Well the Steelhead Season is starting to wind down here on the Trinity. It’s been a challenging Season this year on the Trin, between, at what seemed like at times non-stop rain and snow to low fish counts. The one thing this Season has reconfirmed is that like many other things in Nature Steelhead fishing is cyclical, it has it’s high points and low points, having said that some of my clients had outstanding days on the river, right place, right time, nothing that could be predicted other then putting in the time and dedication to the sport.As one Steelhead Season comes to a close another one is just around the corner, not too early to start planning a Steelhead trip to the Lower Klamath ! The Summer Run starts to show in the Lower Klamath in July, I will be focusing my time guiding there in Septemeber and October when the run typically starts to thicken and the crowds start to thin. I use my jet boat to access some of the best swing water in the Lower 48, we use Spey rods and Classic Swing tactics to target these Crome Bright Steelhead, we usually encounter a mix of adults and 1/2 pounders, Hatchery and Wild ! Mild weather and Beautiful suroundings, just hard to beat !

The Trinity continues to fish fairly consistantly for Winter Run Steelhead, most of the fish that I haver encountered over the past week and a half have been in the 3-8 lb class, a mix of wild and hatchery with the vast majotity being wild. Some days we hook 4-6 somedays we get spanked, been averaging about one fish per angler per day. Which I think is to be expected when fishing for Winter Steelhead. The Great news is that a fair number of fish that have been landed lately by my clients have come on the Swing !…Tight Lines !

Once the Trinity setlled down from a giant churning froth of mud and debris I wondered whether there would be any Steelhead around or if they all boogied up into there natal tribs, well the good news is there are quite a few fresh, wild winter run fish the came up under the high water conditions, most are in the 2 -5 lb range but the 1st fish of the day yesterday was a beautiful wild buck in excess of 10lbs. The wheather forecast is wild as well so make a break for it when things settle down for a day or two.

The Trinity fished good yesterday, Dick from Seattle hooked 3 large Steelhead, all on the SWING ! He brought two to hand over 29″ and broke one stout, hot fish off ! We’ve been getting plenty of rain with more on the way, as of this morning the Trinity is blown below Weaverville Creek but looks real good above with about 3′ of visability.

The Trinity blew out on Saturday and by Sunday the upper river was fiahable, the high water has transported the leading edge of our Winter run up and Dick from Seattle swung up a bright one today. Water temps are hovering in the low to mid fourties but dedication and persistance pay dividends to the avid Stellheader !

We’ve had plenty of weather up on the Trinity over the last several days, heavy snow on Wenesday night with snow levels down to 1000 feet or lower, that led to into a cold drizzle Thursday, Friday was fairly mild until a heavy rain started around 4 pm and lasted through the night. As of this morning the river high and chocolate brown and is blown out below Rush creek, you might be able to find a little fishable water up around Lewiston.I guided Larry and Henry from the East Bay over the past two days, Thursday we fished indicators from the boat and came up bagles, Friday we swithced to swing fishing with Spey rods and both guys were able to hook into adult steelhead but unfourtunatly weren’t able to bring either fish to hand. It was Awesome to see that the boys where able to swing up a couple of Steelhead in 40 degree water !I would think that the upper river above Weaver Creek should be fishable by tomorrow. Tight Lines !

The Trinity continues to give up a few fish here and there, saw a few more fish on the move yesterday, we had a few encounters and Jay swung up a nice one at the final run of the day ! Those memories stick with you for a while…the weather is forecast to be realatively mild for this coming week.

Fishing continues to be up and down on the Trinity, today was an Up Day ! Mark and Jay swung up four adult Steelhead today, I think that could be considered a good a day of swing fishing any where, especialy this Season on the Trin. As I said before the best fishing reports are the ones you make yourself, get out there, there is plenty of Season left, we should start to see the first of our Winter run around the Holidays…Tight Lines !

The conditions on the Trinity continue to be good with good air and water temps and clarity, still not a lot of Steelhead around though. There seems to be more fish upriver in the Lewiston to Bucktail area, down river the Steelhead seem to move through fairly quickly, if your in the right area at the right time you could have some pretty good fishing ! Over the past two weeks I’ve had days were we’ve hooked as many as 5 adults in a day to days were we didn’t get touched. The weather forecast is calling for more rain over the coming week, hopefully that will jump-start the fishing a bit. Tight Lines.

I have given the fishing on the Trinity an “okay” rating but to be more accurate it’s been everything from Slow to Great ! There are fish throughout the system but the numbers are not what we have seen over the past decade, reminds me of fishing the Trinity in the 90s, or better yet “Steelheading” not Trout fishing for Steeelhead. Some days we have zero encounters, other day’s we have multiple encounters and bring several to hand.The only given is that you cant catch a Steelhead from your Couch ! Tite Lines !