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March 28, 2009    Headlines

Eel Back on the Rise

On the North Coast rivers are dropping into shape for the final weekend of the steelie season. The south fork Eel is still running a tad high at 8.9 feet at Miranda on Friday 3-27 but should be worth while. I would like to see it a tad lower but it should be fishing shape this weekend. Top bets will be the upper drifts from Cooks Valley to Miranda and the entire south fork may be fishing by Monday. This is your best and last chance at steelies. Roe is the best offering and down runners will make up 90% of the catch. There are a bunch of steelies in the Eel right now most headed back to sea with a few scattered fresh fish in the mix. The river has been high all this past week and we saw another small rise on Saturday 3-21. If the weather remains dry the upper river around Piercy to Leggett should be back in by mid week and the middle section in by next Friday. On those days that it is fishing 4 to 8 fish counts have been the norm for guides with nearly all the action on roe. The river closes to fish at the end of the month. The steelie action was very good over the weekend but light rain hasblown the river out here on Monday 3-16. The river had climbed to nearly 5000cfs at Miranda and looks to remain out until at least this weekend. Guides and private boaters reported scores of 2 to 7 fish per boat for those drifting the middle section of the south fork. There were rumors of higher counts of mostly down run fish averaging 6 to 12 pounds. It will take at least five days of dry weather for the upper south fork to come in and each additional day will add one drift or about 5 to 10 miles of fishable conditions. There are just a couple of weeks left to the season and the south fork Eel will be your Northern Cal best bet as most other rivers are well past their prime time season. River Levels: For river status (low flow closure) updates from Fish and Game please call +1.707.442.4502 for the North coast and +1.707.944.5533 for Central coast streams. Be sure to check out the California Fish and Game regulations before you go. Regulations vary on every river and you need to pay attention to bait and hook restrictions. Due to winter closures on HWYs 5, 101 & 299 we recommend you check Caltrans road conditions as well. Caught Fish? Looking for timely informative updates? Check out a FREE trial to the Northern California Hotsheet, California's fastest growing fishing newsletter. The Hotsheet is emailed three to four evenings per week direct to your desktop. No hunting the web for information or waiting on an outdated magazine to arrive in the mail. These in-depth reports keep you on top of what is happening TODAY so you can catch more fish tomorrow! Just $3.50 per month when you subscribe for one year. You can receive a free week's trial copy by e-mailing a request to fishsite@aol.com