Fall run showing

The fall run Salmon and Steelhead are starting to trickle in the upper river from Del Loma to Junction City.Catching Salmon on plugs and roe and Steelhead on Hiltons ,October Caddis and berlap patterns.

Here are a couple shots from yesterday

Fall run Chinook showing

Trinity River; The upper river is finally showing some fall Chinook with a mix of Steelhead and a lot of Jacks.The salmon are  primarily taking fresh roe.

Lewiston Lake; Lewiston Lake is still fishing well. Fish the lower half of the lake using olive leaches in the morning and and soft hackles on slime lines in the afternoon.

Springers slowing

Trinity River; The spring run Chinook are finally coming to an end, we are averaging about 2-3 hookups a day. The good news is the fall run is right on there tails, and the run is looking strong with little pressure from commercial fishing. We are expecting them to arrive up river in a couple of weeks. We are catching a few adult Steelhead and browns here and there, mostly on leaches.

Lewiston lake: is fishing very well, we are hooking 10-20 fish a day stripping olive or brown woolly buggers.These fish were planted earlier this spring in the 12-16 inch range and are now fat and in the 13-18 inch  range. They are real firm and a lot of fun to catch.

RIVER RECEDING/SALMON SHOWING

I made it back from Mexico in one piece. The fires started the day after I left and they are still burning. The smoke has really decreased a lot, but depending on which way the wind is blowing it still gets smokey.

I had a trip on Sunday and we hooked our first Salmon of the season. She was about 13lbs and nickel bright. She put up a great fight, and almost had to chase her down river.The river is flowing at 2000 cfs and will decrease 250 cfs a day til it reaches 700 cfs for a week, then it will ramp down to 450 cfs where it will remain for the rest f the Summer. We also have been catching some nice summer run Steelhead in the 4-6 lb  on leaches. Here is a shot of the salmon

 

High Water

The Flow of the Trinity is currently at 5000 cfs and is unfishable until the water drops to around 1500 cfs which won’t be until June. I am getting ready to head over to the Yuba River for a few weeks, giving Herb Burton a hand with his shad camps. I probably will not update my fishing report until I get back. Lewiston Lake has been fishing OK, due to several thousand trout planted by DFG a couple of weeks ago. The fish are in the 12″-16″ range and are a lot of fun. I had a  couple of fun days on the East fork of the Trinity where it flows into Trinity Lake last week, catching bass and Lake trout on leaches and black ant patterns.

08 flow schedule out

The 08 winter is being catagorized as a normal moisture year, meaning we are going to get an average amount of water released from Trinity and Lewiston dams. Currently the release is 280 cubic feet per second (cfs). The simulated spring release will  increase to 6,000 cfs starting next week and will quickly ramp to 6,000 cfs for about 2 weeks and then will slowly ramp back down about 50 cfs a day until it will reach it’s summer mandated minimum flow of 450 cfs around the middle of July.  It will remain at 450 cfs until the middle of Oct. where it will then reduce to around 300 cfs for the winter months.We are still getting some pretty nice late run Steelhead on dries and swinging crystal wooley buggers. Once they start the heavy realeases I will focus on Lewiston lake.

Here are some shots of Mr. Dash Wada in action this last weekend.

    

SURFACE BITE FINALLY!

We are starting to get a few fish on the surface, the warm afternoons are starting to pay off. The stone flies are still not popping in any numbers, but we are getting most of the sub-surface fish on them. We are getting most of our surface fish on #12-14 May flies. The hatchery has started their annual juvenile release and they are infiltrate the upper river on their migration down. These juveniles are a nuisance to experienced fly fisherman as it is difficult to get to the adult fish through them, but  are a lot of fun to catch for kids learning to fish. Here are some photos from last week.

   

Steelhead mixed

The Steelheading on the Trinity has been up and down. The warm afternoon temprature is resulting in water temp drops due to snow melt,  keeping our bug hatches down. We are usually getting a few fish on the surface by now. (Any day it will happen). We have been getting most of our fish swinging #8 #10 golden and olive stones. It has been so nice to get some warmer temps, I did not think my feet would ever warm up.

Here are some photos from the last few days.

   

Steelies in the snow

I got back from Hawaii with a foot of snow on the ground and then it snowed another foot that night, power went out for 24hrs and I had to get ready for a trip the next day. I couldn’t get out of my driveway with the boat as it was burried, so we walked in a few spots in snow up to our knees. We still had a great time. I got the boats dug out the next day in time for my next trip. The upper river is full of spawning fish and downers,  we did see a few fresh fish but did not land one. We landed all our fish swinging size ten golden stones with a sinking tip line. The snow is beautiful and well needed, filling the lakes and thinning out a lot of the boat and bank traffic. Here are some shots of the snow and a trip I had yesterday.

   

Winter storms arrive

The recent string of storms have finally arrived bringing in snow and a few new fish. I caught my first winter run Steelhead 2 weeks ago, but they are still far and few between. We are catching a lot of fish that are either spawning or getting ready too. Most of the fish are still in good shape, we are also  catching a few nice browns. The snow melt has really cooled the water down to a chilly 37 degrees, so the best bite has been in the afternoon, golden stones size 10 have been my go to fly, fishing the deeper riffles. Here are some recent photos of some nice fish and my new drift boat I just got. I am taking a couple of weeks off and getting my feet warm somewhere closer to the equator. My next report won’t be until Feb.