Small Wild Steelhead on the American

[MHeuch]

>> every weekend from August-June, and didn't get skunked once

Pretty darn amazing!

I wish there was a ladder over the dams for the wild fish, and someway for the smolts to make it back down.

[Troutsource]

Some were only 3" ...

[casper916]

Did anyone get out today on the upper AR?

[hwchubb]

Fished Effie and downstream, saw one 12” smolt / half pounder caught by a guy drifting eggs. Otherwise, saw no evidence of fish, didn’t talk to anyone who did either. I’m sure there are some adult fish in the system, just don’t think there are many.

On a related note, does anyone know where to find Nimbus Hatchery return data? I’m failing in my search on the Google...

[DPLee]

On a related note, does anyone know where to find Nimbus Hatchery return data? I’m failing in my search on the Google...

Nimbus Fish Hatchery fall Chinook salmon trap numbers can be found on the CDFW’s website under Anadromous Fisheries section, type “CDFW GrandTab” into any search engine and a PDF for “California Central Valley Chinook Population Database Report” should come up. Steelhead trap data is more difficult to find, historical numbers are listed at the end of Nimbus Fish Hatchery annual reports although reports have not been posted to the CDFW document library for recent years. Attached is a graph of steelhead trap numbers through the 2018-2019 season from our new book California Winter Steelhead, Life History and Fly Fishing, hopefully to be released this month.

Dennis
www.dennisplee.com

[salmonneed help]

I fished below sunrise on the opener. Watched a drift boat come down and hook and lose a nice adult fish in the run. The fish made 1 jump and was off. It was a beautiful chromed out fish probably 28 or 30". The guide yelled "set, set, set, set, set.." (client managed to set), guide then yells "strip, strip, strip, strip".. (client failed to strip at critical strip #3) at least I got to see a fish and affirm my choice of location was dialed. Other drift boats came down said they had some success as well above.

[casper916]

Fished the upper AR today.

I hooked into one before the sun came out drifting a UV bead under an indicator, it was still so dark out I could barely see the bite on the bobber... Popped off after a couple minute fight. Sucks but it gave me some confidence in using these glow in the dark beads.

Saw an angler across the river land one..also saw a few big Steelies swimming by less than a foot from the bank as well some beat up salmon of course, I think they are still doin their thing.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

During a drought period lots of big winter fish all spawned down below Sacramento State College in River Park.

Many get burned out in January only to have things actually pick up in February.

[Troutsource]

Caught a nice 13" wild one today drifting a green Psycho Prince mid-river. He jumped high three times. How awesome to have that in our backyard. Saw one zombie salmon. Saw the wake from another big fish taking off, but it wasn't a rocket so could have been a washed out salmon.

I fished from 2-4:30 and was hoping to see more insect activity than I did -- only 1-2 BWO's and PMD's, plus the usual midge activity. I started with a dry-dropper caddis-midge, then Adams-midge, but zero luck, so I switched over to nymphs. I think I liked last year's flows a lot better. Just a little too low for my liking this year. I think 1800-2000 is nice.

Looking forward to seeing/catching some of those adults myself. I didn't even consider swinging for them. But now that I know they're there...

[Mark Kranhold]

My thoughts it’s going to be a late season for the steelhead , still lots of salmon mullin around out there! Late season all the way around. Also dealing with the hatchery kill that happened 3-4 years ago. Low returns?