Beta

GuidedFloats is in beta. The full site launches March 1, 2027. The mobile app follows.

Guides: claim before March 1, 2027 and your first full season of Premium is free. Claim your founding spot →

Log in List your guide serviceFor guides
Home › Waters › California › Eel River
River · Humboldt and Mendocino counties on California's north coast · California

Eel River Fishing Guides

A long, wild north-coast river draining more than three thousand square miles of the Coast Range, best known for winter steelhead and a hydrograph that swings harder than almost any river in the state.

Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Eel River

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

About the Eel River

The Eel drains a little over three thousand square miles of the northern California Coast Range and reaches the Pacific south of Eureka. It is a big river by coastal standards and an extraordinarily variable one. The Coast Range here is young, steep and made largely of unstable marine rock, so the Eel carries an enormous sediment load and responds to winter storms with rises that can be measured in tens of thousands of cubic feet per second within a day. The gauge at Scotia sits low in the system and reports discharge and stage; there is no live temperature series, so flow and clarity are what a visitor plans around.

Winter steelhead are the reason most people come. The run builds through December and peaks in January and February, and the fishery is entirely governed by the storm cycle: the river needs rain to bring fish in and then needs several days to drop and clear before it can be fished. Fall chinook enter earlier, in late autumn, and hold in the lower river and estuary. Summer sees the river shrink dramatically, and low-flow summers have brought serious problems with warm water and algae in the lower reaches.

Guided trips are drift-boat trips, run on the mainstem below the forks and on the South Fork through the redwood country near Weott and Miranda. Access between launches is limited and much of the bank is private, so the boat is not a luxury here.

The Eel rewards flexibility more than planning. Guides here watch three days of forecast and gauge together, and the difference between an excellent day and a wasted one is usually a matter of timing the drop rather than picking the right water.

Fished this water? Add a photo

Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Eel River.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Scotia and the Highway 101 corridor - lower mainstem access near the gauge.
Fernbridge and the lower river - the bottom of the system and the estuary reach.
South Fork at Weott and Miranda - redwood-country drift water and the most popular winter float.
Avenue of the Giants pullouts - roadside access along the South Fork through Humboldt Redwoods State Park.
Alderpoint on the middle mainstem - remote access to the middle river.
Van Duzen River confluence near Carlotta - a major tributary that clears ahead of the mainstem.
Benbow and Garberville - upper South Fork access and summer river use.

Seasons

Spring: the last of the winter steelhead through March before flows drop away quickly.
Summer: very low and warm, with limited fishing and significant algae in the lower river.
Fall: chinook stage in the lower river and estuary as the first storms arrive.
Winter: the main steelhead season, entirely dictated by how fast the river drops after each storm.

From the water

No logged trips yet. Be the first to put this water on your map.

Log this water

Fished it or cleaned it? Log in or create a free account to log a trip with photos and earn the waterway badge.

Questions

What is the current flow on the Eel River?

As of Sep 8, 12:15 am, the USGS gauge EEL R A SCOTIA CA reads 103 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Eel River?

Anglers target Chinook Salmon, Coastal Cutthroat Trout, Rainbow Trout, Steelhead on the Eel River in California.

Are there fishing guides on the Eel River?

GuidedFloats lists 2 guides and outfitters on the Eel River. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Eel River?

Scotia and the Highway 101 corridor - lower mainstem access near the gauge. Fernbridge and the lower river - the bottom of the system and the estuary reach. South Fork at Weott and Miranda - redwood-country drift water and the most popular winter float. Avenue of the Giants pullouts - roadside access along the South Fork through Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Alderpoint on the middle mainstem - remote access to the middle river. Van Duzen River confluence near Carlotta - a major tributary that clears ahead of the mainstem. Benbow and Garberville - upper South Fork access and summer river use.

When is the best time to fish the Eel River?

Spring: the last of the winter steelhead through March before flows drop away quickly. Summer: very low and warm, with limited fishing and significant algae in the lower river. Fall: chinook stage in the lower river and estuary as the first storms arrive. Winter: the main steelhead season, entirely dictated by how fast the river drops after each storm.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Eel River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the California agency site: https://wildlife.ca.gov/Fishing/Inland/Regulations