I walk. I don’t fish. But even I was impressed by the beauties this fellow in the video below pulled out of the American River in Fair Oaks, just downstream of the Sunrise Bridge, in early March.
Turns out, out best steelhead fishing is traditionally upstream– between the Sunrise Bridge and Nimbus Dam, where the fish hatchery is. But lately, efforts at habitat management has smooshed around the gravel beds in the river and fiddled with water flows so the fish are happier and lay more eggs. Lots of fishy shenanigans going on I guess. As a result, we have been having record fish runs.
I caught the fellow in this video as he pulled out these two steelhead at the bicycle bridge just below the Sunrise Bridge. Turns out Sunrise has become a great place to catch fish along the 23 miles of steelhead territory from the confluence of the Sacramento River to the Nimbus Dam. While the river actually winds through congested suburbia, it is bordered by the American River Parkway - meaning you feel like you are out in nature as you fish, canoe kayak or float on a raft along the river. I found out the riffles, flats and rapids of the river make the steelhead quite happy – and they will munch away on your bait. Who knew!
In fact area fishing guides proclaim this stretch of the river as one of the best steelhead rivers in the West. Again… who knew?
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