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Today was a quality, not quantity kind of day. We floated the upper part of the river. Water conditions are great - the river is fairly clear but not overly so. There was a great hatch of mayflies today from about 11am through 3pm. The nymph grab was a little slow and no fish were rising. However, we landed a couple of nice fat wild trout that were 18-19 inches. Our best fly was a size 16 flashback beadhead pheasant tail.
 Lower Sac |
We spent our day swinging the best swing runs in the Junction City area today. Water conditions are perfect right now. The river is that perfect steelhead green color and dropping. The swing program wasn't happening today. I got some good reports from a couple other guides fishing eggs and indicators.
 A skwala stone on the Trinity. |
The highlight of our day today was some great dry fly fishing from about noon to 1:30pm. Half-pounders and browns were rising eagerly to the callibaetis hatch. We rose numerous half pounders and then stalked a large brown for a while. It was somewhere in the 2-3 pound class. We actually got it to eat our fly twice but somehow didn't connect. We spent the rest of the day swinging through some great runs with spey rods and leech patterns but to no avail.
 Swinging the leaning tree run. |
Fishing is pretty consistent on the Trinity these days. You have to work for them, but there are plenty of steelhead in the river. We floated near Douglas City today. We saw plenty of fish in the top half of our float, but none that wanted to eat. We enjoyed some fun dry fly fishing for browns around lunch time. We hooked three steelhead in the afternoon. All were upstream fish in good condition. The first two were bucks that had a lot of color. The last one was hooked right at the take out as I was backing the trailer down. It was a chrome winter-run fish that jumped a couple times before it straightened our hook. The weather was great in the morning, but then it got cold in the afternoon and snowed the last two hours of the day.
 Trinity River |
The Lower Rogue has been great this last week. We had a few magical days with multiple hook-ups, all on the swing. The Lower Rogue boasts some awesome swing water and we've had plenty of targets! Just had a cancellation for next week Feb 20-22. Also have Feb 25 and 28 open for coastal winter steelhead fishing.
 Livin large with Mike and Gino  Any of these will work  Locked and Loaded |
this is year 6 for me down in New Zealand...funny how sight fishing in clear, pristine water for very large, cunning wild trout doesn't seem to get old. Summer is in full swing here in the South Island, and I haven't worn a pair of waders since December on the Trinity. I haven't fished a lame nymph either...every fish I have caught has been on a dry. This will change as the summer wears on though, and the fish get more pressured. Still, I will always try a dry over a fish first, before resorting to a nymph dropper. There is nothing like watching a 22-28 inch brown slowly rise to your dry. Late January is becoming one of my favorite times to fish, due to the first signs of cicadas and other terrestrials on the water, the fish are looking up.
Late January report: I have caught dozens of browns between 4 and 8 pounds, all on drys, over the last few weeks...you should have been here. enjoy your winter. maybe you should start planning for next year and get a hold of me. Practice your casting though!
2009 Open dates: I do have some openings for late February/early March. Airfare is the cheapest I have ever seen (under $1000 r/t) and the US dollar is actually very strong in NZ at the moment...cheap beer and wine! Fly to Queenstown, and I handle the rest. Contact me to set up an all inclusive accommodation and fishing package.
Dax
 a classic Mataura brown  you should be here  its not just about the fishing |
Brian Kohlman and I took our group of four anglers to the upper river near Steel Bridge today. For the second day in a row we started with a fish on one of our very first casts! It was a small hatchery buck that ate a twenty-incher with rubberlegs, size 10. We waited a while for our next fish, which came right after lunch. It was a nice bright fish about five pounds that threw the hook on its first jump. We switched gears for an hour and did some dry fly fishing. We put good drifts over two nice rising browns, but could not get them to eat. One of Brian's clients nearly landed a twenty inch steelhead that he hooked on a dry. The dry fly action was over around 3pm. We hooked two more steelhead in the afternoon, including a large buck that threw the hook after a prolonged battle right at the takeout.
There is hardly any fishing pressure on the river right now. We saw one other boat and two bank anglers today. This is a great time of year to come up and have a chance at steelhead and also do some dry fly fishing for some nice browns.
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Brian Kohlman and I guided a group of four today in the Junction City area. The water was a little high and slightly off-color. We caught our first steelhead on our third cast, right at the put-in. It was a nice 5lb downstream hen in good condition. Just after lunch we had some good dry fly action and landed one wild brown on a March Brown dry. We landed one other steelhead, a wild buck about 3lbs. Brian's clients landed a couple of great fish and lost another. The weather was outstanding and we only saw one boat and three bank anglers all day!
