Deck dog,
As the main stem eel is at 26000 cfs after the last rains it’s going to take a good while to clear. The south fork should be in shape sooner, and the van duzen also clears much faster than either. I fished the mainstem a few weeks ago New Year’s Eve day when we had the opposite problem, at 700 cfs you could actually cross the river which is pretty unusual for the time of year. I have been fishing small coastal rivers in Mendocino county while waiting for the Russian to clear, those drop much faster than some of the more well known rivers further north. Have heard of Eric and seen some of his videos online fishing out of his kayak on the eel river system, seems like he gets into a lot of fish. I’d also recommend Jason Hartwick to anyone who wants to go out with a guide swinging flies with a two handed rod. Went out for a half day with him and he really helped me dial in my casting as I had been trying to teach myself to Spey cast using YouTube videos the past 2 steelhead seasons. Good luck

I’ll be up there next week too. I mostly swing intruders in various colors, hobo speys, tube flies and bunny leechs also. Something that gets there attention, they say brighter flies for bright days and darker for overcast but that may be more of a summer run thing.The two adults I’ve landed this year on the Russian have been on the same large black and orange intruder. Have heard from many folks, and in my experience, fly selections not too important, more a matter of locating fish and giving a good presentation. And plain luck for winter run fish. Folks also nymph egg patterns of course, but the eel system is pretty nice for swinging with the advantage of being able to cover lots of water. Good luck next week

How’d you do deckdog? I swung flies wed-Friday, one grab on the Van Duzen and that was it.