Just spent a few days on the lower Trinity river looking to connect with some fall run steelhead but came up empty handed. On Wednesday I did a guide day with Craig with high hopes of intercepting some moving fish as I had been told that the weir down in Willow Creek had been open for the past two days prior to our float. We got the kinks worked out of his casting by mid morning and were on the hunt for the rest of the day. We ran into some dark King salmon milling around in the likely spots with the hope that there might be some eager steelhead mixed in with them or holding close by but we never did find them. We fished to near dark when Craig finally got a good grab that turned out to be a little trout. Despite the hard fishing we both had an awesome day on the water. The weather was fall at it's finest and the changing leaves amongst the backdrop of the canyon did not disappoint. 

The next day I floated the rest of the way to the takeout with a few good friends and we had similiar results. I always hope to see fish from the boat to reaffirm that these critters are around but after covering nearly 14 miles of river I never saw one spook from a shadowed bank or squirt out of a tailout. Conditions seem to have become stagnant for now on the lower river with the need for rain becoming more and more. Hopefully the wait will not be long.