Feisty Fish Guide Service

Feisty Fish Guide Service
Yuba City, California -
Fishing the Sacramento, Feather and Yuba Rivers
alt: Cell 707-540-2381 © copyright 2010 All rights reserved

Testimonials

"Feisty does a good job of putting us on the fish. We fished 120 miles of the Sacramento together last year, catching Stripers, Steelhead, Shad, and other species. Scott is great!"
Steve Santaguida (415) 577-6374
"Thanks for taking us on the guided Striper trip this weekend; it was a great day and we couldn’t ask for better fishing. The kids really enjoyed the day and will be talking about it for the next year or two. We especially liked your patience and willingness to explain things to the kids. You are very easy to get along with and as we mentioned earlier you are the kids new hero.

During the trip we always felt safe and relaxed. It was obvious from the start you knew the river and how to fish. I learned a lot and hope to rebook a trip with you in the near future. I will tell my friends and coworkers about your guide service and I whole heartedly recommend your service for people looking for a stress free and enjoyable day out on the river (with or without kids). Good luck with the next year, I will be following the website."
Charlie Velasquez (650) 861-4640

Sacramento River Steelhead

The Sacramento River’s Overlooked Steelhead Run

By: Dan Bacher (Fish Sniffer Editor)

January 21, 2009

Crowds of anglers converge every year upon the Feather and American rivers, the Sacramento River’s two largest tributaries, every year to fish for steelhead in the fall, winter and spring. The Sacramento itself above the mouth of the Feather River is often overlooked as a steelhead fishery, even though it features exceptional fishing for these sea-run trout at times.

Steelhead fishing on the Sacramento has been superb this year for Scott Feisty of Feisty Guide Service and his customers. On one trip, anglers fishing with him boated 25 fish, ranging from 2 pounds to just under 9 pounds, Feist reported.

“We averaged around 15 fish per day during October, when the fishing was the hottest,” said Feist, who has been bait fishing the stretch from Butte City to Hamilton City. This stretch of river receives much less fishing pressure than other areas of the Sacramento, due to the abundant snags and shallow riffles that make caution and a lot of experience driving a jet boat necessary to safely fishing this area.

The Sacramento is not known for its monster steelhead, but one of Feist’s clients boated a 16 pounder this fall. The fish on some days averaged 5 to 6 pounds, with a good number of 7 to 9 pound steelies spicing up the catches.

Sacramento River Steelhead The fishing slowed down at the end of November, when more fish had moved upriver as they followed the late fall chinook salmon to feed on the eggs deposited by the hens in the riffles. However, fishing the Sacramento is still one of the best bets for steelhead in the state this fall, as evidenced by a trip that Bob Boucke, owner of Johnson’s Bait and Tackle in Yuba City, and I made with Feist on November 30.

The fish Feist reported catching this year have been about a 50/50 mixture of hatchery steelhead and wild fish. With the exception of some hatchery strays from the Feather and American rivers, the hatchery steelhead originate from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s Coleman National Fish Hatchery on Battle Creek. We got a chance to see both hatchery and wild fish during our trip.

After the affable young Feist launched the boat, we were faced with a wall of heavy, ominous fog, making navigation on the river difficult.

“It just figures that the day you and Bob come to fish with me that we can’t get to my spots upriver where I‘ve been fishing,” quipped Feist. “We’ll go downriver below the bridge to a riffle where there are usually some steelhead holding. We’ll go upriver to my best spots when the fog clears.”

We baited up both spinning and bait casting rods with big chunks of salmon roe and one nightcrawler. “The nightcrawlers were producing the best in the early season, while the roe has been much more productive lately,” said Feist.

This was relaxing fishing – still-fishing while anchored up with bait - similar to the way that you striper fish with bait on the river. We leisurely put the rods in the holders and waited for a bite. “The fish will generally give the roe two taps and then will pull the rod down,” he advised. “That’s when you should set the hook.”

About 20 minutes into the trip, I had two taps on my spinning rod, the rod tip went down, and I set the hook. The fish at first felt like a good-sized steelhead, but I began worrying when it started coming easily to the boat. Sure enough, it was a very disappointing 5 pound Sacramento pike minnow.

Boucke hooked another fish that came off right at the boat. “It looked shiny, so I think it might have been a steelhead,” said Feist.

Sacramento River Steelhead Finally, I managed to catch a steelhead, a fat hatchery fish about 2 pounds. “That’s about the smallest fish we’ve been getting,” said Feist.

