The fishing is still decent with a 25% / 75% mix of bright and downstreamers in the system. Most guides are reporting scores of about two fish per boat with scores as high as 4 reported the past few days. The third Cal Ore derby of the season was this past Friday and Saturday 3-8 with 20 teams or 40 boats spilt between the Smith and Chetco rivers. On the first day of the derby a total of 31 fish per caught on the Chetco and 7 on the Smith for a total of about 1 fish per boat. Our good friend and North Coast river sponsor Wally Johnson was in 3rd place on Friday but I have not received the derby totals as of Saturday. Wally says they need some rain to color the flows and hopefully push one more batch of fresh fish into the Chetco. He has given up on the Smith for the year and is going to finish out the season on the Chetco and Eel rivers. Depending on how much rain we see both Kenny Armstrong and Pete Sparacio will likely be found on either the Eel or the Trinity over the final two weeks of the season.

Wally Johnson checked in on Sunday 3-3 afternoon to give us a rundown of the past couple of days. He says that overall most guides are seeing one to four fish per boat drifting the entire length of the river. He got one down streamer today and yesterday they landed three, one dime bright hen headed to the spawning grounds and two headed back to sea. Wally will be on the Chetco all this week but Kenny Armstrong and Pete Sparacio are working some other rivers like the Eel and the Trinity this week as the weather and client's wishes allow.