American River Steelhead Anglers Endure Another Rough And Tumble Opener   By: Dan Bacher January 29, 2008 More Articles by Dan

When the upper section of the American River reopened to fishing on January 1, I was hoping that, against all odds, the fishing would be better than it has been during the last three openers. On the Bob Simms KFBK Outdoor Show the Saturday before the opener, I said that I would be happy if I took three to four photos of steelhead caught on the opener.

Unfortunately, I only took two photos of adult steelhead – and one of them was of my fishing partner, Rodney Fagundes, with a 21 inch hatchery steelhead. Although there was a decent number of anglers out on the river, the American was definitely less crowded than normal. Many anglers, after enduring terrible openers in 2005 and 2007, decided to either sleep in or do something else.

The vast majority of anglers fishing on the river, including some very experienced and talented steelhead enthusiasts, never even got a bite, let alone hook a fish. I attribute the slow fishing to two main factors – the worst possible fishing conditions and the absence of good numbers of fish.

The river was low and clear, with flows of only 1200 cfs. In addition, the water temperature was only 49 degrees, too cold for good action on Central Valley steelhead, which become most active when water temperatures range from 55 to 65 degrees.

Second, the return of hatchery fish to date is well below that of last year. The hatchery has received only 344 adult steelhead and 78 half pounders to date, compared with 1891 adults and 9 half pounders by the same date last year.

I fished on opening day with Rodney Fagundes, drift boat guide, and his two buddies, Billy Cahill and Ken Pamanian. The day started off great when Fagundes hooked and landed a fat, healthy 21 inch steelhead while back bouncing roe right below the hatchery.

However, we didn't hook another steelhead while side drifting and boondoggling roe and nightcrawlers from Sailor Bar to Rossmoor Bar. I hooked a mighty Sacramento sucker on roe that got my adrenalin pumping for a few seconds until I saw "old yeller" on the end of my line.

We were luckier than most because at least we had a fish in the boat. Anglers were fishing both from the bank and from an array of craft, including drift boats, pontoon boats and rubber rafts. And every one I talked to told me the same refrain: "nothing," "slow," "terrible," "no bites," "no fish."

I saw only one other adult steelhead (a fish 16 inches or over) besides the one Fagundes caught. A very lucky Will Wright of Shingle Springs caught a 9 lb. buck steelhead while tossing a spinner from the bank below the hatchery about 8:30 a.m.

I also saw two other anglers, one from the bank and one in a drift boat, hook and release two half-pounder steelhead. Once we left the hatchery, I asked everybody that we passed if they had a fish for me to photograph, and none of them did.

Rick Soto, fishing guide, reported the best success of anybody I saw on the river during opening day. He, Claudio Tuleo and another client floated the stretch from Sailor Bar to Rossmoor Bar.

 "We finished the day with 2 wild adult steelhead, out of 3 hook-ups, and landed 5 half pounders," Soto stated. "We had only one plug bite, while all of the other fish were taken roe/puffball/yarn combos."

We haven't seen a good opener since 2004, when many anglers braved wind and heavy rain to hook lots of steelhead. I caught a 9-1/2 and 12-1/2 lb. steelhead on that morning on plugs, but the wild weather forced us to get off the river by 9 a.m.

Even 2006, when the river was near flood stage, was better than this opener. The few anglers who fished roe and shrimp right next to shore hooked up to 7 steelhead apiece in the high and muddy river. I took more photos of quality steelhead and salmon in an hour of walking the bank on that day than I did all day on January 1, 2008.

The low steelhead returns on the American parallel those of the low salmon returns this fall on the American, Feather, Yuba and other Central Valley rivers. Mike Healey, DFG fishery biologist, is expecting that this fall's chinook run on the American will be less than 10,000 fish, although the final number won't be available until the carcass surveys are completed.

By contrast, 158,516 king salmon returned to the river in 2003. Unfortunately, 37% of that run – 58,651, perished before spawning in the 22 miles of the river below Nimbus Dam because of low, warm water conditions spurred by massive exports of water to the Westlands Water District and southern California.

Felix Smith, board member of the Save the American River Association and retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, like other scientists, is not sure exactly why salmon and steelhead numbers in the Central Valley and up and down the California coast have gone down since 2005, though poor ocean forage conditions appear to be the major cause.

"The giveaway was in 2006 when migratory birds at the Point Reyes Observatory abandoned their nests because they were not getting enough feed," said Smith. "The lack of food availability for salmon and steelhead on the ocean has definitely impacted the survival of salmon on the ocean. That why it makes it even more important that that the state and federal governments, in managing the inland river systems, provide the best conditions for spawning, egg incubation and rearing with the water that we have."

Hopefully, the rain that we are seeing at press time will prod more adult steelhead to move upriver. All of the reservoirs, including Folsom, are extremely low and we need them to fill so there will be enough water for fish on both the reservoirs and the rivers below.

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