Kenny Priest

If you’re on the hunt for green water this weekend, you’ll want to head north. The Smith and Chetco will both be on the drop and should be in prime shape. All stretches of the Eel, Van Duzen, Mad and Redwood Creek are currently blown out, with very little relief in sight. A chance of rain is in the forecast...
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It’s been somewhat of a sluggish start to the winter steelhead season on the North Coast, and it’s hard to put a finger on exactly why. All of the coastal rivers saw a good rise on Christmas Day, but that influx of water didn’t bring much in the way of steelhead numbers. Granted, a handful of steelhead have been caught...
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For North Coast river anglers, the past couple weeks were spent waiting on the rain – as well as the arrival of the winter steelhead. Well, we now have both. The latest storms delivered a much more powerful punch than predicted, especially to the Smith and Chetco. Both rivers peaked at well over 20,000 cfs, and got the flushing they...
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Winter steelhead season has yet to kick into gear on the North Coast, but changes are a brewing. We have a couple decent storm fronts headed our way that will put all of the coastal rivers on the rise. If the rain comes as predicted, the rivers will see their highest flows this winter, except for the Smith. The Eel,...
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With very little rain over the past week and the rivers on the drop, the end is likely in sight for the late, fall-run salmon season on the North Coast. The season has been somewhat of a disappointment to fishermen as only a couple major storms hit the coast and dropped enough rain to bring the Smith and Chetco up...
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The season for late fall kings finally got going last week following the first significant storms of the year. For the Smith and Chetco, I’d say the fishing was fair. While there were some big, bright fish caught on both rivers, the overall scores were pretty underwhelming. Now granted, conditions weren’t exactly perfect, but we were all hoping to see...
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