The conditions over the last three weeks on the Trinity have changed little, We have had a number of fronts push through but none have delivered much rain, we need inches not tenths ! With the low water both the Steelhead and anglers continue to be stacked up in a few locations making for some tough angling. Having said that any given day can produce ! Spey casting and swinging flies may open up more of the river to you and can offer less crowded fishing, may not account for more hookups but can make for a more pleasurable day ! One big rain event will change everything !

I had a Great day yesterday with husband and wife Hayden and Sara from Woodland. Fishing started a little slow but quickly picked up when we encountered a fresh push of 6-8 lb hatchery steelhead, all bucks ! I think the little bit of rain we have had recently is getting fish to move and currently there are good numbers from Lewiston to Pigeon Point.

Despite extremely low water fresh steelhead continue to trickle in to the Trinity, seems to be about a 50/50 mix of hatchery and wild. The flows have been UNDER 300 cfs in the Junction City, the lowest I think in more then a decade or more ! We’ve been boating a fair amount of adults considering the conditions.

It’s that time of the year when thousands of Steelhead Smolt’s gather to work there way out to the ocean, at times it’s nearly impossible to swing or drift your flies through a run without them being attacked. This will pass soon, it is a great sign for the future and a sign of a healthy river. Steelhead are currently spread from Willow Creek to Lewiston but not in any great numbers yet, if you can find a piece of un-pressured water your chances of success improve greatly. My November / December schedule is starting to fill, prime dates are limited, hope to see you this season.

Started my Steelhead season off on the Trinity today…John swung up an Awesome Wild Buck on a small traditional fly mid-river today, Great way to start the season ! I’m sure many if not most all of you are doing or have done a rain dance, all I have to say is dance HARDER !

The Trinity has been classified to be under a “Dry Water Year” and the annual release schedule has been set and starts tomorrow. The flows out of Lewiston ramp up tomorrow to 500 CFS and peak May 5th and 6th at 8500 CFS and ramp down to 450 CFS through the early Fall. 8500 CFS will be nice to clear the river out and move things around, I’m just a little worried about the amount of water currently in Trinity Lake if we have another week winter. We had a fair amount of rain up here early in the Winter but there is next to nothing in the Trinity Alps as far as any kind of snow pack. I feel the fishery will benefit in the short run from this release schedule and only time will tell if the “Powers at Be” should have thrown out the rule book and held onto more water for future needs ! As for the fishing, it is currently slow on the Trinity but the Lower Sac has been fishing Good to Great !

Clients, George and John from San Diego had a good couple of days on the Trinity, we ran a couple different floats in the JC area and connected with multiple wild adult Steelhead to 7 lbs, 1/2 pounders and browns . The fishing pressure has been fairly light and I think the fishing for Steelhead should remain decent through the first week of March. We could use a little rain, the flows are OK but we’ve lost that beautiful Steelhead Green Color we’ve had since Christmas and the river is now running Trinity Clear !

The Trinity fished very well for us today, steady action all day with adult Steelhead to 10lbs, got away!!! , 1/2 pounder’s and browns to 20″, a regular smorgasbord and very little pressure. Throw in an awesome beautiful warm day and it doesn’t get much better!! Here are a few pics from the days action….

The Steelheading on the Trinity through the month of January has been fairly solid, the month started with some of the best fishing of the year and fresh winter steelhead have continued to filter in throughout the month. The weather has remained mild and looks like we have some rain on the way which should pick the fishing up a bit. Looking like the Steelheading should hold up through February and February typically has some of the best dry fly action of the year for both big wild browns and the occasional Steelie !

The heavy rains around Christmas and the Bitter Cold that followed put fishing off for a week or so but the fishing has rebounded and river conditions are pretty darn good. The heavy rains of December have muddied up Trinity Lake which in turn has added just the right amount of color into the river, we have enjoyed fishing the Trinity in a nice shade of Steelhead green, something we don’t often see. The icing on the cake is there are a good number of wild adults around and quite a few hatchery “chrome” half pounders. Current forecast are calling for some rain by the end of the week which should freshin up the river and the fishing !