I have been a fly-fishing guide in Northern California for twenty years, and of all the streams I fish, my favorite is the lower Feather River. The lower Feather is a tailwater below Lake Oroville, and it’s full of steelhead. This is no secret, and the river is frequented by fly anglers from all over the state. It’s not your typical steelhead fishing, though. People often say that steelhead are the fish of a thousand casts, and while that can be true on many traditional steelhead rivers, it is not true of the Feather. As a guide, I expect to hook 10 to 12 steelhead a day on average. That’s while floating in a drift boat. Wading anglers, assuming they know what they are doing and where to go, still can hook half that many. Because of these catch rates, the Feather can be the place for anglers looking learn how to fish for steelhead. Those who already love to fish for steelhead will enjoy the ease with which they can catch these hot fish.
As is true when fishing any river, there are certain tips and tricks that will increase your success rate. Basically, on the Feather, you need to adapt your approach to the special characteristics of the fish and the river.
Are They Truly Steelhead?
A lot of people wonder whether Feather River steelhead are actually steelhead. The jury is still out on that question. There has been a lot of research done during the past few years to learn whether Feather steelhead actually make it to saltwater. Some believe that they just migrate up and down the Sacramento River system for one or two years before they return to the Feather to spawn, but no one completely comprehends the complexity of their migration patterns. In the years to come, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife may have a better understanding of how these fish behave.
The steelhead in the Feather don’t look like their gigantic cousins of the Pacific Northwest. Fishing the Feather for steelhead is more like targeting large trout. Most of the fish average 18 to 22 inches, and big Feather steelhead are between 25 and 28 inches long. However, they carry lots of weight in their short, thick bodies with big shoulders. They are not long and lean like the torpedo-shaped steelhead on the coast. A 28-incher can weigh 10 to 12 pounds, whereas a steelhead that long from the Trinity River near Weaverville is going to weigh around 8 pounds. These fish definitely eat their Wheaties.
Do 30-plus-inch steelhead exist on the Feather River? Yes, but they are very rare. In my twenty years of guiding on the river, I’ve had only one client land a true 30-inch steelhead. I have seen a couple others that size hooked, but they came off. You may hear people say they landed a 30-inch steelhead on the Feather, but most of the time that is incorrect. The Feather steelhead have bodies so large that they look much bigger than they actually are. These anglers are not actually measuring the fish, but guesstimating based on their size. A 30-plus-inch fish is the fish of a lifetime on the Feather.
Seasons for the Feather’s Steelhead
If you want to do well fishing for steelhead on the Feather River, you need to fish in the spring and the fall, with the spring fish showing up from March through May and the fall fish from October through mid-December. There are always a handful of fish in the river, but to do well, you need to target these two seasons. On a normal year, the Feather has two to three thousand fish return to the river system — by no means a large return. Some of the famous steelhead rivers in the West average over ten thousand fish a year. So to catch a lot of fish, you need to be on the river when the fish are in and the odds are the highest in your favor.
Each season is significantly different. Spring fishing is primarily accomplished with caddis imitations. The Feather has warmer water temperatures than many steelhead streams, with the river fluctuating from the mid-50s to high 60s throughout the year. Caddisflies thrive in these warmer waters. At the beginning of the spring, when the weather and water temperatures are cooler, expect to see olive caddis hatching. To imitate them, try flies such as the Prince Nymph (size 14 and 16), olive Morrish’s Dirty Bird (size 14), or olive Fox’s Poopah (size 14). When the spring begins to warm up and the air temperatures start to approach 80 degrees, tan caddis begin to hatch, although when they’re bouncing and f lying around on the river, they appear whiteish in color. That’s the time fish a tan beadhead Bird’s Nest (size 12 or 14), tan Mercer’s Z-wing Caddis (size 14), or tan Fox’s Poopah (size 12 or 14). If you put any of these patterns in the right zone during the spring, steelhead are going to eat them.
In contrast, fall fishing completely revolves around the return of the salmon. We call this time period the egg bite. The salmon start returning in August, and spawning starts when the water temperatures begin to cool in October. Steelhead love eating salmon eggs, and if you find salmon in the fall, there are steelhead somewhere close by.
Indicator nymphing is the best method for fishing eggs behind spawning salmon in the fall. Cast as close to the salmon as possible without snagging them. The best way to do this is to aim your cast for the salmon’s tail to allow the eggs to drop right behind them, as though the eggs were dislodged from the spawning bed. Allow the eggs to start bouncing on the bottom and get ready for an aggressive steelhead take. (Do not wade in the spawning beds. Doing so compresses gravels and crushes eggs, harming future steelhead populations.)
For egg patterns, beads are always the most effective choice. Stick with 8-millimeter or 10-millimeter beads with a pale color spectrum from peach to orange. Brighter beads, while they look attractive to human eyes, are usually best for low-light conditions or stained water. The pale colors look more natural, and the steelhead are more willing to eat them. Some anglers are opposed to fishing beads because they see them as not true to the spirit of fly fishing. If that’s you, yarn eggs in light pink and orange are the way to go.
