A very long time ago I wanted to fish the Russian River for Steelhead. Â This is the year to start. Â I was told to use shooting heads and swing the flies.
To learn it all in one day I suggest taking a class/clinic with Carlo from Western in San Rafael. Â Cole could also suggest some help he can watch the fish swim by...
I know Carlo pretty well and can guarantee you if you buy a line system he is going to set you up with a 300 grain intermediate sink line. That's the standard out here along with an 8 wt. rod. You may vary your shooting heads with different rates of sink but the int. line is pretty standard. Most of the Russian isn't good nymph water because it doesn't have a lot of structure that other places do. Not that it can't be done but you want to cover more water (deep buckets, tailouts and long walking speed runs) with the shooter. Comets and bosses are still the norm here and size depends on water clarity. The clearer the smaller. You can swing nymphs as well. Probably a good month and a half out for any ghosts to really start showing. Jan-Feb are prime for "most" places on the coast, sometimes earlier sometimes later.Â
-- Edited by Cole Davis on Thursday 20th of October 2011 01:25:25 PM
Speaking of the russian, today I witnessed the coolest small mouth BWO hatch I have ever seen. These fish are here year round, have little black tipped tails and run about 12 inches at there biggest. These are the surface feeders not the other slighty bigger smallies that live in the river.  The foam lie right on the other side of my fence was moving today and carrying lots of mayflies down with it and these guys were drilling bugs on the surface and emergers just below. The funniest thing was watching them try to keep up with the flow. I was laughing and wishing I had a video camera. I counted almost 100 fish plus the ones I couldn't see, they were stacked. This time of year is really cool out here, and the same thing every year, smallies start moving, suckers are kicking clouds off the bottom, the ospreys may show up again this year and rebuild their nest across the river. The critters are a good indicator of the season's change. There maybe a few salmon around? Of course there are still those other fish I'm waiting for....
I would love to chime in here with some usefull info.....however...as most on this board know.. i am argubally the world's least succesful steelhead fisherman. Last season I got in 24 full days in and few short days either side of that with a big old stink on. But the really bad part about all of this is I loved every darn minute ... and I now live on the otherside of the world far from anything like fishing let alone chrome!!
So my advice is get out there and enjoy some of the most beautiful coastal rivers in the world the fish will soon become an added (and rare) bonus.!!!
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"Three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water, and one-fourth is land. It is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time fishing as taking care of the lawn." - Anon.
Have you fished for the smallies? Camo intermediate line and a wiggle tail should do it. I can tell you are just waiting for the big fish to set up in your back yard.... It looks like there is a nice fish ladder by the 101 bridge... Can you watch the fish jump the gaps?
Since you are in Spain you should take a week and fish in Oregon, BC or Alaska. Â The Rogue is rocking and you can't miss in Alaska or BC. Â The wine needs to ferment anyways....
Cole, where is a good place to fish the small mouth. I would love to get out there and scout some areas in prep for the steelhead. If I could catch a bass or too it would make the drive worth it.
Another thing for those guys is not setting too early. Let the initial bump pass and wait for the second before you set, you'll land more that way. Good steelhead training. I think I put in 15-18 days total on the Russian last year and hooked 2 adult steelhead. Completely farmed both of them because of early hook sets. All those years of trout fishing has me all messed up.
I used to fish the Russian a lot, but now I just go for shad. I've been on a fishing hiatus for 4 years due to work and just restarted fishing this year.  At this point I don't have the time or interest in chasing the sparse steelhead and salmon population unless I get a call from someone who knows something. I have, however, caught every species that swims in there (including big carp) and here's my .02:
1. Get a high quality fast-action 7wt rod with a fighting butt. This can be used for steelhead and shad. It's a little small for salmon, but it can work. I landed a 12lb Russian king about 12 years ago on the 7wt Sage RPL with no problem except that I thought it was going to spool me.
