The Fishing Report: Rain is on its way

Low water on the Russian river is making for tougher conditions for local anglers. Many steelheaders have hung up their chest waders, waiting for the next rain fall, which should be the end of this week. Others have decided to enjoy the relative solitude and float sections of the river with little to no company. The guys in the know are getting fish. The guys that are stationary are not.
When the water gets “skinny,” the fish get very wary and will move only when they have to. Tactics that would usually work for steelhead during normal flow and visibility just aren’t going to be that productive. You are going to have to move around a bit and find “fresh” water. Sections of the river that haven’t been fished for several hours have a much better likelihood of producing a biter. In addition, you are going to have to get a bit stealthier. It is going to be difficult for you to “drag bait” over fish in most situations. A better tactic, if using a boat, is going to be to “pull plugs” or “back bounce” bait into the holes ahead of the boat. If bank fishing, drift casting bait in the same hole for hours and expecting a fish to bite could be the definition of insanity. “Bankies” should rely on stick-and-move tactics with either a little Cleo spoon or a jig and float set up.
The Healdsburg section of river has been sparsely fished by anglers. Drift boats are getting 1-3 fish a day, however. The section of river below Steelhead Beach has had huge numbers of boats (15-25), and while the water looks better (3-4 feet of visibility), the numbers of fish being caught is far less per boat.
Warm Springs Hatchery is receiving their share of steelhead. As of last week, over 1,500 fish returned up the dry creek corridor. The Coyote facility in Ukiah is reporting 975. These are almost three times as many fish as returned last year when we had the early season drought and didn’t get any significant rain until late February.
Last year’s steelhead report cards are due to be returned by now. As I folded mine up (all 3 feet of it), it sparked my curiosity as to how the program is doing. The DFG, now environmentally correctly named the Department of Fish and Wildlife (PUH…LEASE) has had a history of miss managing these types of stamps in the past (remember the Striper stamp?). Last time I called in, about 4 years ago, I spoke with a single person that was in charge of reviewing and putting in all of the information on each card into the computer. He was about three years behind and completely overwhelmed. He had absolutely nothing to tell me that was relevant, and as such, I was very discouraged. But I have good news. I spoke with a very intelligent man named Farhut Bajjaliya who is now in charge of the program. Probably the best thing I heard was that they were almost caught up and that he had staff to help him. In addition, he indicated that of the $350,000 that is generated by the program, $200,000 is going towards steelhead habitat restoration. I was quite excited to hear him speak about the positive results that the steelhead restoration projects are having. He did mention that there are still only 20% of steelhead fishermen returning their cards, and he urged ALL steelhead fishermen to clearly and completely fill out and return their cards so that they might contribute to the success of the program. It isn’t too late.
For more information and or reports, please contact Hunt Conrad at Prospect Mortgage, 431-9715.