Current Fishing Report

I just wrapped up a great trip to coastal CA/OR.  We started out fishing with guide Drew Griffith on the Smith.  My buddy Jim learned how to spey cast with Drew's help and was rewarded with a beautiful Coastal Cutthroat for his efforts.  I didn't get bit, but I sure thought it was going to happen in a few spots.  The river was a beautiful steelhead green and dropping rapidly.  Even the gear guys seemed to be struggling that day, though.  That's generally not a good sign for the fly anglers.Our 2nd and 3rd day were spent in southern Oregon with guide Travis Bowman.  It was a ton of fun and we also managed to connect with 5 adult fish in 2 days.  A couple were really brief encounters but the rest were lengthy battles, some won and some lost.  I love fishing this area as there are many different water types and you can catch chrome winter steelhead on single-hand and spey rods.

Drew Griffith surveys the scene on the Smith

Drew makes a nice shore lunch

Coastal Cutthroat from the Smith

Andrew releasing a wild steelhead

Peter Santley and I had a really fun day with a great group of guys from the Bay Area. The river is in great shape and the fish were eager to eat our flies. My guys had a mixture of adults and half-pounders throughout the day, but Steve landed a really big brown trout and Larry landed a nice hatchery hen towards the end of the day. Tomorrow they’re set to wrestle the pigs at Eagle Canyon Trophy Trout Lakes!

Larry with a nice hatchery fish

Steve with his big brown

This is a report from our guest Will who fished the lakes today:"We had an enjoyable day during our recent trip to the Eagle Canyon Lakes. Fish were very active up until mid morning but then slowed down during the latter part of the day. Everyone hooked into some nice size fish and several were landed. Fish caught during the morning bite were taking black leech patterns retrieved with intermediate lines. Later that day, the fish were looking for small red midge/nymph patterns and hares ear nymphs. We look forward to another return trip next year." 

The rain has stopped and the river is dropping. Timing is everything when it comes to winter steelhead fishing. The rains move the fish as the river drops they go on the bite.The 10 day forecast is good and it's time to go. The river was fishing good before storms with some fresh winter run fish showing. The fish were eating golden stones and various nymphs. A few fish were also being caught on the swing for those putting time in.We have guides available to get you on the fish. I will be back on the river Thursday to see what the rain has brought us. Come out and play! Book now!Good fishing,Peter Santley

This report is from Luke Geraty who guided a great group of guests at Eagle Canyon today:"Today went really well. The water was a bit off color from the rain but the fish didn’t seem to mind. The best flies were black streamers with small patches of red and, surprisingly, red midges that were either left still or stripped fast or slow. The highlight of the day was when Triston caught his first big trout on a streamer!" 

I had a really fun day with Frank and Doug on the Trinity. The recent storms had the river running high and off-color. The fishing was tough, but we ended up landing one small adult and two nice half-pounders. There is no rain in the extended forecast, so conditions should be pretty good in the coming weeks.

The North Coast is experiencing the biggest rise of the season due to an atmospheric river dumping rain over most of California. The spike will be over the weekend and then see a slow drop through all of next week. For the moment all fishing options are off the table as many rivers are going to swell to near flood stage conditions, but by early next week we should see the first fishable water on the Smith River. In the mean time it's time to crank out some bugs behind the vice in anticipation for what should be excellent fishing opportunities once our rivers come into shape. This is the bank buster we've desperately needed on the North Coast after such a prolonged period of minor storms and marginal rises. Hopefully this mega rise will scour out rivers that have slowly begun to fill in. It is sure to bring in good numbers of fresh steelhead. So if you've been waiting to get out and swing flies for some of the hottest fish on the planet, this is it.  Before this storm there was some epic fishing happening on the coast. The Eel was seeing some amazing fish caught before it blew out last weekend. It never had a chance to come back on line before this current storm made an appearence. Hopefully we'll see more epic days ahead on the Eel during February. The Smith was off to a slow start but in the last week a pulse of fish showed up and some beautiful specimens were brought to hand by those willing to put in the hours and stick it out. All told 2019 has already been a stand out season compared to what was ultimately a slower winter steelhead season in 2018. With this current gully washer on tap for the North Coast things are looking primed for an outstanding February. I have some prime dates available for the end of this month and into next month. Hope to see you on the water! 

the line up

The classic intruder. A winter staple

Jessie with a gnarly buck

Rich with a beautiful hen. Photo Chris Catone

Dream water on the North Coast

Translucent fins on a fresh from the salt fish. Photo Kellen Igou

Steelhead fishing on California's North Coast has been epic! I just had some prime dates open up this month for anyone looking to shake hands with a hot fish or two. Stay tuned for a detailed report this weekend.

Fresh from the sea, bright as can be

The Sacramento ISE Show starts tomorrow.  Come see Andrew and Katie Harris at the Eagle Canyon booth.  It's booth #2121 in the C (Fly Fishing) building.  Show hours are 11-8pm Thursday and Friday, 10am-7pm Saturday, and 10am-5pm Sunday.  Stop by our booth.  We would love to see you!

I spent the last three days guiding the Trinity for Winter Steelhead "On the Swing" and I would consider the fishing pretty good ! Early to mid January in my experience seems to yeild some of the best Winter Steelheading of the Season on the Trinity, we averaged a little better then 1 adult per day per angler, for Winter steelheading "on the swing" I would consider that good, the Steelhead on the Trin currenty are NOT spread out evenly from Lewiston to Pigeon Point, which makes me think that they are moving quite a bit right now, not necessarliy stacking up in a given area, "if your not finding em...move !"

almost there...

I had a great time today with Jason. Our focus was swinging flies with the hopes of hooking into a healthy winter steelhead. Jason worked very hard and presented his fly perfectly, but unfortunately he was not rewarded for his efforts. We have a new storm headed our way, which should bring a new push of fish!  