2. I would get shooting heads in #1, #3 and #4. The #1 is probably the best head for steelies particularly if you see them rolling. Most guys fish too deep for them. In fact, you could use a floating line a lot of the time if the rest of the guys don't kill you first. The shad are almost always on the bottom so the #3 and #4 are the bread and butter there.
3. I almost always use 8lb Maxima on a spool for tippet with a 2ft 20lb butt section and a 2ft 15lb middle section which really gives good turnover to heavy flies. You could just use the 8lb however, and probably do just as well.
4. Back in the good old days, they used to take down the Healdsburg dam all at once after labor day. If you went to the PG&E hole right away, you could catch smallmouth up to 15" until your arm hurt. The smallies would all go into the hole as the water dropped quickly and on a 5wt it was a lot of fun. I remember that the chartreuse latex wiggletail was the champ, however, #8/10 wooly buggers worked just fine. I think the entire Russian has smallmouth as I've caught them down at Johnson's beach on shad flies and used to hear about people throwing poppers over in Forestville in the evening and catching on every cast.
5. I've mostly fished the lower river and everybody knows about Johnson's Beach and Casini ranch. There are also plenty of secret spots that every longtime river rat visits and I can't tell you about for fear of my life.
I know there are a lot of guys still pounding the water for steelhead and catching them occassionally. The last time I went out 4 years ago, my friend who is a much better steelhead fisherman than me, landed 5 and I got zip. Maybe that's why I don't fish for them anymore.  However, there is still a decent run of shad (IMO, not like it used to be though) and you should not ignore this. They are fiesty critters and run up to 5lbs +  (my biggest one ever on any river). Last year at Johnson's Beach, I averaged about 5 fish landed per trip with maybe 8 or 9 hookups. Best day was 20 hookups over a 3hr period. Not what it used to be, but still worth a 30 minute drive.
Thanks for the info. Â I love to fish shad too, haven't in years though. Â Just got back into flyfishing this year too, raising kids and work. Â I realized I'm not going to live forever, need to get as much river time as possible. Â I've always wanted to catch a steelhead on a fly.
The other side of my fence today and bring the bubble lies were a large number of mole cricket, these guys drill down on the surface and emergers error, just below. The most interesting thing is to see if they try to maintain liquidity.
I lived in Forestville and fished the river a bit before I moved to SAC.  The winning combination is good water flow after some strong rains. Once that water turns green from the brown runoff, the steelies can be caught.  Did not fly fish then, so I caught them bouncing roe in the deeper holes. I did hook a few on spinners as well.Â
I'll have to do my fly work on the American which is now my backyard river of choice.
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If there's a body of water, I'll fall into it.
Wet and wild!
I am going to be in Duncan Mills next weekend, so I figure I might as well give this thing a shot. I've never fished the Russian before, but I think I've found some good access/fishing spots thanks to the internet. I realize it's about a month or a month and a half too early, but I have steelhead fever and I'm gonna trying anyway.
I am posting to get some guidance on an aspect of this river that I am clueless about: tides. I imagine that the tide will move up river in Duncan Mills. If so, is it worth fishing during high tide? Low tide? What's the ideal time?
You are probably going to run into a few other flyfishers down there but you will be able to get on some water no problem. If you are nice and ask a few questions they can lead you in the right direction. I did some scouting down there Sunday and I can tell you the river is LOW and CLEAR right now. Real spooky water=smaller flies. There may or may not be some early steelies showing up??? But hey, you won't catch em wondering about it on your couch. Good luck, I gotta get some sleep. Waking up at 2:30 to head north....
 However, there is still a decent run of shad (IMO, not like it used to be though) and you should not ignore this. They are fiesty critters and run up to 5lbs +  (my biggest one ever on any river). Last year at Johnson's Beach, I averaged about 5 fish landed per trip with maybe 8 or 9 hookups. Best day was 20 hookups over a 3hr period. Not what it used to be, but still worth a 30 minute drive.
