Current Fishing Report

We had a good day on the Trinity today.  Josh from Boise, first time steelheader, landed his first fish in the first ten minutes and got two more great fish later in the day.  Dean from Washington also did well, landing one and hooking another.  The last few days we've been getting 3-4 opportunities a day. The rain is just starting and we're supposed to get a fair amount in the next two days.  This next week should be awesome. 

Josh with his first steelie

Dean with a nice one

Josh with another great wild fish

Gino and I just finished up two days of guiding a great family group.  Fishing wasn't easy, but everybody landed a fish and had a lot of fun.  Conditions continue to be low and clear, but the fish are pretty grabby when you find them.

After another tough day yesterday, we bounced back today with some great fishing.  Today was day 2 with the Diablo Valley Fly Fishers club.  Maarty and Don both landed steelhead, and Don also landed a brown and a big salmon.  Maarty was the hot rod, landind five steelhead.  3 of them were huge, with one that taped out at 28.5!

Maarty had an incredible day, going 5 for 5

Don caught a steelie, a brown and a salmon

We stopped taking photos after this one.

Here are some photos from Gino's guide trip with Dan and Doug from the Diablo Valley Fly Fishers.  Nice fish, guys!

I just had a cancellation for Nov 18/19 and will be available on the Lower Sac or Trinity River.  The Trinity is up and down but there are really good opportunities most days.  The Lower Sac is consistent with lots of opportunities on wild trout and the occasional steelhead.

What a difference a day makes.  Today we found a nice pod of fish that wanted to eat.  Dave from Redlands landed three nice fish, one about 8 pounds.  There are fish in the river and they're still pretty bunched up in certain spots, but they will eat flies.  We connected with about six fish today.

We had the most beautiful, serene float on the Trinity river today.  We floated about 10 miles and only briefly hooked one steelhead.

Today was day two with Steve and Charlotte.  Today Steve landed a nice 3# wild hen on his spey rod to match Charlotte's fish from yesterday.  Charlotte had a nice 6# steelie on for quite a while today but it didn't make it to the net.  She landed a nice half-pounder, though.  It was a beautiful day and we were glad to connect with a couple of adult steelhead!

Charlotte is a quick study

The big one got away, but this half-pounder pulled hard too

The Trinity continues to be challenging, but we caught a pretty special fish today.  Steve from Sonoma came up with his granddaughter Charlotte today and the mission was to put Charlotte on her first-ever steelhead.  We warmed up with some trout and steelhead smolts and practiced fish-fighting in the morning.  Right after lunch we found a pod of steelhead.  Charlotte capitalized on her one and only opportunity all day and landed her first ever steelhead! The river was pretty mellow today considering it's Veteran's Day weekend.  We found a float with only one other boat and had total solitude most of the day.

Charlotte with her first ever steelie

The Trinity River is pretty tough right now.  There are decent numbers of fish, but they're all balled up in a short stretch of river and everybody knows it.  Fishing pressure is very high where the fish are and very light where they aren't!  A fish per angler per day is good right now.  Hopefully we will get rain early next week.  It would be nice to get a little more water under the boat.  A little rain should make the fish disperse a little more throughout the river system.  Best flies right now are rubberleg stoneflies and size 14 trout nymphs.

Alan with a nice one

bear sighting!

fish on

The fishing has been pretty good on the Rogue River this week. The weather has been great with cold mornings and warm afternoons. It looks like were going to get some much needed rain this weekend. This rain should move the fish around and fishing should turn on even more!

The conditions continue to be low and clear with no rain on the horizon. Despite that Steelhead continue to trickle into the system and anglers working hard manage to have multiple opportunities during the day with a fish or two landed.

Bruce's big wild buck

Bobs Halloween Hatchery Steelhead

I just finished up two good days on the Trinity River.  Randy and I guided a group of 4 from the San Diego area.  Everyone on the trip landed at least one adult steelhead.  My guys today landed 4 steelhead 4-5lbs and a nice fresh salmon about 12lbs.  Toward the end of the day we saw a lot of salmon and steelhead making their way upriver.  They were knifing through the shallow riffles and making big wakes as they cruised through the tailouts.  Pretty neat to watch.

Greg with a healthy buck

George with a wild one

John landed 2 nice fish today

Steelhead continue to filter into the Trinity as do the anglers, boat and bank traffic have picked up considerably in the JC area this past week. I guided the lower river Friday and Saturday, both days we saw pods of Steelhead on the move, we had good action on 1/2 pounders to 16 with a few missed opportunities on larger Steelhead. We mixed the days up with a combination of swing fishing and fishing nymphs and eggs under an indicator and we were successful with both !Tom hooked and landed a nice Chinook about 10lbs. on a swung fly, the fish crushed a size 8 traditional steelhead pattern. We are still in dyer need of rain, the fishing could break wide open with a rise in the river, keep your fingers crossed ! 

Today was a pillage-fest on the Lower Sac.  Great weather, tons of hook ups, and even some steelhead in the mix.  It was all about egg patterns today.  Check out Brad's steelie.

Joe with one of many nice fish

Brad with his steelie

The Lower Klamath is a Beautiful place to be this time of year. The main run of salmon has already pushed through and so have all the salmon anglers, the river is left to the hard core steelhead angler willing to put in the time and effort for the big tug.I guided father and son , Jim and Bob from the bay area over the weekend. The fishing was good, we hooked and landed multiple chrome steelhead to 4lbs. and a jack salmon, big steelhead eluded us but there were a few caught over the weekend.The Lower Klamath is a hard place to beat this time of year, fresh bright steelhead, plenty of elbow room and classic swing water well suited for the spey rod.

Fishing was good today on the Lower Sac.  There are a lot of boats out, but there are plenty of fish to catch!  We hooked into a couple of really big rainbows today that did not make it to the net.  Rod from Mendocino and son Eric from New Hampshire had a good day, landing wild rainbows up to 18.  We caught some smaller trout on nymphs, but all of our big fish were on eggs.

Eric with a nice one

Low and Clear !The release out of Lewiston Lake into the Trinity river has been lowered to it's winter flow of 300 CFS till April 2014 and since we haven't had any significant rain since late September to get the tributaries running the Trinity is running Very Low!Boat traffic in the JC and Douglas City area hasn't been to bad but there are allot of bank anglers out, especially in the mid river from Big Flat to Cedar Flat.As for the fishing I would rate it fair, there are Steelhead around but with the skinny conditions and moderate fishing pressure fishing is a little tough. We'll have to wait to see if we have as large of a run as last year, there doesn't seem to be as many Salmon around as last year if that's an indicator.I guided Brady from San Francisco, who in 3 short years has become quite the Spey aficionado. We floated two different drifts, one middle river and one lower river, we saw Steelhead, hooked Steelhead but were unable to bring any to hand. That's the beauty of early Steelhead, there HOT!, and not easily landed.

The weather and the Steelhead fishing is good right now on the Rogue River. Several pulls on the swing flys with the long rod but couldn't seal the deal. George caught this one on a dead drifted nymph. It looks like the weather is going to continue to be nice through the weekend, nice.

Another windy day on the Lower Sac.  The river fished fairly well for us.  We had all of our luck on egg patterns.  There were some spots where the hook-ups came fast and furious as we floated through the salmon redds.  We landed fish up to 19 today.