Is the American R. fishable?

[Anne Vitale]

Hi Folks ...I am planning on driving out to the American R. from Marin County next Monday. Anyone know if the American is fishable at the usual runs at these levels (approx 4000cfs) ? Thanks.....Anne

[MSP]

Hi Anne, I was out yesterday and it was a little difficult to get to my usual haunts. I did manage to get there but with no success. The water is also off color with about 18" - 24" clarity. Another board member was also out at a different location and said they saw 8 or so nice fish roll just downstream from them in a 1/2 hour period. I thought that was encouraging at least. Hope those fish don't haul butt straight to the hatchery before they get the flows back down. Good luck if you go, carefull while wading.

[Jgoding]

Hey Anne,

I just read on the fishsniffer forums that they are removing the weir at the hatchery on the 24th and then raising flows to 20,000cfs for the flood stage crap. It didn't say how long they were going to sustain it either. People were more concerned about the salmon redds..



Jeff

[robdog]

Right now, the answer is no. It is very dangerous, due to the large debris floating down the river. I saw a lot of logs & trees when I went on Mon. afternoon. Terrible start for the steelie run

[Jasonh]

Start of the steelhead run? They have been in there for quite some time. I think it is funny how everyone only starts fishing for them after the first of the year when most of the fish being fished for are dark, beat up and preparing to spawn or on the spawning beds. For those that have not tried fishing for them in late november or early december you might want to give it a try next year. There are actually quite a few fish arouund and almost all of them are chrome bright. Not as easy to catch as in the upper river but a lot more fun. Now lets pray for the water to drop sometime soon!

Jason Hartwick

[rrivera]

From the looks of this weeks weather and visual flows of the AR this morning, we might be posting shad info here soon. Time for me to start spinning hackle...

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Is it 35,000 cfs today?

35.5k ?

On our fish reports under Rovers there is a page on the Lower American River with a live river flow gage.

http://www.kiene.com/reports/rivers/loweramerican.shtm

[smokeater]

I wouldn't advise fishing the AR until the flows come down within reason unless you plan becoming a statistic. Under normal flows the AR is a mild class I-II river, but under these conditions (approx. 10 x normal flow) it can be pretty nasty.