Slamming Sacramento River Kings With Jason Thatcher   By: Cal Kellogg January 29, 2008 More Articles by Cal

In a lot of ways the Sacramento River is the central feature of Northern California's freshwater fishing scene. Nearly every creek, stream or river that flows from the western slopes of the Northern Sierra Nevada or southern Cascades within the confines of the Golden State ends up in the Sacramento River. 

Once the Sacramento River merges with the Feather, Yuba and American rivers and reaches full strength it flows steadily west where it becomes the cornerstones of one of world's richest fisheries, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Upon exiting the delta region its waters mix with those of the salty pacific forming the massive estuary known as San Francisco Bay.

The mighty Sacramento supports numerous species of gamefish ranging from hard fighting wild rainbows to high jumping smallmouth bass to our most massive freshwater fish, the white sturgeon. 

In the delta region of the Sacramento, it is striped bass and sturgeon that hold the most prominent spot in the hearts of anglers, despite the fact that the delta features excellent black bass, catfish and panfish action. 

The entire river from Shasta Dam to its confluence with the delta is known as the Lower Sacramento with the Upper Sacramento located to the north of Lake Shasta. On the upper section of the Lower Sacramento, say from around Chico up to roughly Anderson, the standard selection of Sac River gamefish including shad, steelhead, sturgeon, trout, catfish and black bass are all available depending on the time of the year. Yet, all these species take a back seat to salmon in terms of popularity among anglers and why not?

Traditionally, thousands of chinook salmon begin surging into the upper section of the lower river in August. These fish typically average from 10 to 15 pounds and range up to 40. This fall run of salmon generally hits its peak by the first week of October and continues going strong through the beginning of November. November, marks the beginning of the late fall run. 

The late fall run is really just an extension of the fall run, except that while the number of salmon coming up river decreases the average size of the kings increases substantially. Much of the late fall run is made up of monsters that spent the late summer and early fall months lurking outside the Golden Gate gorging on baitfish before making the push up river to participate in the closing weeks of fall/winter spawning season. 

Unfortunately, for north state salmon fishing enthusiasts we have not had a "traditional" run of salmon on the Sacramento River for several years, with the fall runs of 2006 and 2007 being particularly poor. If fishing was bad in 2006, it was absolutely dismal for much of the 2007 season. 

One guide reported back in late October that he drove his boat by the "Barge Hole," a location that is typically crammed with boats every day from September through November, and didn't see a single salmon boat!

While nobody really knows why salmon numbers are down and nobody can predict if the salmon run will rebound in 2008, there has been a ray of sunlight for north state salmon anglers over the past few weeks. 

Inexplicably, catchable numbers of big, bright kings started showing up in the upper section of the lower river early in December and the numbers built steadily with the approach of Christmas. While I knew the bite wasn't wide-open, I figured I should make a move if I wanted salmon fillets for the smoker and a shot at scoring some salmon roe for sturgeon fishing next March. 

This being the case, I wasted no time giving Jason Thatcher of All River Fishing a call. Jason is an outstanding salmon and steelhead guide with a lifetime of river fishing experience under his belt. When it comes to busting massive late season kings on the Sacramento Jason, has a great track record. For an idea of the quality fish Jason has a reputation of producing, you need look no further than the cover of the last issue of the Sniffer that featured a photo of Jason's brother Brandon holding up a lunker late fall Sac River salmon that the pair teamed up to catch in late November. 

When I got Jason on the phone he told me that he didn't have any clients on December 28, so I told him to pencil me in. The day before the trip, temperatures plummeted around northern California as an Alaskan storm swung through the state. 

As I walked out the door of my Auburn home at 3 o'clock in the morning, clad in two layers of fleece in preparation for a 6 o'clock meeting with Jason in Red Bluff, I was confronted with big, fluffy snowflakes. It promised to be a cold wet day on the river!

After meeting up with Jason I followed him down to the river near Jelly's Ferry and a short while later we idled into the Barge Hole in Jason's jet boat. Jason killed the big motor, dropped his kicker into the water and we got started back bouncing large sardine wrapped Kwikfish. 

We'd only be fishing for a few minutes when I got a sharp grab, but the fish didn't stick. Despite our high expectations, that was our one and only bite during the hour we spent fishing the Barge Hole, but we did see a handful of fish caught in the boats around us. 

After working the main body of the hole and the water above it thoroughly, Jason decided we should head downstream to get away from the crowd and explore some new water. The previous day Jason's clients had landed several fish including a huge 46 pounder, so I was confident that it was just a matter of time until we hooked up.

My confidence was well founded. We were working a hole a short distance downstream when a salmon slammed Jason's Kwikfish just as he started to reel it in. Jason wanted me to fight the first fish, so he handed me the rod. 

I hadn't felt that power of a river run king in a long time, so I was pretty excited as the heavy fish surged back and forth in the current. A minute or two later the fish wallowed to the surface off the rear starboard corner and Jason brought the chrome bright female in the boat with a quick sweep of the net. After taking a few photos of the beautiful 14 pounder, we produced down stream fishing spots with names like "Mud Ball" and the "Lava Chute".

About an hour later Jason hooked a second fish, but just as he settled in for the fight and I scrambled for the net, it came unbuttoned. We were both pretty disappointed when the second fish got away. 

While there were some quality salmon in the river there weren't enough of them take the sting out of a missed opportunity. It was around noon and we were working some heavy current in the Lava Chute when Jason hooked the third fish of the day, proving that not only did he know what he was doing, but that he had the hot rod as well. 

He tried his best to pass the fish off to me, but I told him no way. He'd been working hard and I wanted him to have the opportunity of land one. In true king salmon fashion, the fish came almost to the boat with very little resistance, before having a radical change of attitude and going totally crazy. 

When we first caught sight of the fish it was lightly pinned on the plug's rear hook and we were both thinking that there was a good chance that it would throw the hook. A beat later it flew out of the water gyrating in a spray of white water. Instead of the king throwing the hook, its head shaking caused the plug's second hook to swing around and bury itself in the opposite side of the salmon's mouth. When we saw that the second hook was firmly in the fish's mouth, I think we both let out a sigh of relief. 

A couple minutes and a couple hard runs later, Jason brought the 14 pound buck up behind the boat and I closed the deal with the net. We spent another couple hours back bouncing and flat lining Kwikfish and Flatfish, but our luck had been exhausted. 

With a cold drizzle coming down around 2 o'clock we decided to call it a day and what a day it had been! I haven't done a lot of river salmon fishing and I'd always want to see what late season plug fishing is all about. While I didn't actually hook a fish myself, my technique was good and I loved seeing Jason slam the hook into those hard charging kings. 

As I merged onto Highway 5 south with four big salmon fillets and a freezer bag of salmon roe in my cooler I understood how easy it is to get hooked on back trolling plugs for big Sacramento River kings. I only hope I have time to get out with Jason again before the season ends on January 14!