Eel, Mad, Mattole Rivers Fishing Report

Eel Still Out, More Rain on the Way
This will be our final Eel river report of the season. Here on Tuesday 3-27 the river is on a rapid rise jumping from 10 feet to over 15.7 feet just in the past 12 hours. With the season closing this coming Saturday 3-31 there is no chance of the river coming back in. This has been a productive but difficult season for North Coast Metalheaders. Low water through most of the season kept many rivers below optimal levels. Overall it was a decent season on the Eel with good catches despite the low water flows for most of January and February. Hopefully these late seasons storms allow young steelhead to survive and migrate out to sea setting the stage for more good fishing 3 to 4 years from now.
Top bets for now lay inland with Wally Johnson still reporting good counts on the upper Klamath. The Smith and Chetco rivers are past their prime seasons and it's now time t look ahead to the Spring king seasons on the Klamath and Rogue rivers.

Winter Returns Rivers Rise
Winter has returned to the North and Central Coasts after being absent most of this season. On Tuesday 3-13 all rivers are on the rise. 24 hour rainfall totals (ending at 3:PM) are: 2.44 at Gasquet on the Smith. The Smith rose from 9 feet yesterday to 12.4 today and is currently at 12.08 feet ay Jed Smith state Park. There have been just a few guides out with scores of 2 to 5 fish reported the past few days. The fish are a mix of runbacks and some bright some with a few young bluebacks just starting to show. This rise should bring a push of runbacks down into the main stem and scores should pick up but the percentage of bright fish will steadily decrease the next couple of weeks.
Arcata on the Mad river saw .90" of rain and the river is rising from 8 feet to 10.3. It is high and muddy and will remain so for some time. There has been a good run of native fish here in recent years with the best fishing being in March. With more rain on the way it does not look like the Mad will clear enough to be fishable with conventional tackle prior to the seasons end. If we do see an extended period of dry weather (at least 7 days) it may come back in in time?
The South Fork Eel has jumped from 800cfs at Miranda to 3800cfs over the past 14 hours. The Ft Seward rain gauge reports 1.52" over the past 24 hours. With more rain expected Thursday and again on Saturday the South Fork looks to remain high through the most of the following week. The March fishery is a mixed bag of mostly runbacks with 20-30% bright fish in the mix. Once flows drop back below 14cfs at Miranda it will be worth a look. Until then....
The upper Klamath with it's dam controlled flows is running at a flat line of 1300cfs at Iron Gate and 2500cfs at Seiad. The upper river is still kicking out lots of half pounders and a few scattered adults to 10 pounds like the one pictured here sent in by Wally Johnson this past weekend. Wally reports that counts are still holding at 7 to 12 fish per rod. Most here run 2 to 5 pounds but the occasional "trophy" like the one pictured right at 29" is HUGE for the upper Klamath. With the coastal rivers all high the Klamath would be a top bet for anglers looking for that late season fix.
Like the Klamath the upper Trinity is still holding at Douglas City. Flows have jumped to 630cfs from 400 over the past 12 hours. Steve Huber reports the river has some color and fishing is fair at 2 to 5 fish per boat. Steve is concentrating on getting his new boat put together and will be spending all of April and May chasing springers on the lower Rogue. He is sold out on an incredible package that includes lodging fishing and meals but you may be able to sneak in (like myself) on a cancelation.
The Russian is seeing a rise but hardy big flows. The Venado gauge west of Healdsburg reports 3.00" of rain the past 24 hours. The river at Healdsburg has jumped from 400cfs at 10:AM to 1600 and rising fast at 4:PM. With rain expected Thursday and into the weekend the Russian will need at least 5 days to clear. Despite the flow and clear flows most of this season experienced anglers have been hooking some fish. In most years March can bring a lot of fish into the hatchery so there is still some time left. I would add this one to my "last season list" as well.
One reader wrote in asking why we don't write about the Sonoma coastal rivers any longer. Many locals were frustrated by an influx of new faces and asked us to tone things down and frankly many of these streams just can't handle a whole lot of pressure. That said a coastal gem of a stream not too far from my home put out some big numbers the first few days of the month.
We will update individual streams as flows drop back in but time is running short. Aside from the Smith, Russian, Klamath and Trinity all other rivers close on Saturday March 31st.

Eel Still Kicking Out Big Numbers
It's that time of the season where many anglers think that the best of the steelhead season is behind them. That is true for rivers like the Smith and Mad but there is still lots of fish and plenty of reasons to get out in March and hit the rivers. On Friday 3-9 Tony floated the main stem Eel and his twosome had a banner day releasing 11 fish out of 12 hooked. Tony says the most are headed down but there are still some nice big bright fish in the mix. The weather forecast calls for showers on Saturday and another system moving in late Sunday. Next week looks very wet and rainfall totals for Sunday through Friday could run at 5 to 10 inches. This will knock out the Eel for a week or more but the end of the month could be good? Tony may head inland to the Trinity or just take some time off before the ocean salmon opener. It's going to be a big year for North Coast anglers and he will need his rest.

The Eel has been one of the best producing rivers of the past few years. The runs are rebuilding and if not for the tendency of this river to blow out it would probably rival the interest of the Smith which is so popular due to it being able to clear so quickly. This being a dry year it is seeing lots of interest and more angers are investigating the wide swath of real estate open to anglers.

River Levels: