Current Fishing Report

The Trinity River continues to fish very well.  John and Brian from the Bay Area had an outstanding day, landing several steelhead apiece.  Small nymphs size 16-18 were the ticket today.  We landed one wild fish and a bunch of hatchery fish.  Conditions are great all the way down to Junction City.  The water is a little high down there, but will come into prime shape over this next week.

Brian with our biggest fish of the day

John with one of many fish

I just had a cancellation for this weekend, and available to guide on the Trinity. The weather is going to be perfect and the conditions don't get much better, with the river finally dropping into shape after back to back major high water events. The upper river is in perfect shape today, and the middle river will be ready tomorrow.

Dave and Darryl graduated from trout to steelhead today.  The river was in great shape in the morning, running high but clear all the way down through the Douglas City area.  We had one of those incredible steelheading days that happen when conditions are just right.  Dave and Darryl hooked 17 steelhead by lunchtime.  Darryl also landed a very nice brown trout.  We didn't see any boats all day, either.  These guys got plenty of practice playing large fish today and put most of the fish in the net.  The river rose throughout the day - the rain never stopped today.  The weather is supposed to dry out - I predict that we will have excellent fishing all week!

Dave with one of many fish

Darryl was in the zone today

Darryl's big brown

I fished with Dave and Darryl from Redlands today.  We had a huge rainstorm yesterday and the river was pretty muddy in the Douglas City area this morning.  We passed on the steelheading today and fished Lewiston Lake instead.  The upper end of the lake was a little off-color in the morning, but the middle and lower part of the lake was very clear.  We boated around a bit and found some big pods of fish right away.  We spent the day casting our flies to visibly feeding trout.  Most of our fish came on small mayfly nymphs under indicators.  In the afternoon Dave landed a couple of fish on a dry fly.  Dave and Darryl boated at least 30 fish, with the biggest around 16.  It was a really fun day of fishing and catching in total solitude.

The Trinity is blown at the moment, with flows spiking at over 4000 CFCs at Douglas City this morning. Junction City is over 6100 at the moment, I like it around 500cfs for swinging flies in that area...Hoopa is 17,500. The Rogue is mega blown out as well, 32,000cfs in Grants Pass! It is done for awhile. Hopefully the Trinity and costal rivers drop quickly and become fishable by midweek. At least new steelhead will be in all of the systems, and fishing should be excellent when the rivers drop into shape.

Here are some photos from Eagle Canyon today.  5 anglers from Red Bluff enjoyed a very windy but productive day at the lakes.  Tony had this to say:Awesome experience.  Great fish.  Plenty of hookups.  A real one-of-a-kind place.  Everyone should try it!

I fished the Upper Rogue with Tommy April yesterday to get a few more casts in before the big storm hits.  Tommy swung up a nice wild buck casting the new Sage One 6126, which is my favorite new spey rod that has hit the market this past year.  I also have the 7136, which is an absolute cannon, and is incredibly light in the hand for a 7wt.  The Rogue has kicked out fish on the swing every day I have fished it since I got back from the Ronde.   I will be heading to the Trinity soon to get ready for my upcoming trips.  The flow forecasts look pretty scary.  Hoopa is projected to hit 70,000 cfs...its 1770 right now if that gives you an idea of how insane that is.  Hopefully the river drops fast (it should) and be in fishable condition for the latter part of next week.  Spend this weekend watching football or doing your neglected chores around the house.  Maybe even tie some flies, or paint some beads for your filthy illegal snagging rig if you are one of those kooks.

The mega-storm held off for one more day today, so Paul and George were able to land a couple more adults each.  We had a rainy morning, but the afternoon was really nice.  We fished up around Steel Bridge.  There were a few boats and a few bank anglers, but not a lot of fishing pressure overall.  We caught fish on egg patterns and nymphs, mainly copper johns size 12-14.  We also had some fun catching 10-12 rainbows on dries in the afternoon.  The river stayed very low and clear all day.

Paul strikes again

The Lower Sac is a ghost town this time of year.  All the guides are on the Trinity. I guided Brooke from San Jose today.  He took advantage of our Combo Special, which involves two days of fishing for just $650 for two anglers.  You get one day at Eagle Canyon plus a day on the Lower Sac.  It's a screaming deal and I'm really surprised more people don't take advantage of it. Brooke had a good day at Eagle Canyon yesterday.  He said he hooked quite a few fish but most of the fish got the best of him.  Today on the Lower Sac we did best with our dry fly fishing.  Brooke hadn't cast to rising fish in twenty years, but he still remembered how to get the job done.  His best fish was an 18 rainbow on a size 18 dry on a long downstream drift.  Nice job!

