By noon, they ended up with a total of 7 hook-ups and 5 fish in the boat. "All of our fish are over 10 pounds and our big fish weighed in at 24 pounds," said Portocarrero. "Today was a pretty typical day for us. We landed three fish working the shallow tailouts for the first two to three hours, then picked up a couple more working some deep holes during the last couple hours. I'm not sure if it's the sunlight or the boat traffic, but these fish are definitely moving for deep water between 8:00 and 9:00 am."

While the best action has been happening in a three to four mile stretch of river below the outlet, this area is no secret and the crowds can get very heavy. Those of you who have spent a day bank fishing at the outlet hole know exactly what I'm talking about. Just be forewarned that salmon fishing the Feather River can be a true test of one's patience.

According to Portocarrero, crowds have been relatively light the further you head downstream from the outlet. "We only had two other boats working our area this morning and no one was fishing off the bank," he said. "It doesn't take much work to get away from the boat traffic and with the amount of fish we have in the river right now, there's no reason to fish in a crowd."

Bank anglers are also enjoying plenty of action on hard fighting kings. Of course the bead and yarn crowd is hard at work in the outlet, but this type of elbow-to-elbow fishing isn't for everyone. Thermalito Outlet is combat fishing at it's best and you better have some pretty thick skin to enjoy a day in those conditions. If this isn't your cup of tea, there's plenty of access points off the gravel roads running along both sides of the river.

In my years of bank fishing on the Feather River, I typically found plenty of action fishing several miles below the Thermalito Outlet or up river in the low flow section. This holds especially true during periods of high flows when there are plenty of fish scattered throughout the system. When the fishing is tough, however, the outlet often provides your only chance of hooking up.

A variety of baits work well for bank fishing on the Feather. Spend a day on the river and it is obvious that most anglers prefer drifting beads and yarn on a long leader. I personally don't use the set-up because of the large number of foul-hooked fish. I prefer tossing spoons and spinners such as Kastmasters, Krocodiles, a #5 Blue Fox or a #5 Mepps.

Hook-ups don't come as often, but most fish will be mouth hooked when tossing lures.

Whether you prefer tossing lures from the bank or back trolling Flatfish behind a jet boat, the Feather River is a great bet for bagging a chrome-bright king. Flows are up at press time and that means there's plenty of new fish moving up river.