Go out on the Lower American River in mornig and evening now.

Take a light fly rod, weight-forward floating line, and put on a 9' 3x leader, and any #12 nymph.

Go above Watt Avenue on the south side of the river to the end of the access road.

Wade out and cast across and slightly downstream.

Make an aerial upstream mend and let it swing across all the way below you.

Look for Half-pounders showing on top and swing a fly down to them.

Twitching the fly a little as it swings in below you can be a good thing.

Right at sunset, drifting and twitching a #12 Elk Hair Caddis dry fly can be good.




Try to get out on the river for Half-pounder Steelhead with Captain Andy Guibord from the Flyfishing Specialties fly shop.

Text him: 916/849-1529

haven't fish the lower river (watt ave.)in years due to break in the cars, back then the south side dead end was a place to catch 190 pound.....and they were not fish.

Jeff Ching has been posting photos of nice Half-pounders on the Internet.

If there are any Half-pounders where you are fishing, you should see them showing on the surface, early and late in the day.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mogaru

haven't fish the lower river (watt ave.)in years due to break in the cars, back then the south side dead end was a place to catch 190 pound.....and they were not fish.

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FYI: the Watt Avenue access has been closed for a while, so you have to park in the parking lot
of the strip mall across the street. It might not be back open for some time as the Corps of Engineers will be tearing all of the trees along the river out soon.

I’m guessing they will be doing both sides? If it’s going to be like they did around Campus Commons, that’s going to definitely effect the fishing around there(Watt and above)

On a positive note, I have hooked into some fish in that area lately.

On the south side of the river, if you turn left onto the first street above Watt Avenue Bridge, you can park on the street as it turns to

the right and take a walkway to the level about 1/4 mile above the bridge at the clay banks.


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We drove, before and after work, parked, and walked into the Lower American River for about 50 years.

The fishing was so good in the 1970s, about 50 years ago, we never went there without catching fish, wading with a fly rod.

In the Fall we caught 16", average size, Half-pounders and small adults to ~5 pounds.

In the Winter, we waded the upper river and caught Eel River strain fish that averaged about 8 pounds. Some were around 15#.

Back then, nobody used any kind of boats on the river because it was not needed to catch fish.


If you have never floated the river, try to get out with Captain Andy Guibord for a Striper/Half-pound outing today.

I am going out tomorrow afternoon from Sailor Bar & see what's up. We only have a month left to fish that part of The AR. Oct 31 is the last day.