Current Fishing Report

Here are some more photos from the San Jose Fly Caster's trip to Eagle Canyon back on Jan 19-20.

Here are some photos from a very rainy and windy day today at Eagle Canyon.

The Trinity fished really well for us today.  My clients Axel and Luis both landed multiple fish.  We hooked about ten adult steelhead and several more half-pounders.  There is a good mix of fresh upstream fish, wild half-pounders, and beat-up downstream fish right now. There is very little fishing pressure right now. We have a big storm coming in - fishing should be really good after the flows spike and start dropping again. 

Gino forwarded these photos from his guide trip with client Ted today on the southern Oregon coast.  It's been a great season over there - be sure to book early for next year!

That's a big one...

Here are some photos of our guests today at Eagle Canyon.

I guided Joe and Ryan from Bakersfield on Saturday, the fishing was a little tough, could be that the fish just had there heads down or there weren't many fish about. We still managed to land a couple of nice Steelie's including a stout wild buck that Joe landed. The weather was beautiful and all had a good time ! (hard to beat a day on the river)The weather is supposed to change in a big way by mid-week, should help mix things up a bitt. 

Nice Buck !

The Lower Sac fished well for us today.  My clients Tom and Barry from Bakersfield caught fish on nymphs and dries.  Tom started the day off with a 20 rainbow on his 2nd cast.  The dry fly fishing wasn't red hot, but it was pretty good.  There is a mixed hatch of caddisflies and PMDs.  We also saw some callibaetis later in the day.  Barry landed a 16 rainbow on a dry.  We even hooked four fish side-drifting dries Montana style.  With the low flows we have right now, it's not a long trip up to the top for the fish.  When they're looking up, you can do fairly well blind fishing dries.

We hosted the Shasta/Trinity chapter of Project Healing Waters today at Eagle Canyon.  What a day!  We had perfect weather and the fishing was about as good as it gets outside of Opening Day.  There were 12 participants and everyone caught at least one fish.  One of them landed 15!  Hot flies included black leeches on an intermediate line and black and red midges sized 18-20 with a white bead under an indicator.  One of the participants landed a fish that was at least 15 pounds (check back for the photo).  This is one of our favorite groups and we look forward to seeing them again next year.

Steelheading was very good on the Trinity River today.  My client Wes was well into double-digit territory on hook-ups.  No downstreamers today - all of the fish we hooked were fresh wild fish from 3 to 6 pounds.  They were great fighters, too.  Eggs and golden stones did the job.  Fishing pressure is pretty light, too.

We fished the Steel Bridge area today and had the river mostly to ourselves.  The highlight of our day was the dry fly fishing from 1 to 3pm.  Wes from Mill Valley connected with six or seven browns and rainbows on march brown dry flies.  The hatch was really good and we found rising fish in several spots.  The steelhead fishing was fair - the fish we caught were pretty sorry-looking downstreamers.  Golden Stones and egg patterns are the ticket for nymphing right now.

Had a great day out on the Southern Oregon coastal rivers recently. We timed it perfect late last week and hooked some impressive Nickel Plated winter run Steelhead. But now the rivers have received to much rain and it looks like we have to wait until the river systems clear and drop. Keep your eyes on the weather forecast, once we dry out a little these rivers are going to go off!  

Here is a great photo from earlier today at Eagle Canyon.

Coastal winter steelheading is always an interesting game.  The timing of the weather which dictates angling opportunities plays a big role.  When I got to the Southern Oregon Coast in mid January, I saw my favorite familiar rivers at an all time low.  The smaller ones I love to fish were just too low due to the well known drought we've been having.  The larger rivers however, provided some unique opportunities for the spey angler.   Prior to the much needed rain we just received, we were able to wade and fish in areas that were not previously available to us in normal conditions, which provided some incredible angling opportunities.  Sure, there were days that we didn't connect...but there were days that we were having big time multiple hookups on dime bright winter fish.  We were swinging flies on light tips with summer style flies in the lovely coastal sunshine, with little angling pressure on beautiful swing water.  There were times where we could see pods of these fish blasting and rolling through the riffles and tailouts we were fishing, then having crushing hookups.  It was more like flats fishing for tailing fish than river fishing at times.  Thats all done now, sorry if you missed it.  The good news is that the drought is over, which is great for many reasons other than just fishing. More rain is expected on the coast for the next several days, and some rivers are already blown out at the moment.  Such is the complex game chasing winter coastal fish.  All you can do is dedicate some time every year, and hopefully you can nail it at some point.  Our clients that return every year eventually get paid in some of these amazing angling moments we've had over the years.  You need to book early to get a shot at this venue...

Scotty and Gino during a chaotic moment as fish were all around us

Coulter getting bent, mega

This fish actually had some color, but beautiful nontheless

Pete Notz's epic wild hen

Pete Notz in the Zone

Michael from LA int the battle of a lifetime

this is a mega winter fish

Michael with his 33 inch hen

Rock star rep Jamie Lyle with a beauty

I enjoyed a day off fishing the Trinity River today.  My buddy Dan caught his first fly-caught steelhead ever and caught another one later in the day.  I farmed one nice fish, too.  The fish are eating small golden stone nymphs really well right now.  There is also a really good hatch of march browns and smaller mayflies from noon to 3pm.  There were a few nice browns rising but they were really skittish.  The river is already back to low and clear - we're expecting more rain on Thursday.

Here are a couple of pics from the past couple days, despite the lack of rain we have had a solid return of wild Steelhead on the Trinity. Overall the fishing in January and so far in February has been pretty solid. The conditions have been less then ideal with the low water but the Trinity has benefitted from the meager release out of Lewiston dam, compared to the coastal streams that rely exclusively on rain, we were sitting pretty. fortunately all that has changed with a significant change in the weather pattern. We have been getting steady but not heavy rain on the Trinity over last week or two, conditions now are ideal.If your thinking about fishing the Trinity next November or December you might consider January or February, the days are often warmer and the river is less crowded.  

it's actually raining !

another wild bullet

3 guests enjoyed a very rainy and windy day at Eagle Canyon today!  The fish didn't mind, though.

 We have just set the dates for our 2014 Guide School: July 19-26.  Our week-long school is a great value for aspiring fishing guides.  $1495 includes accommodations, instruction, two dinners, and all lunches for 7 days.  Our field sessions are conducted on some of the best trout streams in California: Fall River, Hat Creek, the Pit River, McCloud River, and Lower Sac.

   Andrew Harris will be presenting to the Peninsula Fly Fishers on May 15th, 2014.

Fishing is improving on the Trinity.  This storm brought a lot of rain today.  The river isn't rising much yet, but it should tomorrow.  Fish are definitely on the move and on the grab.  We landed one of the best fish of the season today, a 10# wild buck.  I think fishing will be really good for the next few weeks as this much needed rain brings more fish into the upper part of the river.

George with his big fish

Here are some photos from Eagle Canyon today.