Current Fishing Report

I had another great day with Bob and Rich on the Trinity today. We dodged the rain and the river was in great shape after the weekend storms.  The fish were on the job today. Rich ended up on the losing end of a few epic battles with some really nice fish and Bob landed a small adult. They have some fish stories to tell for sure, but it was a very good day with good friends. More rain is on the way this week and next.

Bob with a small adult

Fellow guide Kevin Kay and I found ourselves with a day off, so we decided to do some fishing. Conditions are tough right now - the water is low, cold, and very clear. We shared time on the oars, but in the end, we had only one encounter and it was my time to hold onto the cork – how sweet it is! We have a significant winter storm system headed our way beginning Saturday. Snow is expected this weekend, and then another few days of rain. This rain is welcome and will hopefully bring more fish into the upper river! 

This report is from long-time guest Rocky who fished Eagle Canyon on New Year's Eve:"Great day on the ponds. One of my best (And I’ve fished it a lot.) Beautiful day and the wind probably helped us. Somewhere around 50-60 hookups between the two of us and landed about half of those."

I just finished up a two day swing trip with Patrick on the North Coast. Recent king tides and a dropping river with a heavy pea soup stain gave us optimal conditions for finding a fesh steelhead or two as we started off on the first day. We floated the S. Fork Eel and had the river mostly to ourselves on our stretch. Despite good conditions we ended the first day empty handed, but the weather had been kind to us and Patrick and I were able to work on some casting techniques. All in all a great day to be on the water. The beauty of the old growth Redwoods that line the banks of the Eel never disappoint. The second day started with a soaking light rain and heavy cloud cover. It was pure winter steelhead weather to be sure and hopes remained high that we would have an encounter or two. It was in the first run we fished that Patrick got grabbed and quickly found himself tethered to a mean little buck who put up one helluva fight before we were able to land him. It was a remarkable wild specimen, still clad in silver, it's fins translucent and glowing in the dim light. We were stoked to put it mildly. We fished hard for the rest of the day without another grab until we decided to try one more run as the sun was getting low over the Pacific. This time the grab came on the first cast and we both knew immediately that this was a hot fish. It drilled us. Patrick fought it up and down the run until finally it came off the line. No matter, it gave us a show neither of us will soon forget. It was the perfect end to a phenomenal day of winter steelhead fishing. Fishing on the coast is in full swing. The Eel River is going to be in near perfect shape through the end of this week and will be the best bet for anyone looking to make the journey north along the coast in hopes of swinging up one of these elusive creatures. The New Year will see a few rivers open to fishing aswell, giving us anglers even more opportunities to make the connection.  Rain is forecast to return to the North Coast by late next weekend and continue into the early part of the week. It could potentially be enough to blow out a few rivers, but also give a much needed bump to others. It should be an epic 2019 season. Happy New Years from the coast!

All the fixins for a river side lunch

Richard getting bent on the coast

Close encounters of the chrome kind

End of the day, end of the year

Richard with a dime

Swinging for chrome

Here are some comments from guests that fished Eagle Canyon today:"Most of the fish were caught in the morning and in the evening with a streamer and intermediate line. I hooked some fish with a midge under an indicator. Hooked around 20 fish, landed around 16, broke off a couple while indicator fishing. All in all a good day.""Caught many big, some huge, rainbows." 

This photo was forwarded by one of our guests at Eagle Canyon yesterday.Linsey said "Thanks for a great day fishing today!"Carl, another member of the group, said "Fishing was good,a little slow in the afternoon. Wooly Buggers, nymphs both with and without indicators.  Fun day, thank you"

I spent a busman's holiday on the Trinity today with fellow guide Kevin Kay.  I managed to hook and land a 5 pound steelhead on my very first cast, so we were pretty sure I would be skunked the rest of the day.  That's how it went until about 2pm, then my luck changed again.  I landed a small adult wild fish on a rubberlegs, and then a wild 5 pound hen on a "garbage" fly that should have been in a 50 cent bin at your local fly shop.  It was sort of like a psycho prince, but perhaps one tied by a kindergartner.  In any case, it held together and fooled the big fish in the photo a little later on.  We floated about 10 miles of river and only saw two other boats.  Great fishing and few anglers - my favorite conditions!

