YUBA CITY – Now that the limited salmon season is over on the Feather River, anglers are concentrating on steelhead and striped bass.

“Steelhead fishing is best now on the river above Live Oak,” said Brian Willis of Johnson’s Bait and Tackle. “Anglers are catching the fish while drifting salmon roe and soft beads in the riffles. Most of the fish range from 2 to 6 pounds.”

He has experienced solid striped bass action on his most recent trips in his boat on the river down from the mouth of the Bear River. “I caught and released a 20 lb. striper, along with fish in the 10 to 17 lb. range, while fishing Evergreen Amazon top water lures,” he reported.

Willis also said that one fisherman reported catching a 45 lb. striper on the river below Beer Can Beach on a Megadeath Megadog lure. Other anglers have found success while using black plastic worms on ½ oz. jig heads.

Upstream migrating fish totals through the Feather River Fish Monitoring Station between Jan. 1 and Nov. 10 are: 17,712 spring-run Chinook salmon (April 16 through June 30): 17,733; Fall-run Chinook salmon (July 1 through present): 41,492; and Steelhead: 1,249.

Feather River flows are at 650 cubic feet per second (cfs) through the City of Oroville with 1,800 cfs being released from the Thermalito Afterbay River Outlet (Outlet) for a total Feather River release of 2,450 cfs downstream. DWR continues to assess Feather River releases daily.