Fishing Report, January 30, 2007

Feather River
After a slow start to the week on the ol’ Rio Americano on Monday, I jumped over the Feather and fished some steelhead in both the high and low flow areas. We had one dreadfully slow day over there in which we only caught 1 fish, but the other missions were successful from a numbers standpoint.

Except for the 1-fish day, we hooked no fewer than 5 steelhead per outing on plugs and side-drifted roe.

That was the good news. Unfortunately, all the fish my clients caught this week were on the small side — in the 2- to 3-pound class. We didn’t hook into any of the big winter-runs, but that’s just how it goes sometimes…

The cool thing is the fish were biting (most days) and were full of fight. They were all wild steelhead and looked like the typical Valley spring run, though it’s a bit early for that. Perhaps all this sunny weather’s got them thinking it’s spring already.

While rain isn’t normally the key ingredient to steelhead fishing on the Valley’s creeks, a shot of stormy weather sure would help the Feather & American.

Related Articles:

• Remember when…
• Spring Steelhead on the American River
• The best water temps for steelhead?
• The Purple Unicorn
• Steelhead Paradise!