American River - Report 7/27

Spent about 9 hours on the river today and came across a number of stripers, spots and smallies along the way.  Although, I caught a number of fish, it was a grind.  I spent most of the day swapping out lures trying to find that one that would consistently produce.  The one presentation that seemed do slightly better over the rest was the Donkey Rig.  The river is also pumping just hard enough to make it difficult to go back up.  I attempted to troll my way back to Sutters landing but found it to be inefficient since I was picking up a lot of weeds, took frequent breaks and didn't keep a good speed. By the time I got back to the launch my arms were noodles.



1.  I really didn't spend much time fishing this area.  A couple casts here and there yielded a few spots. The focus of this trip was to fish past the 12th ave bridge.

2. As soon as I got past the bridge I immediately started getting some action with the donkey rig. Casting towards the bank, over the the rocks would produce smalles, spots and stripers.  I also fished this area with soft and hard swimbaits, under-spins and flukes which got some bites and followers.

3. The water is much deeper here, up to 22ft in some areas.  Fish were popping up throughout the water column.  Although I didn't get many on the side of the river, I did get some bites and followers on swimbaits

4. Schools of fish were grouping up on the outside of the weedbeds between 6 to 10ft of water. I fished this year mostly with an underspin.

Great report thanks for sharing.


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Awesome report.

Now I need to learn what a donkey rig is. 

Great report.
I was upstream a mile or so from you yesterday. That current is no joke.
Helluva workout paddling up 3 miles.


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Thanks for the report and picture spock_is_that_you.

Awesome report.

Now I need to learn what a donkey rig is. 

Here is a video below explaining the rig.

I was upstream a mile or so from you yesterday. That current is no joke.
Helluva workout paddling up 3 miles.
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Did you get anything?  I haven't went past the bridge too much.

No. Beautiful paddle tho.
I paddle it at least twice a week from now till Oct. eventually I'll get a salmon. Lol


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I have yet to fish for salmon. What gear and bait do you use for that section?

Spinners, Kfish , and that's about it. Nothing special. Put something flashy in their face and they attack it.


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Spinners, Kfish , and that's about it. Nothing special. Put something flashy in their face and they attack it.


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When you gonna host a salmon run?

I did one last year or the year before.
I forget.
I'm out there most days when they are in. Till then I'm just paddling for the exercise. Will be out tomorrow.


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I did one last year or the year before.
I forget.
I'm out there most days when they are in. Till then I'm just paddling for the exercise. Will be out tomorrow.


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Unfortunately I'm only free on Sundays,mostly

Nice informative post, thanks!