Xmas Day Russian River Gift non yak

Our Family gets together Xmas Eve and the Kids either work or are seeing friends today so it's just me and the wife. She is tired and takes a nap so I sneak off to the River. Get there river looks good I go to my secret spot and bang first cast I hook up I can't believe it great fight nice 11/12lb buck C&R. Ten casts later bam another one great fight twin of the first one C&R. Wow this is pretty cool for a day I didn't think I would fish. Fish for 45 min more than another this is a real hot fish jumping all over looks like a 9/10lb hen she is all over the place she makes a deep run must have caught line on snag under water line breaks fish gone bummer wanted some roe, and lost a lure that just hooked 3 fish. Fish for another hour see fish rolling but no bites.

Great day 3 hookups in 2 1/2 hours but it gets better. There is a sweeper just below the hole that's collects floating debris I always check it for Spin Glos there are 2 floating there along with the lure I lost an hour before thank god for barbless hooks WOW one of my better days steelie fishing plus I get my lure back. I am pumped If the river doesn't go up much I am there tomorrow. A perfect end to a great Christmas oops still got Dinner.

Ya know, I checked the river gauge on the web, and thought. Man, todays the day. Someones gotta be gettin some action. Glad to hear someone wasn't letting em by unhurrased!! Way to go!! They thought they were going to sneak by under the cover of Christmas... Hopefully the next time the river's ready, so am I...

Way to Go Mike,

Nothing like having the whole river to yourself and hooking up on xmas day.

I spent all day playing my new fishing game, Rapala Tournament Fishing, on my new Nintendo Wii game system. It's  a blast when your stuck at home.


Happy holidays.....

Good deal Mike,

I went the following day, but had to wait for my wife to return home from "day after" shopping.  By the time I got there around 11:30, the water was still looking good, but the rain was getting worse.  The PG&E hole was looking good, but within 20 minutes the water began rising fairly quickly and turning from that beautiful green to chocolate milk.  Fished for about another 30 minutes just becuase I was already there and then threw in the towel.  Maybe this weekend though, things should be shaping up again if we don't get another dumper.....

Norm

I'm thinking Monday maybe,  the mouth of DC should be clearing if you like crowds that's about the only spot until the river hits 1500cfs maybe Ukaih there should be some fish up there? I was in that rain also about 1/2 miles above PG&E no luck either. How long have been fishing the river PG&E hole is the spot that you tell people where the fish are being caught when you don't want to tell where the fish are I'm guilty  . I know I see it in the local paper a lot, if all the fish that were reported caught there were caught there it would be packed. It does hold fish when the waters really low, my best luck is at the very top right before it turns and the bottom under the RR bridge. The deeper parts are ok for plunking but pretty hard to fish drifting or hardware and to deep to plug, the fish hold where all the snags are.  I guess the guys below DC did OK I heard of about 12 fish from the bank and another 15 from boats. i should have known better than to hope the fish would stay there shoulda fish the school or below DC. Its just that I like me spot because its hard to get to so hardly any body fishes it.

Ya, now that I think of it, that is one of the places that gets "mentioned" a lot.  I actually did catch one there though, right at the top of the hole, just before the turn like you said.  I am pretty much a novice when it comes to fishing moving water as most of my life has been fishing the Ocean and lakes, but I have gotten the steelhead bug the last few years, I just need more time and probably some coaching.  As I'm sure you are aware, the steelhead fishing community is tight lipped and rife with misinformation to anyone that has not been doing it for a long time, so I am finding the learning curve to be a bit slow for me.   I'll get it eventually and I enjoy the challenge of a new thing....

I found out I am off on Tuesday the 2nd and will probably give it a try then if we don't blow out again over the weekend, I heard rumor of rain again...

Either that or maybe head up to Lake Sonoma for a try at the land locked variety, I have done okay on those the last few winters.  You working Tuesday???

Take care...

Norm