Today was a great day with my guests Geza and Gina. The flows had dropped a bit and we had a few more boats to contend with, but we had a great day. Gina started it off hooking into a beast! She fought it for several minutes before landing a beautiful wild buck. Geza followed with a very nice hatchery adult. We landed several more nice hatchery fish and both landed a half-pounder each. This was their first time fishing the Trinity and I think they will leave with some great memories! 

Nice way to start the day!

Geza with a beautiful steelhead!

Gina with another really nice fish!

I had the pleasure of guiding Larry and Ginny on their very first steelhead adventure today. And what a first time experience they had! The flows were up from the previous two days of rain, but the color and clarity were perfect. They both had several hook-ups throughout the day and Ginny landed a very nice hatchery buck. They were extremely pleased with their first steelhead experience. The extended forecast has several storms headed our way beginning Monday and lasting for about a week. This should help fill our lakes and reservoirs!  

This image doesn't show just how big this fish is!

This write-up is from our guest Tony from Red Bluff who fished Eagle Canyon yesterday:"Thank you again for your hospitality. We really had the cards stacked against us yesterday. 40 mph winds, all day freezing rain and 3 rookie anglers. We had a blast! Our group and the venue is so much fun. In spite of the conditions we still managed to have 35 hook ups and 20 fish landed. We caught fish throughout the day and they seemed to come in flurries. So if you weren't fishing you could miss your window for an epic hook up. You can quote me on this...these fish are tackle breakers. You had better have strong knots and quality tippet if you want to land these fish. We lost several fish due to slipped knots and faulty reel drag systems. We caught fish using large size 4 streamers and small size 22 midges and everything in between. Eagle Canyon is a true fisherman's paradise. We are looking forward to fishing again with Confluence Outfitters. Thank you for making our fishing dreams a reality."

Bill with a hard fighting Eagle Canyon slab

Chip with his first of several Eagle Canyon trout

Fishing the lower lake in 40 mph gusts

Tony with one of several Eagle Canyon trout landed

Novice angler Liz hooking up and landing the largest trout of her life

Tony and Liz with a double

I had another great day with Bob and Rich on the Trinity today. We dodged the rain and the river was in great shape after the weekend storms.  The fish were on the job today. Rich ended up on the losing end of a few epic battles with some really nice fish and Bob landed a small adult. They have some fish stories to tell for sure, but it was a very good day with good friends. More rain is on the way this week and next.

Bob with a small adult

Fellow guide Kevin Kay and I found ourselves with a day off, so we decided to do some fishing. Conditions are tough right now - the water is low, cold, and very clear. We shared time on the oars, but in the end, we had only one encounter and it was my time to hold onto the cork – how sweet it is! We have a significant winter storm system headed our way beginning Saturday. Snow is expected this weekend, and then another few days of rain. This rain is welcome and will hopefully bring more fish into the upper river! 

This report is from long-time guest Rocky who fished Eagle Canyon on New Year's Eve:"Great day on the ponds. One of my best (And I’ve fished it a lot.) Beautiful day and the wind probably helped us. Somewhere around 50-60 hookups between the two of us and landed about half of those."

I just finished up a two day swing trip with Patrick on the North Coast. Recent king tides and a dropping river with a heavy pea soup stain gave us optimal conditions for finding a fesh steelhead or two as we started off on the first day. We floated the S. Fork Eel and had the river mostly to ourselves on our stretch. Despite good conditions we ended the first day empty handed, but the weather had been kind to us and Patrick and I were able to work on some casting techniques. All in all a great day to be on the water. The beauty of the old growth Redwoods that line the banks of the Eel never disappoint. The second day started with a soaking light rain and heavy cloud cover. It was pure winter steelhead weather to be sure and hopes remained high that we would have an encounter or two. It was in the first run we fished that Patrick got grabbed and quickly found himself tethered to a mean little buck who put up one helluva fight before we were able to land him. It was a remarkable wild specimen, still clad in silver, it's fins translucent and glowing in the dim light. We were stoked to put it mildly. We fished hard for the rest of the day without another grab until we decided to try one more run as the sun was getting low over the Pacific. This time the grab came on the first cast and we both knew immediately that this was a hot fish. It drilled us. Patrick fought it up and down the run until finally it came off the line. No matter, it gave us a show neither of us will soon forget. It was the perfect end to a phenomenal day of winter steelhead fishing. Fishing on the coast is in full swing. The Eel River is going to be in near perfect shape through the end of this week and will be the best bet for anyone looking to make the journey north along the coast in hopes of swinging up one of these elusive creatures. The New Year will see a few rivers open to fishing aswell, giving us anglers even more opportunities to make the connection.  Rain is forecast to return to the North Coast by late next weekend and continue into the early part of the week. It could potentially be enough to blow out a few rivers, but also give a much needed bump to others. It should be an epic 2019 season. Happy New Years from the coast!

All the fixins for a river side lunch

Richard getting bent on the coast

Close encounters of the chrome kind

End of the day, end of the year

Richard with a dime

Swinging for chrome

Here are some comments from guests that fished Eagle Canyon today:"Most of the fish were caught in the morning and in the evening with a streamer and intermediate line. I hooked some fish with a midge under an indicator. Hooked around 20 fish, landed around 16, broke off a couple while indicator fishing. All in all a good day.""Caught many big, some huge, rainbows." 

This photo was forwarded by one of our guests at Eagle Canyon yesterday.Linsey said "Thanks for a great day fishing today!"Carl, another member of the group, said "Fishing was good,a little slow in the afternoon. Wooly Buggers, nymphs both with and without indicators.  Fun day, thank you"