weekend is the salmon festival in Winters, Ca. on Putah Creek. Really amazing to see salmon returning to Putah Creek. No hatchery there so all will be spawned in a totally natural environment, at least until they get to Lake Solano Dam.

Maybe things are improving?
Tony

[Rossflyguy]

From what I hear the Sac itself isn’t doing well with salmon numbers and that’s the major issue. But I heard that a few weeks ago. Hopefully more show up with the cooling weather.

[itsbenlong]

Tong Fong Low, best fried prawns in the land, was there on Sunday after getting beat to death trying to catch steelhead amongst all those salmon. Lol

Difficult to toss indicators while wading when you can't see the salmon or reds...I mainly swung flies with a lighter tip trying to get one to look up. Caught most in the mornings...lots of fish in the river. Best fished by boat to see what you're throwing at.

This is coming from someone who doesn't know the river well and swings flies. I'm a mess when it comes to indicator fishing and last about 30 minutes when I try.;) Lots of boats by the way, showing you all the best spots you can't get to from a one man raft used for shuttle/wading only.

[Tony Buzolich]

Hey Ben Long, I was there Sunday too. Sorry I didn't recognise anyone I knew.
When I was guiding up that way on foot (when salmon were open to take) I would come in from Pacific Hieghts Rd. and with a little walking you could get into some nice out of the way spots.

We stayed at the trailer park there in Dingerville and my wife would often drive me down to a spot and drop me off to fish. Later she'd come pick me up at an agreed time. Lots of salmon and steelhead both back then. Farther up river Sh*thouse Riffle was always a popular spot but got crowded often. Down the road a ways on Pacific Hieghts there's a turn-off that will take to the opposite side of the outlet. Along this gravel road there are lots of places to get to the water and good riffles. Stay on this road and you'll end up at Palermo Riffle and then back out to Hwy.70.

Lots of good water around this area, Tony

[Rossflyguy]

NorCal Guide Association put out a video. Only 800 hens were spawned out at Coleman hatchery with about 2 weeks left of the salmon run. They are shooting for 12 million eggs and only have 3 million. Doesn’t look good but they had a lot of jack’s return. Maybe a better return next year. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more restrictions for next season.

[itsbenlong]

Hey Tony,

Sounds like you had a nice trip! We did pick some up in and around those areas if I think we are talking about the same place. The other side of the river from the Dingerville side is where Fisherman's gate is. One of the days we spent several hours around there just walk/wading. We were on our rafts so were able to fish almost every spot on both sides of the river. However, I forgot to mention that I lost my prescription sunglasses just before the trip and had to wear my regular ones which limited my indicator fishing and made it impossible when the sun was on my face. BTW, the Feather used to be a river I fished weekly, sometimes daily back in the late 70's early 80's but some of the low flow has changed as rivers do. I remember, folks would pile into that riffle behind Matthews Ready-mix, but doesn't seem familiar at all. Learning an old river again is a blast and I love a challenge when fishing anyway. We stayed at River Reflections for the first time and it was nice. Although it was strange having to camp or stay in an RV when fishing the Feather....thanks to the Camp Fire it looks like I have to get used to that. Can't wait to get back out there. Plan to pound the Feather for a bit until the Klamath gets back into shape.