Steelhead

I have spent a lot of time and had great success fishing for steelhead on my home river in Ohio. My question is what differences should i expect fishing lets say the Russian this year for steelhead. back home there was four main baits egg sacks witch usually was the best and I'd expect it to work here to but you have to catch a fish first to get eggs, sucker spawn, minnows and jig and maggot(gold jig head with black skirt being one of my favs) also I'm not familiar with the strains of steelhead here. we had several different stains of stellhead in Ohio and the would run at different times and like different areas, deep holes for one and fast current for another.

any help would be appreciated moving to this area has really humbolted me. I guess local knowledge of the river you grew up on is a big factor in your ability to catch fish.

Have not fishing for Steelhead at the Russian but we fish for them at American river using Little Cleo lures and home made cured egg sacks (they are available on-line or some local fishing stores).

I guess local knowledge of the river you grew up on is a big factor in your ability to catch fish.

That's the ticket.
Same baits and techniques should work fine but you might use a little bigger stuff as most of our rivers are muddier

Hey Jake, Welcome to California.

As my username implies, I fished for them a lot last year but didn't catch any.  Last year was apparently a horrible year, as the hatchery had a record low return.  Here's what I gather from talking to people and reading stuff online...

The best holes are deep with structure, below fast sections of water.  The river is best fishable at about 800-1000 cfs, and there are several noaa sites that give you river stage info.  This is typically December-April.  The river can be very flashy and gets blown out after big storms. 

I'm not aware of different strains of steelhead on the Russian, but you do have to be aware of Coho and Chinook salmon which are endangered.  Last year an angler caught a Coho and brought it to King's sport and tackle who posted a photo of him holding the fish online.  He got busted for violating the endangered species act.  There are both hatchery and wild steelhead, and you can only keep hatchery fish, identified by a clipped adipose fin.  Since you are new to California regulations, make sure to get a steelhead report card and keep it filed out religiously.

People use a multitude of tactics.  There are fly fisherman who use big bright obnoxious flies.  There are lots of tobacco chewing dudes throwing roe bait on a leader with a heavy sinker, especially around the mouth of dry creek and just below the dam at Healdsburg.  The mouth of dry creek also has lots of snag-happy fools trying to floss fish with a bead and hook  If you're fishing from a boat, you can anchor and backtroll plugs into holes and structure.  Some people cast/retrieve little cleo spinners.  There are probably other tactics used that I'm not mentioning here.  I drifted the river after the season and found tons of tackle snagged up in the trees.  Very interesting to see how people set up their gear.  I found LOTS of illegal barbed hooks.

A popular drift is from Memorial Park in Healdsburg to Steelhead Beach in Forestville.  That's the run I did most frequently last year.  I also did Steelhead Beach to Guerneville or Monte Rio a few times.  Some of the launches/take outs require keys which you will have to ask around and pay a fee/deposit.

Apparently last year, tons of fish were holed up in the lower river below Monte Rio.  I wish I had known!  To fish this section, you can pay for access at the privately held Casini Ranch near Duncan's Mills, or paddle up from Jenner.  Be aware of frequent and strong afternoon winds from the west that make it difficult/impossible to go downriver.  You might want to plan trips on the lower river in a counter intuitive manner and launch downriver from your take-out point.

I generally prefer a canoe over kayak on the river, and prefer artificial lures and flyfishing.  If you insist on roe, you can buy it vacuum packed at King's in Guerneville, and WalMart in Windsor sometimes has it.