Another season of chasing winter run steelhead on California's redwood coast is primed to start. Last week saw the first flush of rain with enough water coming down stream to open our local rivers from their low flow closures. I was out on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, to see what was taking shape. What I saw was a small coastal river that had previously been sealed off at it's mouth fully breached, and quickly blowing out. Blown out or not, the gates had been swung wide open, and every fish that had been staging in the salt waiting for rain was making a run for it. I saw fish moving in every place I stopped to fish. Mostly, if not all, King Salmon, pushing up river with a vengeance. As quickly as most of the rivers under low flow restriction opened, so too they closed as they dropped below their CFS threshold. A few, however, have stayed open to fishing and the fishing has been good. I've been out the past two days and have connected with fish on both outings. Yesterday I found a nice wild adult hen and today a decent half pounder. With more wet weather on tap for this weekend we should see another push of fresh fish come in from the salt. As of this writing the Mainstem Eel will be the only river to remain open until our next round of rain makes landfall on Friday. Please remember to call the Fish and Game hotline to make sure the river you want to fish is open! 707-822-3164. We should expect to see most, if not all of the coastal rivers open to fishing by early next week if not sooner. Hopefully everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday and is ready to dive into yet another season of swinging for steel!