The feather is in full swing. Salmon have finished staging and, with this colder weather, they are on redds and dropping eggs. If you love the egg bite this is the place to be and that’s no secret! Expect company all over the river as it’s prime time, but if you’ve never caught a steelhead or already have the bug, this is one of the best times to try your luck. Find spawning salmon and fish egg patterns and caddis behind them. Make sure you are very careful not to wade on active redds, which can be identified by the salmon paired up on top of them or the curcular clean gravel nests which stand out clearly against the olive river bottom. You’re going to break off on some kings fishing the egg bite, but when you get a big feather bruiser it’ll be worth the effort! Mostly large 18-28 inch hatchery fish are throughout the system from low flow channel to high flow with a few resident rainbows and a sprinkling of native fish in the mix. Flows are seasonally low in low flow channel at 800 cfs and around 2k in high flow with great water temps. If you like to swing the fly, the high flow section in the Oroville Wildlife Area is prime for swinging milking eggs, flesh patterns, sculpins, and soft hackles.
