Steelhead Season Ending Like It Began, Wet

By Kenny Priest fishing@northcoastjournal.com

It’s looking like this year’s winter is refusing to end, but unfortunately, the winter steelhead season will. Enough rain has fallen over the past few days to keep the majority of the coastal rivers high and o -color, essentially washing away the last week of steelhead season.

As of Tuesday, all of the coastal rivers, already swollen from an extremely wet March, were back on the rise. The quick-clearing Smith and Chetco were also feeling the e ects of the current storm, but they may come around and fish later in the week. It looks like those are the only two rivers that will fish prior to the season closing after Sunday. Humboldt rivers, including the Mad, South Fork Eel, Van Duzen and Redwood Creek, are all toast as far as green water goes. As we look back on the season, what a stark contrast to 2022. Last year we started o great with early-season rains bringing in good numbers of steelhead. And then, it quit raining. Quite the opposite this year. The rain never stopped for long, and the steelhead didn’t bother to show up in good numbers.

After Friday, March 31, the South Fork Eel, Van Duzen, Mattole, Mad, Redwood Creek, Mattole and Chetco rivers will all be closed to fishing. The main stem Eel, from its mouth to the South Fork, is open to fishing all year. The main stem of the Smith will remain open through the end of April from its mouth to the confluence with the Middle and South forks.

Sections of the Klamath and Trinity rivers are open to fishing but are subject to in-season changes. For more information, visit nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=209090&inline.

All are on the rise and won’t drop back into fishable prior to the season closing after Friday, March 31.

The main Eel is high and dirty and back on the rise. It’s predicted to reach 34,000 cubic feet per second Wednesday. It will take at least a couple weeks of dry weather to drop it back into fishable shape. It starts to fish once it drops to right around 5,000 cfs.

The Smith will be blown out for a

341 couple days but should be back into fishable shape Thursday and Friday. Flows should be right around 8,200 cfs (11 feet) at the Jed Smith gauge Thursday morning. Additional rain forecast for Saturday will put the river back on the rise over the weekend.

According to Andy Martin of Wild Rivers Fishing, steelhead anglers will get one final chance to catch fish before the season closes Friday evening on the Chetco. “Rain will blow the river out for a few days before it drops back into shape Thursday and Friday,” said Martin. “The few anglers fishing over the weekend reported big numbers of fish, mainly downrunners with a few bright steelhead. Most of the fish are up high. Springer fishing is fair on the lower Rogue River. Rain has brought early spring salmon and late-season winter steelhead into the Rogue, with shore anglers catching a few fish plunking 4.0 MagLips and boaters anchoring with anchovies and spinner blades.”

Read the complete fishing report at northcoastjournal.com.

Kenny Priest operates Fishing the North Coast, a fishing guide service out of Humboldt specializing in salmon and steelhead. Find it on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and fishingthenorthcoast.com.

For up-to-date fishing reports and North Coast river information, email kenny@ fishingthenorthcoast.com.

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