South Fork Eel River

Fishing the South Fork Eel River

The South Fork Eel is a coastal freestone river that flows north through Mendocino and Humboldt counties, from Rattlesnake Creek above Leggett to its meeting with the main Eel at Dyerville. Highway 101 and the Avenue of the Giants stay close to it most of the way, and redwood parks hold much of the bank: Standish-Hickey SRA, Richardson Grove State Park, Benbow Lake SRA, the John B Dewitt reserve and the Humboldt Redwoods groves. It is a river of long gravel bars, riffles, glides and deep holes, with about 70 named pools and runs. Up top, Rattlesnake Creek and Big Dann Creek feed a small river that drops past Cedar Creek and Hollow Tree Creek to Leggett and the Standish-Hickey camps, where a trail leads down to Hickey Hole. Below there the highway follows it past Smithe Grove and the boulder pocket water of Potato Patch to Piercy and Twin Bridges Hole. From Piercy, Hwy 271 runs beside the river past the green steel bridge and Dimmicks Hole to Richardson Grove, then Benbow Drive leads to Benbow and the East Branch. Garberville, Tooby Memorial Park and Redway come next, then Sylvandale Pool off Hooker Creek Road and the bars at Phillipsville. Past the Miranda-Phillipsville bridge the Avenue of the Giants takes over, through Jensen Grove, Meyers Flat, Hidden Springs and Williams Grove to Burlington, Weott and the forks. Many sites are drive-down gravel bars with drift boat launches; others are a turnout and a short scramble. Burlington, Benbow and the Richardson Grove camps stay open all year, while Hidden Springs, Albee Creek and the Standish-Hickey camps close for the off season. The first fall rains, often in October, open the Eel's mouth and send fish upriver. Chinook and coho run from October through December and settle into the big holes, such as Sylvandale Pool, Judge Carvers Hole and Rosewarne; a 64-pound Chinook was once weighed in at Garberville. Steelhead arrive in November and stay into March, peaking in January and February, and spread through the riffles, runs and glides. This drainage has been logged, so its creeks run brown and the river climbs and colors fast after a storm. The South Fork fishes best while it rains and just after, and following a big storm the stretch from Piercy up to Leggett is often the only water still in shape. Drift boaters launch from the bars; bank anglers wade the gravel, fish roe or spinners off the rocks, or swing big dark flies and pink or blue intruders through the steelhead riffles, roll casting where the trees crowd in. In fall and winter the river closes to fishing when flows drop low, so check CDFW's low-flow status before every trip. Regulations change and differ by section, so check the current California freshwater regulations before you go.