Since the recent rains let up, conditions for local steelhead fishing have consistently improved. Saturday and Sunday featured high flows with murky water. By Wednesday, the water had cleared to about a foot and a half visibility. "Pretty much perfect," is how Ernie Kinzli described conditions on Wednesday. Kinzli owns Ernie's Casting Pond in Soquel, and steel headers, especially fly anglers congregate there. " I heard Larry Wolfe and his partner Matt McCaslin both hooked up on Soquel Creek today, but the fish either came unbuttoned or broke off," Kinzli said.

Quite a few anglers fished the San Lorenzo on Wednesday, but the only reliable report we received was from veteran Mike Baxter who caught and released a chrome steelhead trout on the lower portion of the River. "This fish was the most silver I have ever seen, with a deep blue color on his back," Baxter enthused. Steelhead season ends after March 7 for our local waters. We are allowed to fish on weekends, Wednesdays and holidays for steelhead, which means February 12 and 18 are bonus steelhead days for us this year.