| 2009 Fishing Report
Winter
Steelhead Fishing
Date: March 25, 2009
Current Report: Smith and Chetco River
Fishing so far this month has been pretty much like it has
been all season. There is fish to be caught, just not a lot
of them. I've been on the Smith and the Chetco Rivers.
The nice thing is that there hasn't been very many people on
the river. Most of the fish I've been catching have
been runbacks but there are still fresh fish coming in which
is good to see.
It looks like the Eel River will be fishable by this
weekend. I'm planning on fishing there until the end
which is March 31.
Brice
Date: March 1, 2009
Current Report: Smith and Chetco River
I have not fished that much since my last report. All
the rivers blew out with only the Smith being fishable this
last week. Even then it was pretty high on the
fishable days. We just finished the second of the
three fund raising steelhead derbies. With the high
water the Chetco did not fish on Friday so all the boats
were on the Smith. It was kind of a back up at the forks put
in but once we were on the water it wasn't bad. The
higher flows tend to spread out the boats pretty fast!
My boat was able to catch three fish that day. The
river was big but looked good, the only thing is it gives
the fish a lot of places to hide. On Saturday all the
boats went to the Chetco River. It was definitly on
the big side but fishable from top to bottom. We
caught two fish on the Chetco which with the three on the
Smith was good for second place in the derby.
We are getting rained on now with more on the way.
We'll see what it will do to the rivers. It is going
to be a Smith and Chetco show for awhile. I'm hoping
to get back on the Eel before the end of the month.
Brice
_small.jpg) 
Date: February 22, 2009
Current Report: Smith and Chetco River
Since my last report I've still been fishing the Chetco
River. The fishing remained good through the week.
It did drop and clear up but the light boat traffic did not
make it so critical. We just finished up the first of
three fund-raising steelhead derbies. These derbies
consist of teams of four anglers and two guides. One
boat fishes the Smith and the other fishes the Chetco one
day and then switch the second day. The money raised from
these derbies are used to finance fishery projects, mainly
the hatcheries. The Rowdy Creek Hatchery on the Smith
River is privately funded, it does not receive any money
from the California Fish & Game. I caught three fish
on the Chetco and two on the Smith during the derby which
was good for third place.
Both the Chetco and Smith blew out today from heavy rain.
With more rain on the way the Chetco is not going to fish
for a few days but the Smith should.
Brice

 
Date: February 13, 2009
Current Report: Chetco River
I've been on the Chetco River the last couple of days and
the fishing has been good. The river conditions were
nice, and there were fish biting. We were getting
rained on both days but with the low snow level the river
was actually dropping. You could look up on the hills
and see the snow line. It wasn't very much higher than
we were! The rise in the river level from the storm on
Wednesday brought in a good push of new fish. Let's
hope they keep coming in like this. It sounds like the
guides on the Smith caught fish too.
It looks like we are back to a "normal" winter pattern.
This means I will be up on the Smith and Chetco for a while.
The lower rivers are high and muddy and will probably only
get higher.
Brice
Date: February 11, 2009
Current Report: Eel River
We finally got the rain that everybody wanted! It
rained pretty hard today while fishing on the Eel River.
We fished a rising river all day but the color held together
until the end. When I went back to get my truck though
the river was brown there, and then back at the boat it was
getting dirty fast. We were able to land a couple of
nice fish though and had a chance at a couple of other ones.
The bites we are getting are soft, like a cold water bite
but the fish are not fighting like that though. It's
pretty cool when a fish makes a run and you wonder if it's
ever going to stop. Or how many more times it's going
to jump.
I'm heading north to the Smith and Chetco Rivers tomorrow
and with the change in the weather pattern it looks like
I'll be there for a while. It has been nice fishing
from home but I really enjoy fishing those two rivers.
It has been a while since I've been up there it's going to
feel like I havn't fished there this year.
Brice
Date: February 9, 2009
Current Report: Trinity & Eel Rivers
Our weather has finally changed and with that so has the
fishing. A couple storms went through putting much
needed water in the lower rivers. The Smith and Chetco
did not come up much but the storm that is going to hit us
tomorrow should change that. If this storm is a big
as they predict I'll probably be up north on Wednesday.
The extra water in the rivers has made the fishing better
for me. The conditions today were about as ideal as a
person would want and we ended up having a good day. I
have still been moving around a lot, mainly just trying to
find water that isn't crowded.
Brice
  
