Daara, I posted something about this on the american river steelies post, Its about 12 posts down. You might find it interesting. Look what has happened to the atlantic salmon, I'm not even sure theres any atlantic salmon left to catch in the u.s, Wild ones I mean. Sad to, Cuz there supposed to be some of the greatest game fish on the planet. There latin name means the leaper, Thats pretty cool.

water diversion, dams, pollution, overfishing, stripers, are to blame. imo

dont forget the bait dunkers. hahaha

but ya from what i know about salmon this is going to be a very very very late run, i have been salmon fishin for several yrs, and have noticed when we have had very mild winters, and very very hot spring time weather the run is very very very late. so thats what is going to happen here. but once they come it will be in numbers, just wait for a good week of hard cold rain. it should start gettin good again. i was catching a lot of salmon from may when i caught my 50 lber till about the begining of aug thats when i found putah and didnt care about salmon anymore.

hey i am a teeth flosser watch out. i keep what i keep. maybe one if that. i go out to have fun. and let a lot of fish go. i did keep the 50 lber that i caught on 20lb main line 10 lb leader line. the fish was so fresh still had sea lice on it. i fought that thing for about an hour. it was a blast. but its not the flossers but the snaggers that mess it up. when i used to go down there a lot, you could tell the scumbags from the real sportsman. we would have our 200-400 g loomis or our lamies or even a 80 dollar shimano convergance with 600-200 dollar reels. they would come out with the walmart big game white pole special, with 50-80 lb line. we would have 20-30 lb pline or power pro. we would use 10-15 lb p-line leader line. they would use 20-30 lb big game leader line. we would use size 6-8 hooks they would use 1/0, which is just barely legal. those ones really hurt the salmon. i was down there one day. i keep 2 fish one for me and one for a friend. i got there an hour before sun up and left an hour after sun down. this guy snagged 3 left, hour later came back snagged 3 left. then came down again. i told that guy if he doesnt take off ill call I.N.S for illegal immigrant, then call dfg the cops and whom ever else i want to one arrest your ass then deport you too. he wanted to start givin me lip, and someother people i didnt even know came up to him, said leave my boy (meaning me) alone took his rod broke it threw it in the water and proceded to escort him away from fish. that was a great day. but ya its the snaggers not the flossers.

When I lived in washington state the snaggers were using huge lingcod bars.

where should i go for salmon in the bay area?

well as far as snaggin for salmon 90% of all the people that due snag dont spend a lot of money because if the get caught they loose their equipment. thats how you can tell the snaggers from the real fisherman. hopefully that helps. my buddy that i salmon fished with all the time. caught a snagged fish. had his buddy net it, and he went back to fishing. well come to find out his buddy kept that fish and then the dfg took my buddies 300$ gloomis and his 120$ shimano curado reel. ya he wasnt happy. a yr later he got it back. but that is what i meant by snaggers being cheap, if dfg takes their stuff they are only out 50-75 bucks compaired to use from 200-600 bucks. thats not including the fine.

as far as fly fishing goes. i am set up on the cheap side. my redington 6wt rod new 100 bucks got it on ebay brand new for 62 shipped to my door, got a pfluger reel new 60 bucks ebay new 25 to my door, my st croix 5wt paid 140 for the rod and the orvis reel, which now that i look up things is a lil high, but oh well. i love the action of the st croix rod great for dries and soft presentation, but can definitly handle some decent size fish. just waiting for the pig to get on it and see how it does.

I'll have to see how this steelhead game plays out on my 6 weight, I may be lookin at a new 8 weight in the very near future. I have a bad habit of going all out when it comes to buying a new fly rod and reel. I guess you can't go wrong with a sage MattR, Seems most people i see fly fishin are using sage rods. I like to go with something a little less mainstream. Hey MattR, I bet a nice abel reel would pair up with that z axis nicely.

-- Edited by thecaptain at 16:29, 2007-11-02

Hey,

If you are looking for a good steelhead rod for a good price check out the TFO Jim Teeny rods, $199.99. I have owned nothing but winstons and abels but I wanted a beater for large rivers and steelhead, bought this rod and love it. I put 32 fish on a steelhead card with it last winter and will be doing the same with it in a couple months.

Nick

where should i go for salmon/steelies in the bay area? is a 6 weight ok?

San Lorenzo had a decent run last year, But that was january. If you don't like the current fishing reports then get your ass out there and make your own !

thanks for the help y'all

-- Edited by Daara at 23:32, 2007-11-02

i was actually just thinkin the same thing, i have talked to a few people that have fished the feather and yuba lately and there are a few small pods of fresh salmon here and there. so they are just starting to show signs of life. give it about a month and the salmon fishing with be here.