The fog, rather than lifting, became thicker. We tried fishing a couple of other spots, but couldn’t go far upriver because of the numerous snags and trees that made driving a boat hazardous. Finally the fog cleared just enough for us to get up river to Scott’s “honey hole.”

Right after we anchored there, Boucke’s rod got slammed by a big steelhead. Unfortunately, as Boucke set the hook, the line broke and what may have been the biggest steelie of the day escaped to freedom.

Finally, Boucke hooked and landed the second steelhead of the day, a beautiful fat steelie over 3 pounds, as the fog dissipated. The sun finally came out and we moved to another riffle downriver.

The steelhead bite turned on at the next two spots, where Boucke and I landed three more beautiful steelhead ranging from 2 to 5-1/2 pounds. These fish were all fat, broad shouldered battlers that typify the strain of sea-run rainbows found on the Sacramento.

The bite turned off as fast as it came on, and we tried a couple more riffles before getting off the river. We ended up with five total steelhead, ranging from 2 to 5-1/2 pounds, including three hatchery fish and two wild fish. We caught all of the fish while fishing the seams beween fast and slow water at 4 to 12 feet deep

Coleman National Fish Hatchery stocks around 600,000 steelhead yearlings every year to come back as adults 2 to 4 years later. The hatchery receives an average of 2,000 adult steelhead per year, according to Scott Hamelburg, hatchery manager.

“Most of our steelhead are in the 2-3 pound range,” said Hamelburg. “We very rarely might encounter a fish around 10 pounds.”

The hatchery has received 1,038 adult steelhead to date, so it looks like this will be another good steelhead year at the facility. The hatchery counted 3,242 steelhead last year, the second highest number of fish recorded since 2001-2002 when 3,601 returned from the ocean to the hatchery.

“We spawn from mid-December through the end of February or mid March,” said Hamelburg. “We generally do our first spawn of the season prior to Christmas. We usually receive around 50 percent of the run by the middle of December.”

Sacramento River Steelhead The wild fish spawn in the river itself, as well as the river’s many tributaries including Cow, Battle, Mill, Deer and Big Chico creeks. Although steelhead numbers have declined from those of 30 years ago, due to massive increases in water exports from the California Delta and a decline in water quality, the steelhead run appears to be relatively healthy, compared to the river’s fall chinook salmon run that is now in a state of collapse.

Scott Feist will guide for salmon and steelhead on the Sacramento through the end of the December. From January through March, he will be fishing sturgeon until the spring striper run starts. He will then fish for stripers through the summer and fall until the steelhead begin showing in good numbers.

Sacramento River Hamilton City to Butte City Facts

Fishing Seasons: The Sacramento River from Hamilton City to Butte City features year round fishing for steelhead, striped bass, white sturgeon, channel catfish and other species. Due to the collapse of the Central Valley fall run chinook salmon population, salmon fishing is only open this year from November 1 through December 31 on the river from Red Bluff to Knights Landing.

Boat Launching and Day Use Facilities: The 243-acre Bidwell-Sacramento River State Park provides four day use areas including the Big Chico Creek Day Use Area, Indian Fishery Day Use Area, Pine Creek Boat Launch, and Irvine Finch River There are three day-use access areas along the left side (east) of the river and a camping and boating access on the right (west) side. For more information, call Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) 530-342-5185. Irving Finch River Access offers a parking, boat launch, restrooms, drinking water, and picnic tables. Sacramento River The Pine Creek Landing has parking, picnic tables, and "car top" boat launching only during high flows Big Chico Creek Day Use Area, located further downstream, offers 4-wheel drive boat launching and parking, restrooms and a beach. Scotty's Boat Landing, 530-893-2020, provides parking, boat launch, restrooms, drinking water, and telephones. Ordbend Park, just south of Hamilton City near the town of Ordbend, offers parking, boat launch, restrooms, drinking water, and picnic tables. For more information, call Glenn County Building and Grounds Department, 530-934-6545. The Butte City Launch Facilities, located North of Princeton near Butte City, offers parking, boat launch, restrooms, drinking water, and picnic tables. For more information, call Glenn County Building and Grounds Department, 530-934-6545.

Guide Services and Fishing Information: Scott Feist of Feisty Fish Guide Service, 530-923-2634, Johnson’s Bait and Tackle, Yuba City, 530-674-1912, Kittles Outdoors, Colusa, 530-458-4868.