FISHING REPORT: Wild Steelhead Festival

The Healdsburg Wild Steelhead Festival is this weekend. The free
event is centered in the Healdsburg Plaza on Saturday and Sunday
and will feature many sponsors booths and activities. Among the
highlights are the kid’s fishing pond and the adult casting pond.
There will be live steelhead on display. There is a Friday evening
benefit event at the Hotel Healdsburg where chefs from the area
will be preparing fabulous entrees, and a silent auction featuring
guided fishing trips and excursions. Jim Norton will be the keynote
speaker and will talk a little about his award-winning documentary
“Salmon Running the Gauntlet.” The best place to get more
information is from the website at
www.healdsburgsteeleheadfest.org. 
Speaking of running the gauntlet, our own Russian River steelhead
are once again faced with the low flow of the Russian River, making
passage extremely difficult in places. The Sonoma County Water
Agency has declared it a “dry” year and has cut back the flows from
Lake Mendocino to 50 cfs. I can’t remember when the flows have been
this low in February. All of the smaller reservoirs in the area
have yet to reach their capacity, so when normally an inch of rain
would cause the river to be out of shape for a week or more, is now
fishable in just days.
Following the six inches of rain we got two weeks ago, the river
has really dropped out incredibly fast, and fishing on the Russian
began just a mere three days later with one of the best fishing
days of the year that last Saturday. More than 20 drift boats made
their way down the river in front of hundreds of anglers with pent
up desire from Healdsburg to Wohler Bridge. Average scores for the
drift boats were three fish or about a fish per rod. From the bank,
scores were far lower. Anglers continue to stack up in holes and
hope for the best. The better, more experienced anglers are seeking
out their own water and doing much better. The following Sunday, 30
boats went down the river with far less results. Averages were down
to one fish per boat, and surprisingly I heard that the bank
fishing was quite good as the fish were forced to slow their
migration and rest in the pools. Warm Springs hatchery received
over 600 fish in the last two weeks and is ahead of last year’s
totals. Alexander Valley fishermen should be happy to hear that the
returns to the Coyote facility are almost equal to the Warms
Springs hatchery, as they now have a total of 633 year to date. We
are expected to get an inch of rain this week which will do wonders
for fish and fishermen alike. Currently, the action is concentrated
in the lower reaches of the river, but if we get the predicted
rainfall, the entire river will be fishable by the weekend.
Sturgeon fishing in the San Francisco Bay has been good to very
good depending on the tides. Fishermen should look for a building
tide cycle. Often the best tides in San Pablo Bay is about a 6-foot
tide, outgoing tide going to just minus. Most action is centered
around the Pump House but the mouth of the Sonoma Creek can be
good, as well as the Petaluma and Napa River. Keith Orton won the
$7,000 first place prize at the Super Bowl Sturgeon Derby, caught
aboard the Right Hook with Capt. Jay Lopes on the Eel. Many fish
were caught and released before settling for the target length fish
of 59 inches. 1,200 anglers participated in the event. Wow!
For more fishing information or firsthand reports please
contact Hunt Conrad at Prospect Mortgage, 431-9715.