Russian River Float Trip

Yesterday a friend and I floated the Russian River from the 1st street bridge in Cloverdale down to his property along the 101 just before you get to Healdsburg. It was a scouting float so we didn't get much fishing done but we were able to find several areas that looked way fishy! I can't wait to get out and fish the river, although we'll have to work on the timing a little. The float was around 8 miles and with the river so low it took all day without any fishing! We'll figure out a way to cut it into 2 floats and then we should have time to fish all the good holes. The sad part about it is that there just aren't many fish in the system... just not enough water! People are still getting them here and there though. I spoke with a guy briefly at the launch yesterday morning who claimed his friend got two in the last week drifting glow bugs under an indicator, and a friend of mine who fishes the river quite a bit has landed three in the last week, one beefy 15lb wild buck, and two smaller hatchery hens. Word is that a big group of fish just moved up through Healsdburg so things are looking up for February! If we could just get a little more water in the system conditions would be almost ideal for the thick of the run.... oh well I'm crossing my fingers!

American River Update

The upper end of the river opened up on January 1 and we have been having some great action so far on the American. The new spawning gravel added by the DFG in 2008 is full of spawning salmon and steelhead and there are active fish all around the area, as well as active fishermen. Brian got up early for the opener and landed a few nice fish around sailor bar despite the heavy pressure. Even during the weekdays the river is getting pounded, but it is still producing fish. We have been landing alot of halfpounder types nymphing with caddis and egg imitations and some bigger fish swinging leeches. Here are some pics from my outing last friday. I only fished for a couple of hours and managed 2 nice fish. One wild male and a chromy hatchery female. Enjoy!