There has been some talk on this board about coastal rivers. I live in the Bay Area and fish the Gualala, Garcia, and Navarro each season. Here is just a little information to help you out.
The Gualala was great in 2001, 02, and 03. The 04, and 05 season saw less fish in the lower river, but there was a reason. The fish would not hold in the lower river because of a few problem sealions and harbor seals. A sealion would move up the river in the very early morning, and would chase fish out of the good holes and runs. In early 04 the sealion would go all the way to the Switchville area(4 miles up river). By the end of 04 they would actually go up the very thin water of the Northfork and chase the spawners. And last year people reported seeing them as far up a Buckpile, which is a good 7 to 8 miles up river. So I think the fish were in the system but headed up river or into the spawning tribs very quickly. This river is best fished at 300 CFS down to 175 CFS. And then I base the other two rivers off of these flows. Your best bet for success is to become a student of the USGS page which will give you flow information on the rivers. The Garcia will fish about the same time as the Gualala, the Navarro will take another 2 to 3 days to clear after a big rain. So if you hit the Navarro and it is muddy, move south, if you hit the Gualala and Garcia and they are too clear head north. Although there are fish in these rivers as early as December, the time to really focus your efforts is towards the end of January through early March.
The Garcia clears at very close to the same rate as the Gualala, and has a very similar size of fish, and when everything is normal a similar population. I have not had the sealion problems on this river.
Access has become harder on all of these rivers. The put in at the Gualala is owned by a logging company and has made it difficult to put in drift boats. You can purchase a special permit from Gualala Redwoods. At the Garcia the take out is down a road that is operated by the city. Because of trash dumping by locals you'll need to get a special key from the city to access this road. On the Navarro, they have had some large Redwoods fall and block the river 1/2 way down. It's very hard to portage a drift boat, but is possible. We use the one man pontoon boats and don't have a big problem.
These rivers are remote and a little out of the way to get to, but to catch a 34 inch fish that has sealice, and is able to rip off 75 feet of line in a flash is worth the effort. Good luck.
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