The Sacramento River fall salmon season is definitely winding down in the Anderson area, but we still have a lot of available Kings holding in the Barge Hole before heading up into Battle Creek towards the Coleman National Fish Hatchery.  We're still seeing good numbers of salmon around, but the Kings we are catching are not too far from entering the spawn mode.  Most of the Kings are pretty dark right now and we're not seeing many fresh late fall salmon showing up just yet.  We are seeing some new steelhead showing up in the Anderson area, and just like the late fall salmon run, more and more hatchery steelhead will be showing up every week now.  For most, fishing with cured roe has been the most productive, but some salmon are being taken on Killer Fish plugs too.  The plug bite has been an early morning show and the bait has been best starting around 8:00 am or so.  Flows are still sitting at 6,800 cfs, but we're expecting flow drops in the coming weeks.  Water temps are holding at about 58 degrees most days and with cooler weather, I'm sure we'll continue to see a slow drop in water temps depending on what lake levels Shasta Dam managers are pulling water from.  Lower flows and warmer than normal water temps forecasted for the in-river fall salmon spawning event will likely result in poor survival of this years fall salmon egg drop.  Flow drops in the coming weeks will most certainly result in de-watered redd's and many, if not all of our wild spawned salmon eggs will certainly perish in the shallow gravel beds this season.  This is nothing new and continues to reinforce the need for a robust Coleman hatchery fall salmon egg take and juvenile salmon production.  Without the fall salmon raised at the Coleman hatchery every year, there would be a complete collapse of our fall salmon run on the Sacramento River, and thats not just an opinion.  Please consider joining the Nor Cal Guides and Sportsman's Assn and their fight for more salmon production on the Sacramento River.  Without a sportsman's advocacy organization such as NCGASA, the future of our Sacramento River King salmon runs will remain in serious jeopardy.

Capt. Jeff Goodwin