Date: February 2, 2009
Current Report: All Rivers
I have been fishing the Chetco, Eel, Klamath, and Trinity
rivers since my last report. My goal is obviously to
find good fishing but also to find some water I can fish by
myself. It seems like if I can do this we have a decent day.
The low clear conditions make the fish spooky but if you are
stealthy about it they will still bite. We've been
having sunny weather too which makes it a little tougher.
I can't remember ever fishing this long without rain.
Like my last report said the fish are still coming in small
bunches. I will be staying down on the lower rivers
until the weather changes, the Chetco is too low for me.
The Smith river is going to be an option, even if
there is not a lot of fish the river is low enough that a
person can find them. It just depends on boat traffic
on how well they will bite.
My computer is working as of now, I will be able to return
emails and do my reports.
Brice

Date: January 21, 2009
Current Report: All Rivers
I have been fishing a
number of different rivers since my last report. There
are fish in all the rivers, just not a lot. It seems
like there are small bunches of fish coming in and you need
to be at the right place at the right time to catch them.
I've had days where we've hooked four to six fish to one day
on the Smith where we did not land a fish. The
nice weather we've been having has created low and clear
conditions, especially on the Smith and Chetco. Right
now it is raining lightly with unsettled weather for the
next week. Hopefully this will change things.
Right now my computer is not working right so my reports are
going to be spread out more than usual until I get it fixed.
Right now I'm posting reports and checking e-mail via a
friend.
Brice
Date: January 14, 2009
Current Report: Eel River
I fished the Eel river today and had a good day. The
boat traffic was higher than I thought it would be though.
After a chilly morning we were in our t-shirts for most of
the day. Definitely not steelhead weather! The
river looked good but it won't be long before it clears
up. All the rivers up here are fishable right now.
Brice
Date: January 13, 2009
Current Report: Smith & Chetco Rivers
I've been fishing the Smith and Chetco rivers since my last
report. Fishing has been O.K., there are fish in both
rivers just not a lot. We are still dealing with cold water
conditions, which makes the bite a little tougher. It does
seem like we are getting pushes of fresh fish every day.
Both rivers are dropping and with no rain in sight we will
be dealing with low and clear conditions. I'm planning on
fishing the Eel tomorrow.
Brice
Date: January 4, 2009
Current Report: Smith River
We've had some cold weather since the last time I fished,
this has helped with the river levels. They came down
faster than I thought so I was able to fish today on the
Smith. The river was on the high side but looked good.
We were able to hook four fish and landing two of them.
The water temperature is really cold . The bites we
got were real soft, with the cold water the fish are not
real aggressive. We have rain in the forecast for this
week, hopefully not too much. The reports from the
Chetco is that it is high and off colored.
Brice

Date: January 2, 200
Current Report: Smith & Chetco River
I fished the Smith River to start out the New Year!
The river was big but the color looked good. The put
in at the forks was pretty messed up. The high water
had built up a gravel berm between the bottom of the paved
ramp and the river. We made it work but hopefully this
gets fixed. We were able to hook five fish but only
landed one. Sometimes you just have days like this.
We still had a fun time with it though. The excuses
and finger pointing was going on all day. There were
not a lot of boats on the river today. I did see a
number of fish being hooked by the other boats too.
Unfortunately the rain and snow melt has blown out the river
for today and probably tomorrow. I do not think I will
be back on the river until Sunday or Monday. I do have open
days throughout the steelhead season.
Brice
|