Current Fishing Report

Randy Hamann and I guided a great group of guys this weekend - and oh what a trip they had!  Now that the conditions have improved after all the much needed rain we received in December, so has the fishing.  We hooked into several native adult fish and half-pounders both days!  On Friday my guys had a double hook-up, and both landed two amazing adults.  More rain is forecast for the coming weekend, so conditions should improve!

The heavy rains around Christmas and the Bitter Cold that followed put fishing off for a week or so but the fishing has rebounded and river conditions are pretty darn good. The heavy rains of December have muddied up Trinity Lake which in turn has added just the right amount of color into the river, we have enjoyed fishing the Trinity in a nice shade of Steelhead green, something we don't often see. The icing on the cake is there are a good number of wild adults around and quite a few hatchery chrome half pounders. Current forecast are calling for some rain by the end of the week which should freshin up the river and the fishing !  

One of our guests on Opening Day, Meng Syn, just sent me a link to his blog post about his trip.  Meng has been to Eagle Canyon numerous times, including some trips in the old Mt Lassen Trout days!  This year Meng brought a drone with him and captured some excellent aerial footage of the lakes.  Check out the blog post here: http://www.mengsyn.com/2015/01/06/eagle-canyon-trophy-trout-lakes-part-trois/ I have also posted some of Meng's photos from Opening Day.  Meng's blog post is excellent.  He has a great historical perspective on the fishery and even through in some photos from 1991, when Mt Lassen Trout first opened!  Thanks, Meng for providing this great blog post and allowing us to use the photos and video!

Aerial view of the island in the big pond

Great aerial view of the lower pond

Here are some photos from Eagle Canyon today.  Fishing continues to be very good.

Here are some photos from today's group of 4 at Eagle Canyon.  Guest Marc from Sacramento says they had a great time and landed a couple of 15lb+ fish today.

Today was opening day at Eagle Canyon.  The fishing was outstanding and our group of 8 anglers had a great time catching big rainbow trout.  I think they landed about 50 fish in the first hour and a half, mostly on big streamers on heavy tippet.  Later in the day they did well with copper johns and princes.  The biggest fish landed were about 11 pounds and larger fish were lost before making it to the net.  We had great weather today and the scenery was excellent with snow-capped Mt Lassen looming to the east.

Double double

The island with Mt Lassen in the background

John with one of his biggest fish of the day

Here are some more photos from Opening Day.

I finished out 2014 scouting some NorCal waters in search of early Winter Steelhead, primarily the South Forks, Eel and Trinity.The South fork of the Eel is currently in perfect shape from Benbow down to the Forks, the Steelhead have yet to arrive in fishable numbers yet but it's still a little early. With that said, I can't think of a better way to spend a day or two then swinging classic Steelhead runs amongst century's old Giant Redwoods in search of Fresh Wild Steelhead, look for the South Fork of the Eel to turn on soon! The South fork of the Trinity currently is running a touch low and very clear and cold in the upper reaches, it too is short on Steelhead right now but look for that to change in the coming weeks. Both of these rivers generally fish well from mid January through March. Here on the upper Trinity things have turned cold, the water temps have followed the air temps and have tanked some 10 degrees over the past week from the upper 40s to the upper 30s! The water is a nice Steelhead green in the upper reaches and gets clear as you get into the JC area and then green's up again below the South Fork in the Willow Creek area. There are a fair number of Steelhead spread from Lewiston down to Pigeon Point but look for the fishing to be on the slow side till we get some rain to stir up the river a bit and warm the water temps. Happy New Year!   

the pristine So Fork Trinity

seldom fished waters

We just had a cancellation that opened up some prime dates!  We suddenly have Jan 9 and 10 open at Eagle Canyon.  These are highly sought-after OPENING WEEK days at Eagle Canyon.  Our Opening Day is Jan 3rd, and if you book the 9th or 10th you will be just the 4th party to fish Eagle Canyon this season.  The lakes are full of fish that average 6 pounds and have never seen a fly! Randy Hamann and Brian Kohlman are also free now on the Trinity River on January 11th.  This is a prime weekend date! Call Andrew Harris @ 530-632-3465 to jump on one of these dates! 

