Kenny Priest's "Fishing the North Coast".

[Larry S]

Here's the link for this week's column.

http://www.times-standard.com/sports...or-the-weekend

Best to all,
Larry S
Sun Diego

[BumpBailey]

Just might be a beautiful shade of green this weekend! Time to make another trek!

[yubaman]

Drifting the main stem Eel next Weds. - Friday! Man am I excited.

[Terry Thomas]

Join the parade

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

In the 1970s I heard there was as many as 100 drift boats out daily this time of year on the Eel River, almost all limiting out.

[PV_Premier]

Really wish I was able to get up there this weekend

[Peter S]

I'll be on the Eel/Van Duzen Mon-Wed. Looking forward to it!

[BumpBailey]

The south fork is in great shape! I fished pretty hard up river from Myer's Flat Saturday and Sunday.... Tough two days with no love for me swinging. Only saw one other guy swinging. Everyone else was indo fishing from drift boats or chucking hardware.....

I heard mixed reports on Saturday night. Probably 50/50 on success and half of those were bait/gear dudes.... One guide i saw at a couple of spots said a guy swinging one run below me got two.... Noting like Bill's numbers above. But, for me, it was kind of crowded on Saturday, I counted 12 trailers in two different take outs and encountered many runs occupied with walk and wade guys. I was still was able to find some great runs though... Sunday I was able to hammer spots and move without any company. Fish included. I did have a beautiful encounter with a bald eagle though. Between that, and the scenery, it was still time well spent.

[Trouter925]

I was swinging the whole weekend. Lots of recon. Trying to mark things down on a map and keep note of the flows. I fished Van Duzen on Friday afternoon - maybe 1' visibility. Mad River on Saturday morning was about the same. Below the confluence with main stem and S Fork was 1-2' visibility on Saturday. South Fork was green. I'd say ~3' visibility. I imagine will be very clear this week. I didn't check out the main stem. Lots of boats out on S. fork, but still can find your own little bit of water. No fish for me. I thought I had one grab, but like over excited school boy, I burnt my quiche and broke off on hook set. Maybe it was a snag, but then again do branches pull out line?