American River Steelhead

After not having fished yet year to date, it was great to have three days off and hit the American River. I called my buddy Rod on Tuesday and we planned on drifting the river Thursday and Friday. Wednesday I hit the river at Sailor Bar and swung flies for a couple hours, my first day fishing of the year. No action, but I definitely got amped for the next couple days. Thursday Rod and I started our drift at Sailor Bar about 9am and floated to Rossmoor Bar without a strike. Pretty frustrating considering we saw four other adult fish landed. After spotting lots of fish on Thursday, Rod and I hit the river earlier Friday morning, again starting at Sailor Bar. We worked the water hard all the way down to the Sunrise area until we got our first strike. Rod was on the oars, I set the hook and the battle was on! We fought the fish for about 10-15 minutes and netted her, a nice wild hen. Not too shabby for the first fish of the year! Later on we hit some riffles downstream and had luck swinging flies. The first strike I got I fought about five minutes and he finally came off in the shallows. A few minutes later I nailed a darker female in the shallow riffles above a ledge. Nice to be starting the year off with some quality fish!