When there are no salmon around, the steelhead switch their attention back to aquatic insects. Once again, water temperatures dictate what caddis patterns to fish — tan while the water is warmer, olive when it cools again. If it gets really cold and rainy, try fishing Baetis patterns such as Lance’s X-May, Hogan’s Red Headed Step Child), and Hogan’s Lil Amigo, all size 16. I don’t believe Baetis are a main food source for steelhead, but in the late fall, there are lots of Baetis hatching, and the steelhead will eat them — each year a few steelhead are caught on size 16 Baetis imitations. I prefer fishing caddis patterns, but if the small mayflies are the hatch, you need to match it.
In both the spring and the fall, fish when the light is low. Steelhead avoid high sunlight, so fish early in the morning and late in the afternoon. In the fall, I usually fish from 6: 00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. In the spring, from midmorning to lunch time is when the caddis hatch, so the best fishing is from 9:00 a.m. to noon. Whatever the season, if you are willing to get wet, rainy days are the best fishing days of the year. On rainy days, there are lowlight conditions at all times, and the fish continue to feed throughout the day.
Winter fishing is tough. There are some fish in the system, but a lot fewer than in the spring and fall. But there are fewer anglers, as well, and in the winter, the alevins begin to hatch. Alevins are the first stage of a salmon after the egg form. These microscopic fish with large orange egg sacs are like candy for the steelhead.
When the alevins begin to hatch, people swinging alevin imitations will have the most success. Swinging alevins makes the fly look really realistic as the fry tries to swim across the river for protection. Cast down and across, mend your line when the fly hits the water to allow the fly to sink, then swing the fly until it is hanging directly downstream from you. Allow the fish to take your fly and turn before you lift the rod. When swinging alevins never “trout set,” as you would indicator or dry-fly fishing. Let the fish hook itself. Otherwise, you’ll pull the fly away from it.
The alevins may hatch when there aren’t that many fish in the river, but for finding a true Feather River monster, there is no better time. That’s because each year, the largest fish enter the system in November and are present until the middle part of January. If you are looking for 10-pound steelhead, target the later part of the season.
Feeding Steelhead
Unlike steelhead in most rivers, whose only goal is to migrate and spawn, steelhead in the Feather River are actively feeding, and unlike many steelhead rivers, the Feather is full of food sources — microorganisms, aquatic insects, and small fish, not to mention eggs from spawning salmon. Feather steelhead love to eat, and they position themselves in locations to do that. While on typical steelhead rivers, steelhead seek deep holes and slow tailouts in which to rest, because Feather steelhead are actively feeding, they act more like trout, and that means you need to target the faster water where salmon spawn and caddis hatch.
Predominately, that’s the riffles. In the riffles, focus on the main drop-offs and also on the deeper water just below them. Feather steelhead love sitting below the shelves in a riffle. If you find a riffle with a shelf that starts with one to two feet of water, then falls into four or five feet of water, you are in the right place. You can catch fish in the deeper buckets and tailouts, but these are not the prime lying areas for Feather steelhead.
Behavior and Location
When fishing for Feather River steelhead, you need to keep in mind how they behave during their migration upriver to spawn. Coastal steelhead frequently migrate several miles upriver every day — you may find them one day and then the next they are gone. This is why anglers call them the Gray Ghost. But because Feather steelhead are feeding, they tend to migrate much more slowly. When you find them, they probably will still be close to the same spot the next day. They may move up a run or two, but rarely do they move miles in a single day.
This pattern determines the locations to target to find fish. Always fish the lower river first and then move your way upriver as the season progresses. At the start of the spring or fall, begin on the lower river toward Gridley. As the season progresses, start moving north toward Oroville. During the later part of the seasons, spend all of your energy on the upper river near Oroville.
Rigging for Steelhead
There aren’t a lot of tricks to rigging on the Feather River. All the standard indicator nymphing and swinging rigs and techniques used for trout will work. If you are a newer fly fisher, watch some rigging videos on YouTube. If you have been doing this a while and are more advanced, most likely all the methods you use will work on the Feather. One thing I would suggest, though, is that when indicator nymphing, use heavier tippet. If fishing a two-nymph tandem rig, I normally tie my top nymph on 2X tippet and the dropper nymph on 3X. Never f ish anything less than 3X tippet for steelhead on the Feather. These fish are really aggressive and are not leader shy. Plus, often, they strike your f ly very aggressively, and a heavier tippet will prevent break-offs on the hook set.
Big Fish, and Lots of Them
Feather River steelhead act like big, hungry trout, and using what are basically trout tactics, you can hook big, strong, broad-shouldered f ish that take off on big runs, with huge cartwheeling jumps and lots of strength. You won’t catch a 15-pounder, but you may well hook a bunch of hot, spunky steelhead. And that is why the Feather is an incredible Northern California angling resource.