 Trinity River  Brian Kohlman and crew with a fish on! |
I enjoyed a day off today with my friend Mike Corley, a guide from Redding. We fished the Trinity River in the Douglas City area. There was an incredible hatch of callibaetis starting around noon. The brown trout didn't fail to notice. We landed about ten wild browns on dries, including the 20 incher you see below. If you like dry fly fishing for big fish, book a day on the Trinity with us in the next six weeks. This hatch is very consistent through March.
 Andrew with a brown caught on a dry  Mike Corley with a brown caught on a dry  Mike Corley hooked up on a dry fly |
We spent almost the whole day wading today. The Lower Sac is at 3,200cfs right now, so every riffle is easy to wade. Fishing was best from 11am to 3pm today. We had a good hatch of baetis mayflies size 16-18, plus some pinkish PMDs size 14 and some large caddisflies. The fish didn't rise to the bugs where we were, but the nymph grab was good during the hatch. Best flies were a hunchback infrequens size 16 and the Idylwilde beadhead baetis nymph size 16.
 Lower Sac |
We floated from the Posse Grounds to the Sac RV Park today. The weather was incredible, with sun all day and no wind. Fishing was somewhat challenging, despite a pretty good hatch of baetis mayflies in the early afternoon. We did land a few quality rainbows, though. Our best flies were a size 16 red copper john and a size 8 superfloss brown rubberlegs.
 Lower Sac |
We fished near Junction City today. The water conditions were great - a little high and just a touch of color. We were able to fish a lot of water that is normally too shallow to hold fish. We hooked four adult steelhead, getting two into the net. We also hooked a few half pounders. One fish ate an October Caddis nymph, but the rest came on egg patterns.
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We fished near Douglas City today. After drifting through a lot of good water with no hookups, we spent most of our time in two different holes where we could actually see the fish holding near the boat. It took a while in both spots, but we eventually hooked up. We ended up hooking three adult steelhead, two on a black rubberlegs and one on a size 16 pheasant tail. We also landed a nice brown about 18.
 A nice Trinity brown trout |
The recent storm has stirred up the steelhead on the Trinity early this week. Hooked 7 fish in 5 different locations on Monday...one of the better days of the season. The fish were in superb condition and quite large...between 26-31 inches.
Lots of snow around, and more expected. The next few weeks should provide some of the best fishing of the whole season, alas...I am off to Pennsylvania then New Zealand...I guess thats OK though. I will be in shorts sight fishing to steelhead size browns with dry flies.
Get out there and fish! No one is around anymore below Junction City.
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I took my clients down to Junction City today. It's amazing to see what a ghost-town it is down there. We didn't see any bank anglers, just three guide boats. Last year it was hard to even fish any of that water with the amount of boat and bank traffic. Today I got to fish everything I wanted to fish. We found fish in two different spots, hooking two fish in each spot. A couple only stayed on for a few seconds. One wrapped itself around a log and broke off. Our second fish of the day made it into the net, though. All of the fish ate nymph patterns. The fish we landed ate a size 14 Morrish Anato-May in peacock.
 Trinity River |
The fish would simply not eat today. We sight-fished to a lot of nice steelhead in the Douglas City area today and could not get one to grab. We did get a brown trout on a nymph and we had some fun casting dries to rising smolts around lunch time. There are plenty of steelhead around but they all seem to have lockjaw. Conditions should improve after the storm that's due to arrive on Monday.
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Fishing was tough today on the Lower Sac. We fished near Red Bluff and enjoyed some incredible scenery and a beautiful day. The trout and steelhead were not interested in what we had to offer, though. We hooked a few trout on nymphs, the best being a size 14 red copper john.
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We fished near Junction City today. We didn't see a single boat or bank angler ALL DAY. It was like our own private river. And yes, there were fish. We hooked two adult steelhead, both on an egg-sucking leech fished on the swing. We battled the first fish for over 5 minutes. It was a bright fish, at least 8 pounds, and very hot! We landed a nice brown about 18 mid-day. Late in the day we swung up another nice adult, but he didn't stay on for very long.
 Trinity River  Fish on! |
We floated near Lewiston today. There was a great hatch of size 12-14 brown mayflies just after lunch. The half-pounders went crazy. We tied on a parachute adams and caught several fish and rose many others. It was a nice change of pace from the steelhead fishing, which was notably slow. We had some good sight-fishing opportunities and we also got a big tug on a leech pattern. Traffic was light.
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We saw a lot of fish today but they didn't seem to be very hungry. We had some great sight-nymphing opportunities in two locations. We pounded one nice fish with nymphs for quite a while before swinging an articulated egg-sucking leech in front of his face. On the first drift the fish crushed the leech. It was about a five pound wild buck with great color. That was our only opportunity of the day and fortunately we capitalized on it!
 Trinity River |
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