Steelhead Fishing Opening Week Lower Mokelumne River

Happy New Year to 2025! It is river opening week for many in the valley and I will target Steelhead in the Lower Mokelumne River with cured roe and Nightcrawlers. I will explain my take on how to target a small river for feisty Steelhead.

[@Koi_Lawk]

I've been fishing the lower Moke since the late 80s, primarily in the summer and spring for bows. I never knew steelhead could be caught there. Thank TH-cam for the suggestion to your channel, bro! Subbed. Keep up the good work.

[@Jay10137]

What’s a bow

[@ytoutdoors95]

Great video. I used to work at the Nimbus Fish Hatchery and went to school in Humboldt. I can tell you with confidence that the American River has Eel River strain genetics mixed in with their steelhead. Back in the 70s and 80s, cdfw stocked many popular rivers with Northern strains because of their size. Obviously they don't do that anymore to conserve genetic diversity but the American River is still one of the rivers where the Eel River strain runs strong. That's the reason why the Lower American have bigger steelhead than the Feather and Sac.

[@girlfinfishing]

Your videos are always so informative. Thanks for sharing, and those fish were beautiful. 🤩 🎣

[@MarkdaShark191]

It was cool to see you out there man! Awesome seeing you get into fish man, keep killing em!

[@nice2yeetyou193]

That's a great spot if you are wading

[@dat6505]

Another great and informative video! Thanks!

[@troutwardbound]

The Moke is awesome. Good on ya for the C&R.

[@boostinwithe5355]

Where can I get cured roe local to Sacramento?

[@sangt1869]

is this at the day use area? i live nearby but never fished it. can you tell me the take regs for trout in this area, it’s just so confusing online. thanks

[@hlor37]

where can we access this river?

[@BrownFishingDude]

Do you need a steelhead reporting card to fish the mokelumne river?

[@Request4Parole]

Yes, your supposed to record your fish as a wild fish and release or a hatchery fish kept or released.

[@BrownFishingDude]

@Request4Parole Thanks I was confused because its not in the regulations of the river.

[@Request4Parole]

@BrownFishingDude I was curious, Ive fished that river but only below the hatchery. Is that considered the "Lower," part of the river? Everywhere else I've scouted is all private property

[@BrownFishingDude]

​@@Request4ParoleAfter looking over the fishing regulations it indeed says at the very beginning that any angler fishing for steelhead must have a report card to fish for steelhead in any anadromous water (leads directly to the oceans) so the lower mokelumne below the hatchery is anadromous water.

[@Request4Parole]

​@BrownFishingDude Keep up the videos. You're doing a great job explaining your techniques and making it fun to watch.
👍🏽🎣👍🏽🎣

[@Troutaholic1961]

What drifting set up were you using shot or slinky? And did you change out the hook for the crawler or did you use barbless on that ?

[@Jay10137]

Is this after camanche then?

[@Lechi1980]

What rod and reel are you using?

[@bgomez3]

Out of curiosity, do steelhead go after jigs?

[@matthewlaplante9293]

They do. People will often fish them under a bobber

[@monkeydrills]

unless it is over 16", it is not a steelhead !

[@tomsmith476]

How are you supposed to tell if it's a steelhead it looks like a regular rainbow trout

[@monkeydrills]

has to be 16" or over to be considered a steelhead. Most of the ones in this video are rainbow trout and most likely residents of the river year round.

[@sloth7310]

Steelhead have white gums

[@tomsmith476]

Thank you

[@cheechwizard6541]

@@sloth7310coho.

[@530grownandraisednatural5]

Why make TH-cam videos if you don’t respond to anyone’s questions

[@HNSeventyFive]

Really?