Follow this link to view a cool video made by the Fall River Conservancy.

The Trinity has received more rain this past week, Thursday nights rain was heavy enough to blow most of the river out, still a welcome sight. The river temps have remained fairly warm, between 48 and 50 degrees which is great for this time of year and the Steelhead are still reacting in a positive way toward a well swung fly! We've hooked and landed multiple Steelhead this past week on the swung fly, both late fall fish and some bright, hot early winter fish ! 

on the job, on the swing !

I spent the last two days guiding father/son team Les and Ryan from the Diablo Valley Fly Fishers club.  Fishing was very slow for adult steelhead on Monday, but we did have some good action on half-pounders.  There was a great hatch and we landed a couple small fish on dries mid-day.  Today was much better.  Les landed three adults and Ryan landed one, all wild fish.  River levels are medium to high and there is good color in the water.  We are expecting more rain throughout the week, so conditions should be good for the foreseeable future.

Les with a nice wild buck

The Trinity river is fishing fair to good for steelhead.  We hooked a bunch of half-pounders but no adults on Monday while fishing with spey rods.  Today we nymphed the upper river and landed 3 nice adults and a really big brown trout.  It was one of the nicest browns I've seen in the net.  We are supposed to experience the storm of the decade starting this afternoon.  I expect the river to be blown out through Saturday and possibly beyond.  More wet weather comes in next Monday/Tuesday, but hopefully the river will be fishable by then.  Check back for more info.

Dave with an amazing brown trout

Craig made a lot of good drifts to get this fish

Dave with his biggest steelie of the day

I guided Jesse and Greg before the storm hit the north state.  We fished the Junction City area on Monday and caught several half-pounders and one very nice native steelhead.  We fished the upper river on Tuesday.  Both Jesse and Greg landed nice fish in addition to several more half-pounders.  The river is blown-out now - so check the flows before making the trip.

Randy Hamann shared US National Weather Service Eureka California's photo.4 mins ·

The recent rains have the Steelhead moving once again, fishing has been good for some and tough for others. Water temps remain in the fifties and my clients continue to land Steelhead on the swing! The river below Pigeon Point has been blown for much of this past week, the rest of the river has been a little high at times but the color has remained good.The forecast are calling for a significant storm coming in mid week, check the flows before you come, we should start to see the leed edge of the Trinity River Winter Run sometime over the next couple of weeks. 

The Trinity is still in good shape and fishing decent.  Dale had a great day yesterday, hooking 3 fish swinging, all very bright acrobatic steelhead.  Other days have been tough.  Fish will be moving around this weekend, so swinging flies is the best technique.   There aren't spectacular numbers of fish this year on the Trinity, but there are certainly enough around to make it worth the effort...especially if you are a true steelheader.   There was a mega storm predicted, but the river is still in great shape today.   Check the flows before you come up.

We have been receiving some much needed rain up here, albeit not as much as forecast. The river has bumped up a little and is in great shape, the fishing has been ok, there are fish around but not in great numbers. I think most of the summer/fall run has pushed on and we are waiting on the winter run to start showing. The water temps have been holding in the low 50s and the swing fishing has remained solid.

Today was a special day on the Trinity River. David swung up two fresh adults. His first ever West coast steelies. The first was a wild hen that acrobatically leaped and tail-walked all over the show. It was truly an epic battle. There are fresh fish starting to enter the system after the last push of rain we've had. It was a great day spey casting and we were rewarded for our perseverance and dedication to swing angling. Things are looking up on the Trin at the moment. 

Katie and I just spent the day with guide Ed Tamai on Oahu.  Conditions were tough with high winds and overcast, but we still got some shots.  I connected with a great fish - my first Hawaiian bone fish.  These are beautiful fish and they are big!  The sight-fishing opportunities are also much better than I had anticipated.  We did a little bit of blind-fishing, but only because of the marginal conditions.  With less wind and more sun you could sight fish all day.  Katie even had a shot at some tailing bonefish today. Ed was a fun and knowledgeable guide.  He says the best time of year is when the water is warmer, from April through October.