Andrew with a big Trinity steelhead

I spent today on the Trinity with my very good client Pat. We had overcast skies and mild weather, which made for a very nice day. Our morning started slow, but we managed to hook several nice fish, including a really big fish that straightened the hook!  Conditions are good, there are fish around and fishing pressure is pretty light.

Rivers on the North Coast are seeing their first significant rise of the winter steelhead season. The stage has been set for all rivers on the Redwood Coast to see their first big push of winter steelhead with the increased flows. The Eel was fishing well before the rains, despite being low and clear there were reports of some very nice chromers being caught on the swing. With the recent rise the Eel will remain high and off color for the time being. I just finished a two day swing trip on the Smith with Jay from San Francisco. Although conditions were ideal for swinging one up the river was quiet. Even the gear boats were reporting tough fishing, but with the river projected to peak at 13.6 ft early this week we should see some salty fish making an appearance. December can be hit or miss for a shot at the first winter runs, but now that we're headed into the end of the month with plenty of rain on tap it's game on! 

A perfect winter steelhead on a perfect winter day

Jay braved the rain on the Smith River waiting for the pull

S.Fork Eel River project flows.

Main stem Eel River projected flows

Jay sends one into the bucket

Rod rack

Smith river projected flows

Winter goodies ready for action.

I spent the last two days on the Trinity with my guest Bob. We got pretty wet on Sunday as the first of a series of storms arrived. Fishing was pretty tough, but Bob did land a wild half-pounder. The rain helped bump the flows and also add a bit of color. After a few missed grabs, Bob hooked into a horse that put on an impressive acrobatic show. After several leaps and a little tail-walking, we were close to bringing his beast to net, when it went for one final run that resulting in another impressive leap – but then broke off when it landed. Guess it was giving us the “middle fin.”

The Summer/ Fall Steelhead angling is winding down now on the Trin, we should Start to see a push of Fresh Winter Steelhead right after the first of the year. There are Steelhead in the Trinity from Lewistion to Witchepec right now but it's spoty. My clients this past week have Swung up some nice wild fish but they're working for them...hmmm, sounds alot like Steelheading !I would rate the current angling on the Trinity fair to good dependiong upon your expectations.Merry Christmas and Tight Lines...

Doug V.s Wild One...

Peter Santley, Kevin Kay, Andreas Furhmann and I had the privilege and honor to guide a group of Project Healing Waters veterans on the Lower Sac today. We lucked out with the weather, but the fishing proved to be a little challenging. This was Patrick’s first time fly fishing and he landed two really beautiful fish, and missed a few others! Joe, Patrick’s mentor landed three really nice fish and missed a few others. The other boats also hooked into fish and at the end of the day, all of the veterans had a great time learning to fly fish. Today was not a big numbers day, but the fish we landed made up for it! 

Joe starting things off

Joe with another nice fish

Joe gettin' it done

This is Patrick's first fish on a fly!

Patrick is hooked on fly fishing after today!

I spent the last two days guiding buddies Steve and Ron from the Bay Area.  My plan of staying away from other anglers worked great, except it also kept us away from most of the fish!  We saw no other anglers or boats on day 1 and managed to land a couple of nice wild fish.  Day 2 was fishless except for a lengthy battle with one nice adult fish.  The river is in great shape and I heard better reports from other areas of the river.

Steve with a freshie

Opening Day 2018-19 did not disappoint!  Fishing was excellent most of the day and there were countless times when multiple anglers were hooked up at the same time.  Our fish average 7.2 pounds this year so there are a lot of 10 pound plus fish to be caught.  All of the action today was on medium to large streamers on moderate to fast retrieves.We still have room for 1-2 anglers this Monday Dec 10 and also Dec 27th.Our next open days for a larger group are Jan 2-3-4. 

