Hello everyone...Back from a couple days on the coast. Saturday evenings storm was not huge but it sure did reek some havoc. That didnt stop me from heading north. My good friend Ernie Dennison had the day off and we were planning on fishing along with Mr Dave Holt of Cloverdale. I got up at the crack and loaded my truck in the pouring rain ....It had been pounding the roof of my house all night. All I could think was this cant be good...... but I was fishing with Ernie and anyone that knows him would agree "He is one fishy dude!" I called Dave around 6 am..."man it was coming down last night...but the charts dont look tooooo bad.................yet" We agreed that we were going for it regardless. Sun was up by 7:15...just in time to catch a glance at the South Fork in Leggit....It was green......then in Benbow the EB was blowing mud...By the time i saw the river again in Sylvandale it was chocolate...When I got to the confluence the South Fork was Green again....The mud had not made it down yet but it was on the way....Drove down to a cutty little spot on the Main Eel...low and behold there were 5 gear boats with motors tearing up the run. Its a big river.."Lets Fish".........Not 20 minutes later Ernie was Hooting and Hollering...8# hen from the bank...oh yeah! ...its on..... We decided that we were going to float the Main.....but .....by the time we did our shuttle and got the boat in the water the mud had started to arrive. We powered our way towards green....Got to some great looking Frog water and my indicator twitched and dropped in a weird way...."Looks like you got a smolt hit" Ernie said...my indicator was slightly swiming after i gave a light set. Then i got tight.....my line started screaming.....That is no Smolt!!!!!!..High teens 36" chrome hen. by the time we were done with the excitement.....the mud was here to stay. We had a killer lunch provided by yours truely and finished our float probably passing a few hundred fish that could not see our flies.....Tomorrow was Dave Holts' day...
Dave and I grabbed a room in Fortuna....Lucky room 116...Score....had a bite and a few beers at the Eel River brewery and checked the charts. Spike-o-Rama...but there were still some options. Our plan was to check out the Duzen at first light...Morning came quick...and we headed up hwy 36. We spent some time driving around checking things out and i made the call....Lets go for it!!!! We dropped my pontoon in and started our float. the water looked good.. A little over a foot of Visability.... We had a few suspicious take downs in the first hour or two...One was very fishy.... but nothing solid till after noon. I slid the boat up to a nice slot with a drop-off and a large buck came out of the water and started trashing. Dave leaned back on his rod and the flies came flying back at us. Then he looked at me...What happened????....Dude...."You Farmed it!!!" was all i could say....but in Daves defense it was a weird few seconds with a pissed off Steelhead. We continued to change flies....picking apart all the good looking water we came upon...Pounding all the spots that have been good in the past....but no takers.....One confirmed hook up...still a good day for Coastal Steelheading on the fly....The River had spiked and the fish bolted upstream......any left behind were probably freaked out by the drastic rise and fall of the flows.....Soooo Dave Thank you for rowing the last part of the day so i could fish...FARMER.......haha! As of today all coastal rivers and streams are dropping back in. But they are pretty low.....Lots of options this week...Get out there before any low flow closures take effect...Cuz if we dont get some serious rain it might happen. Make sure you call the DFG before heading out.....(707)822-3164 for North Coast Rivers.....(707)944-5533 for Sonoma and Mendocino counties.
Three boats floated past my house on the Russian this afternoon. No happy anglers....From what I hear boats are scratching for a fish or two lower down....there are fish out there...you just need to search em out.....I am headed North on Thursday on a Guide trip so stay tuned for some more realtime info...as well as a post on tying coastal Glo-bugs....
Every day is a new Cast......Joshua
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