A buddy of mine has some property in Healdsburg that has a small trib to the Russian running through it. He was up there last weekend and took these pics. These are adult WILD fish!
See if you can spot the steelhead. He said this is the earliest he's seen them up there in past years.
Hell yeah. We are on a comeback over the last few years. There are fish pushing all over the place. But it gets blown just like now. But I tell you what I would rather have my backyard steelie run blown for two months just knowing all those great trout rivers I love that need the agua big time are getting some.
there is only one, its under the rock, just 2 different pics of it.
that pic is sooooooooooo sick. i love it packrat. awsome job.
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Fishing isnt about catching fish, its not about who caught the most, or who caught the biggest, its about the experience that you have on the water, and the life long bonds you make with others on the journey to becoming a better person inside.
There is one mid stream on the left pic near the small bolder, and you can see the other one tucked into the side of the large bolder on both pics.
This creek gets no more than 15-20 feet across at it's widest, here it's maybe 5 feet across. It's all pocket water for miles. In the summer we get the juvie steelhead up to 15 inches in this tiny creek, lots of fun on a 3wt!
I have a bunch in the creek in my back yard...they are wild steelies ....each year they spawn and leave...In the spring you can see all the little steelhead that made it...they hang out all summer till the first push of water blows them out to the river....I have some cool video of them using a polarized lens...I dont know how to put it up for everyone to view....
Nice pics is right! Last year was the best year for steelhead on the Russian in recent memory. It was a banner year. I was reading where the Dry Creek hatchery has already taken in twice as many fish as the total run last year, and there's still two more months left in the run! Sounds like a good sign. There are some good drifts on the Russian to be had.
What are the rules for fishing upstream on those tribs? As I understand them, you are only allowed to fish downstream of the hwy 101 bridge, but does that apply to the tributaries? Not trying to be the police here, just curious about the regs. For the record, if i had a steelhead stream in my backyard, i would surely feel compelled to fish it, responsibly, of course!
well i see the one under the bolder in both pics, but not seeing the one mid stream in the left pic. guess i suck.
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Fishing isnt about catching fish, its not about who caught the most, or who caught the biggest, its about the experience that you have on the water, and the life long bonds you make with others on the journey to becoming a better person inside.
What are the rules for fishing upstream on those tribs? As I understand them, you are only allowed to fish downstream of the hwy 101 bridge, but does that apply to the tributaries? Not trying to be the police here, just curious about the regs. For the record, if i had a steelhead stream in my backyard, i would surely feel compelled to fish it, responsibly, of course!
Well, we might bending the rules a little...
You are correct, no fishing the tribs like Dry Creek and Sulpher Creek. When we do fish in the summer we are only fishing to juvies and C&R only and we're quite a ways from the Russian. We NEVER bother the spawning adults other than for picture taking. It's a great place to get a fly rod in our kids hands.
I wish it was like Oregon. There you can fish trout in most small streams, coastal or not. We have so few places to fish as it is, especially creeks. gotta drive so dang far...
Great pics. I just moved to Santa Rosa and have a steel head tributary in my back yard. Absolutely no fishing allowed, and that is good. My goal is to get some of my neigbours involved and create some gravel bars so the fish can spawn. It seems a lot of the spawning habitat is compromised.
Years ago I used to fish some of those tributaries with a dry fly with no hook. Just fun seeing those fish come up, once in a while they would even hang on for a second or two. What amazed me was how some of those juvenile fish would come up creeks that only flow in the winter time.
