Fishing with Jeff Bright

I was able to spend a couple of days last week with Jeff Bright on the lower Trinity River. For those of you who don't know Jeff or have not visited his website, Jeff is one of the most passionate steelhead fisherman I have ever met. He hosts trips each year to the Dean River, the Skeena River system, and the Deschutes River. Places many of us only dream of! Jeff has also spent a lot of time on the rivers of California's North Coast, especially the Trinity. It had been a while since Jeff had last fished the Trinity and I was thrilled to get to spend a couple of days with him.

We fished long and hard and managed to land a couple of fish the first day including a brilliant hen going 30" on the tape. The second day started out tough, but ended with a bang. In two runs, Jeff managed to HOOK four steelhead on his shadow hilton, but all four came unbuttoned. Three fish came out of one run and after losing all three, Jeff has a new run named in his honor "Jeff's Silver Sombreo." Something that will not soon be forgotten!

Through the course of two days we managed to fish some amazing water, take some cool photos(at least Jeff did), and talk all things steelhead. To check out some of Jeff's photography and his hosted trips visit his website at www.jeffbright.com

JH

Finally some rain! It seems as though it has been months since we had seen our last rain, but it has finally arrived! While the forecast is not calling for a huge storm, every little bit will help. Lets just hope the rivers rise a bit and put in a little color without them blowing out.

In the last few weeks we have seen extremely low clear water conditions causing many rivers to close because of low flows. What few rivers remain open have seen some pretty decent fishing for the few that have been out. Last week we spent four days on a well known North Coast river and had some beautiful chrome bright steelhead come to the swung fly. While fishing was not red hot, we averaged 1 steelhead each day which is great for winter steelheading. With a little rain the forecast, I anticipate fishing to pick up in the next week and many new fish to pour into many of our North Coast rivers.



I was fortunate to spend some time last week with Jeff Bright. For those of you that don't know Jeff, he is an accomplished steelheader, photographer, and graphic designer. Jeff has spent a lot of time fishing for steelhead throughout the Pacific Northwest and hosts trips to both Blackwell's Lodge and Nicholas Dean Lodge in B.C. He has also spends a lot of time working with the Wild Steelhead Coalition and other various conservation oraganizations to help protect wild salmon and steelhead. When you get a chance, check out his website. www.jeffbright.com