Tim with the biggest fish of the day

I was on the Trinity today with guests Richard and his nephew Martin. This was Martin’s first time on the Trinity and what an experience he had! He hooked and landed a wild half-pounder within seconds of his very first cast. After backing up to the top of the run, Martin hooked and landed a beautiful wild buck on his second cast! I tried to explain steelheading is NOT this easy – but after another few drifts, he hooked and landed another wild half-pounder! There was a lot of boat pressure today and despite working very hard, Richard and Martin were not rewarded with any more hook-ups.  The flows are back to pre-storm levels. A weak storm is expected tomorrow afternoon, but the next series of storms will arrive late next week and look to bring some measureable rain.

Martin with his first Trinity steelhead!

Spent a day with Jeff fishing the Yuba River. Flows were around 1000 cfs and the water was pretty clear. We had a great day landing fish, all with good size. The dry fly action was awesome but the fish were very finicky! The highlight of the day was hooking into and landing a 25” tank! Big battle! With all the great fishing right now in Northern California, the Yuba is definitely worth a look.

Yuba Tank!

I had a great time as always with my guests Lloyd and Lee on the Lower Sac today. The weather was perfect for early December, and the river is in great shape considering what it looked like last Friday. The morning started off slow, but then things picked up around 11:00. The bite was sporadic, but when we found willing fish – it was on! The bite really turned on for us late in the day, so we ended up having a good day.

Lee with her biggest of the day!

I fished with Steve and Gary from the Sacramento area today.  We made up for a reschedule from last month when the wind was blowing about 30mph.  Conditions were much better today!  The river is in great shape and we had good hatches of PMDs and caddisflies.  We just couldn't get a grab for much of the morning.  Things got better around 1pm and then got really good for about an hour starting around 3pm.  We hooked a lot of hefty rainbows today.  A couple that made it to the net were in the 3lb range.

Quality fish today

The rains that came over the Thanksgiving holiday finally pushed all of our coastal rivers past their low flow threshhold, opening the door to a late fall King fishery. The rains delivered, but the fishing never seemed to kick off. I fished the Smith during what I would call perfect conditions for swinging flies. The river jumped to over eleven feet at the Jed Smith guage and fell to a perfect 8ft by the next morning. Normally 8ft would be low and clear, but all of the leaf litter gave the river a heavy tea stain, an uncharacteristic color for the Smith, which usually runs glacial or gin clear.  Imagine fishing the perfect swing run on the lower Trinity River but you might shake hands with a 20 + pound king. Migrating down the coast some of the smaller systems were in decent shape following the rain. I saw some nice Coho caught on gear and a few Kings rolling but all in all it felt like the fish that were staging to spawn ran up as quickly as they could when the doors swung open. Perhaps due to the prolonged dry weather that persisted thoughout October by the time we did get rain most of the salmon had simply run out of time. The one Jack I did manage to swing up seemed to speak to this. It had obviously been sitting around in the estuary for a while. Now is the time to start looking ahead to the first waves of winter steelhead that always make an appearence in December. More rain is forecast for this weekend and sporadic rain is to follow into next week. If we get another good bump for are coastals it should be game on. Reports of half pounders being caught have come in from the Smith and Eel. A sure sign that the big adults are on their way.   

You know fall is over when there's ice on the seat of your boat

A nice jack on the swing

Andrew Rossow looking for love on the lost coast

A few King flies

I had a great day on the Trinity River today with guests Curtis and Howard.  The river has already dropped down to base flows after our storm last week but there is still a little hint of color in the water.  We found fish throughout our float today and they were definitely moving to the fly.  We hooked almost all of them on our first pass through each run.  We caught a couple of smaller fish, but the rest were all in the 4-8 pound range.  Listening to reports from other guides, it sounds like fishing is good from Lewiston down to Pigeon Point.

Curtis with our best fish of the day

Now that is a big stonefly

Curtis with another nice one