Brooke's big fish on a dry

I fished brothers Paul and George on the Trinity today.  It was George's first time on the Trinity and he managed to land his first steelhead ever, a nice wild hen.  Paul landed a good wild fish too.  We didn't see any boats on our float today, and only two bank anglers.  The Junction City area was a ghost town.  We enjoyed the beautiful weather, which is supposed to end on Wednesday.

George with his first ever steelie

Paul knows how to hold a fish

Here are some photos from Wayne from Orland.  He fished the lakes today with his twin boys and his father-in-law John.  Wayne says the weather was too nice but they still had a fun day!

Clint with the twins

John from Gridley with a nice one

Don from Cottonwood had this to say about his trip to Eagle Canyon:Vince & I had a great time at the Eagle Canyon Trophy Trout Lakes November 21, 2012. Clint was a great guide and companion. Vince caught 24 trout and I caught 14 trout, all ranging from 5 pounds to 13 pounds. We definitely plan to do it again.

We have a client who would like to split a guide trip with someone else.  The dates that work would be Nov 27th or 29th, on the Trinity River.  If one of these dates fits your schedule, this is a great way to go fishing and split our $425/day rate with another angler.  Call Andrew @ 530-632-3465.

It was a very wet day on the Trinity River today.  I guided John from Clayton today.  He spent yesterday with Gino and managed to land two fish on his spey rod on his first day of spey casting.  John picked up where he left off, landing another nice fish on a spey rod today and a few more fish on nymphs.  The river was not very crowded today.  The water rose throughout the day but stayed fishable until we reached Canyon Creek, which was a muddy mess.  The river was unfishable below that point.  We saw tons of fish on the move today.  Some holes were filled with rolling and jumping fish.  I'm not sure how fishable the river will be tomorrow, but Thanksgiving weekend should be really good!

I had a great 3 days of fishing the Upper Rogue with keen speycaster Paul Takimoto.  We swung up fish everyday and saw virtually no other anglers.   I will be taking the weekend off to watch Notre Dame destroy USC and advance to the national championship game.  Then I will be available for guiding on the Trinity for the week of November 26th, for which I have open dates.  The fishing should be insane after this big storm pummels the west coast and sucks new fish into the system.  They will be aggressive and it will be prime time to swing them up!

Paul heading over the rainbow

Paul getting bent

One of Paul's 5 hens

We got a little wet today but the fishing was pretty good.  I floated the Junction City area with Jon and son-in-law Michael.  Mike had never touched a fly rod before and managed to hook two steelhead, albeit briefly.  Jon went 4 for 4 with a mix of wild and hatchery fish.  We saw quite a few fish rolling today, most of which had no interest in eating flies.  Small nymphs were the ticket again today.

Jon's big fish

I fished with Kevin from Alameda on Sunday, it was Kevins first time on the Trinity and his first Steelhead experience. Kevin landed two nice adult Steelhead and had a few other incounters, he caught the Steelhead Stoke as well!   If you're not interested in the Trinity there are other options that will soon be available on the Northern California Coast for fresh chrome and if Steelhead aren't your thing there are Trout options as well, Lewiston Lake continues to fish well for Rainbow's throughout the winter and the Lower Sac in Redding is always a good choice for Trout.

All Smiles!!!

Opening Day 2012 was very productive for Brendon Flynn of Red Bluff and his group.  The rain and wind didn't slow the action.  Katie Harris and her brother Clint Mackey were on hand as the hosts, and they stayed busy netting fish all day!  Katie stopped counting triple-hookups at six - needless to say there plenty of double-hookups.  Our guests caught most of their fish on woolly bugger streamers and rubberlegs nymphs.

I fished with Bill & Robert from Danville on Thurs and Fri. Still plenty of fish around and even with the heavy pressure most anglers still seem to scratch out some fish. We have been getting rain over the last couple of days but not enough to change water conditions much. We are expecting some heavier rains Sat afternoon and night, maybe enough to add some volume and color to the Trinity.   Fishing continues to hold strong for Fall fish and should be good through the Holidays at which point we should start to see the arrival of our Winter run.

beautiful wild hen

Nice 28 hatchery buck

The Trinity continues to fish well.  Steve and Dana from Chico both landed some nice steelhead today and lost a few others.  We also hooked up two big salmon, one of which promptly swam into a submerged tree!  Our best flies were small copper johns and pheasant tails.  We have a storm coming in over the weekend that should bring more fish into the system - next week should be really good!

Steve with his birthday fish