Evening Steelhead

Sorry for the lack of reports lately. I have been on the river the past week and the fishing has been up and down. Last weekend saw the first good rain of the season here on the Trinity and it was much needed. We saw over 1" of rain and the river came up from 680 cfs to over 1400 cfs in Hoopa. I was hoping it would bring a little color to the river, which it did but not by much. This helped bring in some new fish and get some of the fish holding in the gorges to move upriver. While I expected the fishing to be great after the storm it was actually pretty tough. In two float trips in the lower river we watched a couple hundred steelhead each day moving upriver and unwillig to take a fly. In two days we managed to hook a couple of half pounders and one adult for a brief second.

The last few days has seen a change in the weather and water temps. The last four mornign we have had temperatures near or below freezing and this has helped to bring water temps down a bit which has helped fishing. On Thursday we were able to hook two nice steelhead on wet flies but were unable to land either. We also saw a few other anglers hook up as well. This has been a change from the past couple of weeks which has seen tough fishing for everyone.

Today I was able to get out for a couple of hours and fish with my good friend Will Johnson. The first run we fished Will was able to land a nice 4 lb wild hen that took him way into his backing and came out of the water more than a few times. I was also able to hook a fish in the same run but cam unbuttoned after a long battle. In the second run fished I was able to land this large wild buck. I wish I had a better picture of this fish as it went 29-30" and was in the 9-10 lb range. Both fish I hooked took a #5 Purple Pill.

Fishing is picking up on the Trinity. The next month should provide great fishing on swung flies with many opportunities at fish on a skated fly. So far this year we are seeing some larger than average size fish and some nice wild ones to boot. The mid-lower Trinity is a great place to swing flies on both spey and switch rods. This is also a great place for a beginner or advanced spey angler to have an opportunity at hooking fish on floating lines. Go for the grab!

Jason