Kenny Priest

All coastal rivers, except for the Smith, will be high and muddy next week Just as the steelhead season on the Smith and Chetco rivers was showing signs of life, a couple of good storms have and will put steelhead fishing on the backburner. Rain that fell on Tuesday and Wednesday buckled the knees of the coastal rivers, but the knockout...
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If you’re looking to chase some winter steelhead between now and Christmas, you should have a few good options. Following a good amount of rain earlier in the week, all the North Coast rivers not named Smith and Chetco are brown and swollen. But with no rain forecast until next week and no snow in the hills, we should see...
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what has been a yo-yo of a season regulation-wise, CDFW will be lifting the temporary recreational crab trap restriction allowing Dungeness crab anglers to once again use traps and pots along the North Coast. In a press release issued Dec. 7, CDFW has greenlighted the use of traps starting Saturday, Dec. 16 at 8:00 a.m. in the area between the California/Oregon...
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After a very wet few days that turned most of the local streams muddy, green water isn’t too far down the road. The latest round of storms are forecast to break apart starting Thursday, and we should see some sun by Friday. And with that, the North Coast rivers will be on the drop and begin to transition from brown...
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As the winter storms begin to push shoreward on the North Coast – coinciding with the calendar flipping one last time in 2023 – it’s time to transition from the late fall-kings to winter steelhead. The king season was a bust for those of us in Northern California as salmon fishing was off limits for both the Eel and Smith...
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In a press release issued Friday, Nov. 17, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife is expanding the temporary recreational crab trap restriction to include the area between the California/Oregon state line and Cape Mendocino (Fishing Zone 1), on Nov. 26 at 6 p.m. All crab traps currently deployed in Fishing Zone 1 must be removed by 6:00 p.m. on Nov....
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