The Smith river has been
steadily dropping over the
past two days after a brief
rise and fall on Tuesday and
Wednesday. Kenny Armstrong
reports that guides on
Wednesday 11-18 landed 1
to 5 fish per boat of mostly
big bright salmon in the 20
to 30+ pound class. Here on
Thursday evening the river
has dropped back to 8 feet
on the Jed Park gauge
but moderate to heavy ( 1 to
3 inches) is forecasted on
Friday. Once the front
pushes through and the river
begins to drop we will
likely see the last "big
blast" of chromers push in
and up through the system
this weekend and early next
week. Hit the Smith when
it's dropping over the next
week to ten days and you
should be rewarded with a
late season trophy and if
you have salmon in the
freezer at home think about
releasing that brood stock
fish to seed future runs.
The salmon season will wind
down quickly over the next
week and steelies should
start to push in during the
first week of December.
The rains have returned to
the North Coast and rivers
are back on the rise. This
is good news for salmon
anglers but one needs to
pick a window as the season
will be winding down soon.
For the 24 hours ending on
Tuesday 11-17 at 5:PM
Gasquet has seen 2.24" of
rain and the Smith river is
on the rise. The river has
jumped from about 6.5 feet
this morning to 10.3 at Jed
Smith state park this
afternoon. Light showers are
expected overnight and it
looks like Wednesday and
most especially Thursday
looks to be very promising
for salmon anglers. Another
round of moderate to heavy
rain is expected on Friday
and while the river may blow
up too big to fish this
weekend the early part of
next week could again be one
of those prime times to be
on the river. Over the past
few days the action has been
slow due to the ultra clear
and low flows but things
should heat up during those
windows that the river drops
and is between 9 and 12
feet.
For the balance of the North
Coast 24 hours rainfall
totals were concentrated
along the coast and totals
inland and to the south were
much lighter. Arcata (Mad
river) saw .98, Fort Seward
on the main stem Eel .48 and
Honeydew over on the Mattole
watershed saw 1.12”. The
Trinity river and upper
Klamath areas have seen
light rain with totals
ranging from .20 to .36” and
only .04 was reported at
Venado (west of Healdsburg)
on the Russian river. Rain
is just what our ever
shrinking numbers of salmon
need to successfully spawn
and give us some hope for
any future.
Kenny Armstrong checked in
with a good report on
Thursday 11-12. He
worked the Forks to the
Outhouse or if you don't
know that section, it's a
drifted the starts above and
ends in the old growth
redwoods of Jed Smith state
park. This is one of the
most scenic drifts available
in Northern California.
Kenny had a group of three
on board who hooked five
fish and landed three two
dark jacks and one big Mill
Creek bound male that was in
the low 50 pound class and
still very bright. All three
fish were released and my
hat goes off to those on
board for looking out for
the Smith river brood stock.
Kenny said the river is low
and clear and they got all
their action on back bounced
roe. They did work kwikfish
but Kenny says the river is
just too clear to get the
plugs in front of them
before they spook. Fly
anglers working the lower
Park from prams are alos
scoring a few fish. These
locals know this fishery and
do quite well and also
release the majority of
their fish. The forecast
calls for showers tonight
but talking with Kenny he
says it doesn't look to
happen. He is going to fish
again on Friday but won't be
offering trips until they
see some rain and conditions
improve. On the next rise we
should see the last big push
of salmon move up and the
season will wind down after
Thanksgiving. Over the past
three years we have seen
some good early steelie
action on the Smith and
Kenny will be targeting
metalheads in December.
Kenny
Armstrong will be running
Smith river fall salmon trips through
November. 707 498-4087