I guess the Russian River was wild until this rain.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Posted on Dan Blanton's forum:

Posted by Bill Hutchinson on 2012-01-23 14:19:45

Now that the Russian River is blown out for a month, I can post a fishing report about my home waters without getting a ration of crap and dirty looks from my fishing buddies – they hate crowds and I can’t blame them. The Russian will not be fishable now for 3-4 weeks …assuming it doesn’t rain again.

Most of us who have fished the Russian River believe this year’s run was the best in over 30years. The no rain December and the dry first 15 days of January allowed us to see and fish this once great Steelhead fishery daily – and witness 1000s of fresh fish enter the system on a consistent basis.

The season started off good in December, but once the mouth was opened up on 1/11 after being closed for about a week and river backed up 12 miles …..the schools of Steelhead poured in like we have never seen. It was like we heard about the conditions in the 1950’s when the Russian had runs up to 80,000 fish per season …and those were WILD fish. Today’s run are probably 80%+ Hatchery.

The week of 1/12 – 1/19 had EPIC fishing. Many Anglers had 4-5 fish days …some 10 fish days on Flys. I heard about one guy landing over 20 on Spoons last Thursday before river got blown.

My best day was fishing with my buddy Tom …fishing out of my Pram. We both landed 5 per rod, and hooked over 15. We had 2 doubles!! Each day I took a new friend and only 1 guy got skunked.

I hope this season can produce many more in the future. We had a good year in 2007, maybe these fish were the offspring of that spawn …..hopefully it continues.

Enjoy the pics …the video of Tom is a real kick!

YOUTUBE VIDEO of EPIC Steelhead Fishing Day on Russian River:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5ASmMyz9QI

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Well the locals on the Russian Rvier are a tight lipped group.

They had all this fishing and no one slipped and talked about it.

I don't blame them at all.

With the Interent every "yahoo" on the west coast would have been there in a day or two.

We had fishing like this in the 60s and 70s on the coast.

Tide water fly fishing is way different than fishing up river with riffles and current like on the Klamath, Trinity or even the Lower American.

It is like fishing a lake with some current at times.

By the looks of things it was very slow sinking lines with a slow strip to keep the fly from catching the bottom.

Interesting that we had a good salmon year on the west coast and now a good run on the Russian for Steelhead too.

.

[cyama]

Man Bill you must have a ton of respect out there!!!
"Well the locals on the Russian Rvier are a tight lipped group."
Posting any type of good report could drive people to slash tires on the Russian!
Did you hear Carlo Bongio is hooked up! That must be a locals only area...
Good stuff Bill!

[Ben J]

Sounds like a very impressive return of hatchery fish. I went out to the Mad River Hatchery to take a look today, and the situation is very much the same up here in terms of the hatchery return. I watched a fish torpedo out of one tier in the ladder and bounce off of the next uphill tier in the ladder... and tons are coming in. The "Big Muddy" is huge and chocolate brown, and the gear guys are out there fishing hard... even saw a guy throwing a fly rod at summer bridge doing the flossing thing... I'm almost stir crazy enough to throw on some t14 and a long leader with the fish pill fly

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I think they use giant two tone flies with leadcore/T-14 in that muddy water.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Man Bill you must have a ton of respect out there!!!
"Well the locals on the Russian Rvier are a tight lipped group."
Posting any type of good report could drive people to slash tires on the Russian!
Did you hear Carlo Bongio is hooked up! That must be a locals only area...
Good stuff Bill!

There are some really top Steelheaders over there around the Russian River.

Carlo Bongio (WSS), Doug Brutocao (Doug's Bugs), Jason Leopold, and Carl Blackledge are just few that I know who really know that river well.

When it gets low, normally it is not that easy to fish for most because it is so different from fishing up river situations.

If you could fish it a lot or go with a local fly fisher you might have some luck.

In that big lakey tide water some fly fish from double anchored prams too.

Get a copy of "Rivers of a Lost Coast" DVD and you will see lots of that tide water fly fishing for salmon and steelhead.

It you are retiried or unemplyeed (with some money) going to the coast is doable for salmon in the fall and steelhead in the winter.

The steelhead is weather permitting...

.

[Dustin Revel]

It was pretty wild everywhere in early January!

[OceanSunfish]

Very nice to hear...... I'm glad the 'old timers' got a taste of the past for a change..... It does everything from making you feel young again to reminding your family why you're an avid fisherman, to allowing you to record the 'good 'ole days' on 2012 digital equipment.....

[Darian]

Amazing!!!! There're so many things that have been mapped, written or photographed about the Russian that anyone who's ever looked for it could almost name every hole/riffle in it. During the 60's, even the California State Auto Club produced a map that had the location of each hole below Healdsburg down to Fereskies printed on it. No Need to get upset with anyone saying anything about it, here....

Currently, the only unknown about the Russian River is timing. That can easily be solved (not saying how, tho ).

[Fats]

I went out but decided not to fight the crowds... I don't have a pram and didn't feel like getting in the 8-10 boat line up. Beaches looked pretty populated as well. I friend of mine hooked into two nice fish on spoons two days before the rain. Nice looking fish!

I was content to watch some pods of fish milling around from some bridges. The'd spook at the slightest shadow.

I thought lots about "Rivers of a Lost Coast" which was one of the reasons I didn't jump into the fray!