Smith river Ncal Steelhead

[L-D-R]

Oh man.. nice chromer I'm jealous..
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[SkunkedAgain]

Did you measure it Alan? Looks like it was over 30” or better. Good luck the next two days. But your trip has already been made so it’s all bonus now. Congrats. Jeff
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Lovely. Brings back good memories. Used to fish the Smith and Klamath a lot with the late Al Kutzkey. Gary Lindstrom...the guy with me in the attached pic...took over Al's guide business and eventually moved it to Soldotna, Alaska. He was "Big Dog". Unfortunately he died fairly quickly after being diagnosed with melanoma on his ears.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]Got my biggest steelhead (18#) and biggest salmon (52#) on flies in the Smith. Beautiful country, beautiful redwoods and beautiful fish. Tore me up when the loggers clearcut all the trees on many of the hillsides visible from the river.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]Good luck on your drift trip. Should be some big winter fish waiting for you. Hope the water levels are good and the water clear.[/#0000FF]
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[2knots]

Is a beautiful river fore sure, river is dropping and around 9000 cfs today with good Steelie color, tomorrow could be epic and Friday we have rain coming back but don’t think it will be enough to mess up the bite. Must of been many years ago the clear cut the hills, no evidence of it can be seen from the river now
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[2knots]

No measurement, got it in and cut it loose after a few pics, need something over 14 to best my best ever and it wasn’t close. Hoping we have a good couple days guide said he hasn’t seen numbers of fish in the system like this in 10 plus years
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[gaardvark]

That looks like a great fish even if it's not a bump on your PB. The background looks like a skunk trip could even be tolerated if you got to spend it there.
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[2knots]

Shawn
Very happy with the fish, just didn’t want to stress it any more it if it wasn’t close. The north coast rivers and country are beautiful and well worth a look.
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[riverdog]

[quote 2knots]Fished the Smith today off the bank for 1 nice chromer , tomorrow and Friday will be in a drift boat[/quote]
Sure - rub it in. Worse day at work in a long time Wednesday, and I get to go back Thursday and Friday.
Looks like a great time. I'll always remember the Smith River as the place my current dog learned to swim right before 2 months of age. We had just picked her up in Southern Oregon a few days earlier. That was 14 and a half years ago. While I've been several times I think that was my last trip.
Enjoy the next couple of days.
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[TubeDude]

"Must of been many years ago the clear cut the hills, no evidence of it can be seen from the river now"

[#0000FF]Early 1970s. Thankfully there has since been a measure of sanity in logging practices. Glad to hear there are good numbers of fish coming back in the river. Are you getting any "bluebacks" (sea run cutts). Used to catch a lot of those too.
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[#0000FF]Here are a couple of pics of the legendary Smith River Guide, Al Kutzkey.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]Good luck. Let us know how you finish up.[/#0000FF]
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[SkunkedAgain]

Sounds like a promising day, best of luck and I hope the rain doesn’t mess up the bite. Good luck. Jeff
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[dubob]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000][size 3]VERY nice Alan![/size][/#800000][/font]
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[2knots]

Pat no cutts during our trips up here, I’ll ask Mike today when we’re on the river about their numbers
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[2knots]

Pat
The guide were with (Mike Coopman), started under Gary and even fished under him in Alaska when he went up. Mike said the cutts are in really good during June and July doesn’t see hardly any during the steelhead season
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]You are right. The cutts are sparse until late spring through fall. Attached is a pic with myself and Gary on a late season trip...in April. Many of the steelies had spawned out but there were still some fresh ones. And we did get into a few cutts. All fish were caught back-drifting with plugs (Hot Shots).[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]We fished four days and caught lots of fish. Only kept a few the last day...including the 3 cuts at the bottom left of the picture. The biggest steelie that day was a 12 pound hen I caught. In January of that year there was a run of BIG steelhead in the river. The size of the fish and the heavy flow at that time made it tough to land many of the fish we hooked. But there were some caught at that time in the 20# range. Awesome fish in that purty flow.
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[Piscophilic]

Beautiful fish! Thanks for sharing. Like TD, that picture brought back memories for me. No monster fish like his, but I grew up in SW Oregon and I hooked my first, and probably largest steelhead in the Smith. Unfortunately I lost it near the bank.

I have driven the Smith River Canyon hundreds of time on the way to Brookings to fish the Ocean. Beatiful area and lots of great fishing opportuities.

I'm looking forward to the rest of your reports(s).
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[2knots]

Rain held off today and had a great day with us landing 6 of 7 hookups, although 1 decided not to be still so it got away without any pictures. Did have 1 double that made for some interesting times. Puff balls and yarn side drifting did all the damage. Hopefully the rain forecast for tonight isn’t significant so that the river doesn’t come up to much tomorrow
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Nice. Looks like most were males.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]Have you tried fishing the soft egg beads? And how much weight did it take to keep you in the zone?
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[2knots]

1 female I believe. Yes I used the soft eggs this afternoon but no love, Dick kept catching on the pills and yarn, yesterday Mike caught everything on the soft eggs. We’re running the Mad River bouncers at about 3/4’s oz and switch to a slinky about the same weight when he wants us down quickly in the short runs.
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[LT-perch]

Alan, beautiful catches! Recall steel fishing in WA Columbia river and wanna go back at some point.
I was thinking to call you to chase crappies. PM you are back!
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[2knots]

Nice Steelie’s Leo,I’ll get a hold of you next week for some crappie chasing
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