American report April 6th , 2005

[David Lee]

Howdy !

Hit the lower American a bit before 9:00 this morning . Snuck down and threw where Stripe should have been ..... NADA . Walked to the top of the run , one cast - BANG :!: Nice Steelhead a bit under 4 lbs. (#6 Whit deep sheep Shad) , dropped another a short time later (Darian's Smolt #6) .
MSP from our board wandered down around 11:00 , we had a swell time fishing and chattering .... he took a few Smolts . Later in the day , I dropped a nice one at the "PLAYA" (#6 olive Zonker ) .

The Kingfisher was back and chattered all afternoon .... Water is down but MUCH colder than last weekend . Vis. 4 feet w/ slight tint . Knocked off at 6:15 .... all in all , a GREAT DAY !!!!!!!
David

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

David,

Andy gets some steelhead on striper streamers too.

I think you will get them soon. 8)

[Hairstacker]

David, way to go!! Hardly a disappointment to be catching nice steelhead instead of stripers, eh? :D

[David Lee]

MSP and I were crossing a riffle and saw 2 Lampreys making a redd and wrestling around . Those things give me the creeps big-time .... I'll have to check the DFG regs to see if I can go out and gig some (yes , Darian - I'll send you one after I catch it) .

Jgoding was out higher in the river last night and reports a few Smolts as well . I'm still seeing Steelhead feeding/jumping in the morning , they seem to want 2-inch Smolt patterns on the swing before 9:30 .... the river is down to 3500 CFS this morning , so get out and fish -it's just going to get better !! David

[Jgoding]

Yep, I fished up at the William B Pond area. Lots of caddis flying around but none were really hatching off the water. Had good activity of fish starting to rise around 6:00pm or so but then that low pressure front moved in and pretty much killed the action before I had a chance to start fishing. Got windy and cloudy real fast and no fish were rising after that.

Still fun to get out though. Saw some deer, wood ducks, geese, mallards, mergansers and tons of other wildlife. Even found a nice snag with about 10 different bait rigs stuck in it. Lots of beads and hooks and a nice bright orange spinner....still out there if anyone wants it.

Jeff

[Jasonh]

David, were those steelies you hooked bluebacks/chromers or did they have some color to them. Just curious if those spring run fish are in the system yet or if they were winter fish. Looking forward to getting out for the spring fish and strippers next week.

Jason

[David Lee]

Hey , Jason - You're BAD LUCK ! As soon as Mike was on the phone w/ you and giving you the "blow by blow" , the fish hit and fell off !! I have no idea why I dropped it .... It was a pounding hit and should have been money !!

The fish I hooked a few weeks ago was a springer , the fish yesterday was slightly pink-striped . Most of the Steelies I have caught in March have been the spring-run type (short , thick body , bright silver) . Give me a ring when you're in town , we'll go out and get 'em . David

[Jasonh]

Sounds good, i will have more time in the evenings to fish and would love to go chase some stripers or steelies.

Jason

[smokeater]

Sounds like you guys have been doing well. I stopped and walked the bike path down stream of the hatchery on my way home tuesday morning and spotted 4 or 5 nice fish holding in the riffles :twisted: . I went back that afternoon and got skunked, I didn't even see any fish :cry: . This is the same area where I was nailing about 3 or 4 fish per day before the flows came up. Back then half of my fish were the half pounders and the rest were straglers from the winter run.

David
Good to here you are starting to get action down there. I like your 3 to 1 idea even if it isn't true.I will call you soon.