Optimal Water Levels

[Edward]

Hey guys,

Im an east coast transplant, new to the whole idea of chasing chrome. I went up to the trinity at the beginning of january and caught my first steelie! But that was with a guide. The other 4 days I was up there I struck out. I'm now determined to catch one on my own. I'm trying to figure out the optimal flows for the rivers but theres not much info around. Anyone know what are fishable levels for the trinity, klamath, mad, eel, mattole, smith and any other rivers I need to put on my list?

And whats everyones favorite river out here for steelhead? That and what river do you think I concentrate on while i learn the ropes?

Thanks,
Edward

[NCL]

Edward,

For steelhead I believe water color is more important that flow levels. With higher flows just adjust tactic and where you are fishing on the water, think more edges that have softer flows. With that said, I usually only go over to the Trinity when the flows are around 500 CFS but that only because of access to certain places I like to fish, as I fish from the bank. If you are fishing from a boat/raft that would certainly be different. With steelhead the main thing is to be on the water casting and observing. I saw a video a few years back where Justin Miller hooked and landed a fish where the water was flowing up in the willows and his statement was "just go".

[pvsprme]

Welcome to the game, Edward. Be careful, it's addicting. This is an essential tool:

http://waterwatch.usgs.gov/new/index...d&sid=w__table

There are others, i.e. Dreamflows, etc. But this works for me. Look at this page, Trinity at Douglas City:

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ca/nwis/uv...ate=2016-01-23

As you can see, average is 780 cfs over last 30 days and it's currently over 2300, so not a good time.
Best times to go are on a falling river, after a peak, when flows start to reach "fishable" levels. That's different for every hole, riffle and run, but normally within about 20% of mean. Theory is, steelhead move in rising water and settle in when flows drop to normal/low water. This brings in fresh fish and most believe, makes them grabby. In high water conditions, fish can and will get right up against the bank as they tend to take the path of least resistance. That said, visibility is key as well. I won't feel confident fishing water that has less than about 18" of visibility, but I have caught them in these conditions. Important to know is rivers clear, drop at different rates. Some quicker than others, depends on a variety of factors: Gradient of the watershed, number of tributaries, et al. Learning these nuances is part of the game/allure of steelhead; enjoy the journey.

[Edward]

Thanks a lot for the help! The 780 cfs you listed was actually the median (rather than mean) for the river. Was that an accident or do you typically go by the median? Also, have you ever used the river level prediction site? If so, is it accurate at all? And do any of these rivers have turbidity gauges or do you just call up to the shops and see how they're looking?

None of this will probably even matter this year as el nino is hitting us pretty hard.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Water flow is kind of relevant for drifting the rivers and wading.

Water clarity (visibility) and water temp are other variables.

Keep asking questions.......

I recommend fishing the entire month of October on most of the longer rivers.

Fall fishing is much more predictable and winter Steelhead is very unpredictable.

.

[Larry S]

Edward,
I don't get to fish steelhead waters near as much as the other posters
. Trinity's Junction City flows seem optimal
for me between 350 - 500 (+/-, a bit.) If the Smith is at 7-ft or lower in the park, every rock in the river
is visible. 8-ft to 11-ft makes for a nice trip. Keep in mind that the Smith is the quickest clearing river on
the North Coast. Some of our best days were when it was dropping from higher levels.

A guide, Kenny Priest, writes a weekly column for the Eureka Times-Standard called "Fishing the North Coast."
My two cents,
Best and good fishing.
Larry S

[JasonB]

One reason that you might not be getting hard numbers on some of those streams, other than the fact that a lot of people don't like to talk too much about them in an open format like this, is that there is a lot of sediment due to clear cutting and landslides that can make water clarity harder to predict. Some rivers do generally clear faster than others (Smith vs Eel for instance), but there can also be some major variation in what flows some streams start to clear up and how fast they do clear. Lots of variables can go into this, but in all honesty sometimes you just have to go and see. Always a good idea to have a back up in mind too. So far this has been a tough winter in terms of high flows, hopefully we'll get some bigger windows in Feb/Mar between storms.
JB

[Larry S]

Edward,
Good insight from JasonB. Besides the online stream data, don't overlook the print. Checkout the StreamTime Maps -
Kiene carries them. A great resource!
Best,
Larry S