American river report , April 2nd

[David Lee]

What a BEAUTIFUL DAY !!!!!!!

Hit my playground around 8:20 ..... The river is BIG !

The color is Steelhead green , vis. 3 1/2 to 4 feet and icy-cold . I had many Smolt/Half-pounder hits (none stuck , due to large trout-colored Clouser on a 1/0 hook) and saw dozens of Steelies feeding and jumping everywhere !! No Stripers , but I saw Val Dunn drifting (don't know who was rowing ...) and she said she got one schoolie and a bonehead . In my opinion , the water is gonna have to warm up quite a bit to get Stripe in a fly-eating mood .

I also had the great privilege of a rare fishing partner for most of the morning - A KINGFISHER !!!!!! It took up a station in a tree 35 feet downstream from me and hunted as I fished ..... totally cool to be that close to one for a couple of hours !

Wading was easy as long as I payed attention , the clay trail you follow down to your favorite spot is now underwater and as slick as oiled glass . I never even came close to a "harry" , tho there are lots of chances to fall in .

Even though there were no fish landed it was a great day - I'll get 'em in a few days !!

David

[Darian]

A Kingfisher on the american What a good lookin' bird. In all of the years I've been up here, I've never been privileged to see one.... Sure hope they decide to make this a permanent stop in their travels.

[David Lee]

Darian - I see a few Kingfishers every year on the American , just never that close !! I'll tell ya , it was really neat to have that bird fishing in front of me for that long .

I spoke to my friend Ron Otto this evening - he called after leaving Paradise Beach (great minds often think alike ) .... He took the temp at 56 degrees , so I guess my comment of "Icy-cold" was due to my sunburned hands . The river is still dropping , so the fishing should blow-up this week !! I can't wait to shake off the last vestages of this horrible winter ..... There's no better way to do that than chasing Stripers at my favorite place on earth - the lower American

David

[Hairstacker]

Hi David, good to hear you got out there. Trout-colored 1/0 Clouser, eh? -- I see you were committed. To heck with the steelhead, I see you'd just as soon feed 'em to stripe, ha.

[Jasonh]

David, sis you happen to see any half pounders rising to caddis or feeding on teh surface?

Jason

[MSP]

Just a note on the Kingfisher David got to fish with. I generally fish the Goethe area when I fish the "AR" and it's rare for me to fish without the constant cackle of a Kingfisher. Many times there are 2 of them cruising and making a lot of noise. I have to agree they are a pretty cool bird. I did see my first otter on the Yuba about a week ago. Seen a few on the "A" but that was the first on the Yuba. I imagine they are probably pretty common though. Was out on the Yuba on Friday and saw quite a few March Browns coming up, a few PMD's, a couple of BWO's and still some Skwalla's. Did see one large Golden Stone and didn't get any fish. Had a rise to my skating Caddis and one to a March Brown but no hookups. Hope to get back up there a couple times next week.