OFF THE HOOK: Steelhead offer top river fishing as 2012 begins

The section of the Feather River from Table Mountain bicycle bridge to the Highway 70 bridge opens today, providing steelhead anglers with a good way to start 2012.

Only barbless hooks may be used. The bag limit is one hatchery trout or one hatchery steelhead.

Steelhead fishing continues to be productive in the low flow and high flow areas for shore anglers and boaters. "The salmon are near the end of their spawn, so many anglers are switching from roe clusters to nightcrawlers, Kastmasters and No. 6 and No. 9 black/gold Panther Martins," said Fil Torres at Oroville Outdoors. "The fish are averaging 3 pounds each."

Combined releases below the Thermalito Afterbay Outlet are 5,000 cfs, creating better fishing conditions for steelhead enthusiasts.

Striped bass fishing is probably also worth a shot for anglers tossing out sardines, pileworms, bloodworms and top-water lures including Pencil Poppers below Shanghai Bend. However, hardly anybody has been fishing during the Christmas holidays, according to Bob Boucke at Johnson's Bait and Tackle in Yuba City.

If you want to catch a king salmon on the Sacramento River, you'll have to wait until the season reopens in July.

The Sacramento River from 150 feet below the Lower Red Bluff (Sycamore) Boat Ramp to the Highway 113 Bridge closed to fishing on Dec. 18.

"The fishing was really slow the last three days of the season throughout the river," said Boucke. "Guide Rob Reimers and I didn't hook anything on our trip to above Knights Landing on Dec. 16, although one angler landed a 30-pound salmon. I didn't hear of any fish caught on Saturday or Sunday."

The reason for the very tough bite was the low, clear water conditions. Now that the salmon season is over, few anglers have reported hooking steelhead or sturgeon. "We really need some rain," emphasized Boucke.

Unless the weather forecast changes dramatically, anglers can expect to work for every steelhead they catch on the opening of the upper section of the American River today. The water is cold, clear and low, with releases of 2,000 cfs below Nimbus Dam.

The stretch of river that will open is from the USGS gauging station cable crossing near Nimbus Hatchery to the SMUD power line crossing the southwest boundary of Ancil Hoffman Park.

The good news is that even without rain, large numbers of steelhead are showing at the hatchery.

"We have trapped a total of 403 adult steelhead and two half-pounders to date, compared to 466 adults and five half-pounders to date last year," reported Andy Heap, acting hatchery manager. "We spawned six pairs in our first spawn this year.

"When we get some rain, we should see a big jump in the numbers of the steelhead," Heap forecasted.

The hatchery staff has finished spawning salmon this season, the second year of the recovery from the Central Valley fall run chinook salmon collapse of 2008 and 2009. The facility trapped a total of 6,251 adults and 6,429 grilse (jills and jacks) in 2011. That compares to 7,250 adults and 1,826 grilse last year.

State and federal biologists model the ocean salmon abundance for the coming year based on the grilse counts of the previous fall, so this year's salmon run on the American looks very promising.

"We have a total of 7,000,000 eggs, so we should see no problem making our production goal of 41⁄2 million smolts," he added.

On the North Coast, the lack of rain and fish has forced guides to cancel fishing trips on the Smith River, although the river and its creeks are still open.

The Smith River at press time was open from the mouth of Rowdy Creek to its confluence with Patrick Creek. The South Fork from its mouth to Jones Creek and the North Fork from its mouth to its confluence with Stony Creek are also open.

Kevin Brock of Kevin Brock's Guide Service was scheduled to begin fishing for steelhead on Dec. 20, but canceled his trips due to low flows. He will begin his Smith River trips as soon as we see some rain. The steelhead action should break loose once rain raises river flows. "You can't hardly drift a boat down the river," Brock said.

The main stem Eel River to its confluence with the South Fork Eel River was open, but no fishing reports were available at press time.

Redwood Creek, the Mad River, South Fork of the Eel and Van Duzen rivers were all closed due to low flows. The Mattole and the main stem Eel from its confluence to Cape Horn Dam will be closed until at least today.

The DFG's Low Flow Closure Hotline for North Coast Rivers is 707-822-3164.