Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It’s really hard to believe that another year has passed and that Christmas is upon us once again. Time just fly’s when you’re
having fun (or just busy as _ _ _ _  )!

I would like to take a moment once again to thank everyone for fishing with me this year and for a lot of you, it’s a lot longer than
that. I am thankful for each and every one of you and consider all of you as friends and not just clients. I look forward to many
more enjoyable seasons on the river.

Now for the year in review:

WINTER STEELHEAD
We always start our season out with Winter Steelhead beginning in December and lasting through March. For as little rain and
snow that we received, the Steelhead season overall was outstanding. Early in the season the rains came and we had plenty of
water to fish up North on the Smith and Chetco rivers. Both rivers produced some very nice fish. During that time period the rivers
to our South were unfishable as usual. Then we began to have a shift in weather patterns. No rain for nearly a month and some
extremely cold conditions, forced us to head south. This, as we would find out soon was a blessing in disguise. We were able to
fish all of our North Coast Rivers and have some of the best fishing I’ve seen in years. From the Eel, Mattole and Van Duzen to the
Trinity, the Steelhead fishing was awesome. It turned out to be a great opportunity that under normal circumstances, Mother
Nature wouldn’t allow. After that came some much needed rain and back North we went. The Smith and Chetco continued to
produce until about mid February when we began to see a big drop off on the Smith. Normally, you begin to see less of the fresh
fish and more runbacks which keep things interesting, not this year; the runbacks just would not come down from upriver. We
knew that they were there because the bank angler’s upriver were doing really well all the way until the end of March. The savior
was the Chetco; it had good numbers of fish right up until its closer on March 31.

SPRING SALMON
  After Steelhead season comes Spring Chinook on the Klamath. With the winter leaving us with low rainfall amounts for the year
and a snow pack at about 10% of normal, the Spring Chinook fishery was pretty poor. There were a few good days but overall it
was very slow fishing. The Indian nets were not even getting good numbers of fish. That’s a pretty good indicator that numbers for
Springers were down. Let’s hope that this winter brings a more normal snow pack and in turn a better run of Springers.

FALL SALMON/ STEELHEAD
  Well this was supposed to be one of the largest runs in history according to our experts. All indicators from the ocean fishery
were pointing in that direction. There were definitely a lot of fish around but 500,000, I don’t think so. With that being said, even if
there were 250,000 fish, it’s pretty hard for them to get upriver if the entire mouth of the river is plugged off with nets for 30 days.
Hopefully the right people learn something from this and never let it happen again. It wasn’t all bad during that time period, we did
have some pretty good days and caught some really nice fish, but it’s just hard to have any consistency with everything that was
going on down at the mouth.

Even though we struggled through the first part of the season, once the nets were gone and the water temperatures dropped, the
fishing really picked up. Just when we thought things were improving, we had to wait for the mouth of the river to blow open from
being sanded over. This is not an unusual occurrence. The mouth on occasion, will sand over during the years when we do not
get good amounts of rainfall. During the times the mouth did sand over fishing was still good, you just had to chase them upriver
and find the fish until the mouth would open again. Once it blew open the last time, the fishing just exploded and continued to be
good until the day that I left on October 15. I probably could have stayed longer but an unusual storm came in and dumped
around 7 inches of rain and blew all of the rivers out up and down the coast. I’ll bet we can all guess which river came back to a
fishable condition first.

SMITH/CHETCO SALMON
If you guessed the Smith, you were correct. I was headed to the Trinity until the BIG ONE hit, which by the way, fished really well up
until that point and even after things settled down and got back to a normal fall pattern. Lots and lots of Steelhead. More steelies
ran thru the Trinity in October this year than I can remember in awhile. Back to the Smith and Chetco. After the storm, I fished both
rivers and we had great success. Fish in the 20- 50# class were caught. If you have not tangled with one of these MONSTER
KINGS, you need to give it a try. What powerhouses these fish can be. With the fall salmon season starting out so well on these
two rivers, we all thought it was going to turn out to be a great salmon season for the Smith and Chetco rivers. Although there
were some good days, it didn’t really turn out like we had all hoped. So with each drop in the river after a storm, I headed back to
the Trinity which just kept on producing both Salmon and Steelhead from the top to the bottom of the river system. As I am writing
this, the Trinity is still producing good numbers of Steelhead and the Salmon are starting to slow down.

UPCOMING STEELHEAD SEASON
The upcoming Steelhead season looks to be getting off to a good start. With the early storms, brought some early Steelhead
action on quite a few of the streams up and down the coast. So for those of you, who have booked your trips, get ready for some
great action. For those who haven’t booked yet, now’s the time to make the call and get your trip booked. Also, don’t forget, I have
gift certificates for those who are looking for a gift for a friend or loved one. They also work well as an office gift.

Well, we have now come full circle and are ready to start a New Year and season. I look forward to fishing with each and every
one of you again this season. Thanks for all the great stories and memories. I look forward to many more.
 
THANKS TO ALL WHO MAKE THIS POSSIBLE.

Remember:

KEEP A TIGHT LINE,

Alan
2007 Newsletter
Alan's Guide Service