Trinity River 9/22-23

The drift boat is staying at home, my truck is broke down and won't be fixed for a couple more weeks. You see a white subaru at lone pine or any other hole, like "fig tree hole" (I think I saw that location in one of your photos and a few other locations that I recognize) you better stop and fish, there's always plenty of room for you at any hole I'm fishing, well maybe....lol. See ya up there.
Pete

Thanks for the report.  I should be around lone pine hole this friday the 27th. What clayman said, last weekend before the bait robbers are released then it's a 2 to 3 week wait.        Fishing Kimtu down I believe is not allowed for recreational fishermen, was shut down last year by the Hoopa tribe.

See you out there Pete  .  Are you taking the boat?  I'll be making my usual rounds in the middle river: Helena all the way down to Cedar Flat.  And of course a stop at Lone Pine, unless you're already on it by the time I get there  .

Keep an eye out for my white dodge and cabover. My old man and I will be flinging feathers(heard the mepps hatch was good too) up and down 299 and hwy 96 for a few days too. Find me and I'll buy the beer

I screwed up, it's Tish a Tang down stream that is closed to the recreational fisherman not Kimtu, sorry about that. I'll definitely be looking for ya....can't pass up free beer.

I'll be in the Junction City to Del Loma stretch on Saturday also, look for the 4Runner w/ rack/stickers. 

I'll have to write down the rig descriptions with associated names before I go to make sure I'm not dropping onto some non-NCKAer's hole  .

Good stuff Ben, hope to see you out there somewhere on Saturday!  My rig is a red Ford Ranger with a silver TracRac kayak rack over the bed.  I'll most likely be leaving Chester in the wee hours of Friday morning, hoping to be on the water between 7 and 8am, then fishing and camping until Sunday around noon.  Will probably camp at Swede Flat again for at least one night since it's free and there's good water nearby.  Then, I'll go wherever the fish are  .  It helps to be flexible when chasing the steel.

After hitting the lower Klamath last week, we swung up to the Trinity in search of some steel. The lower Klamath was ABSOLUTLY DEAD! First time I ever left before I had to there... The Trinity was not much better for me. I think I was above the run. I fished around pigeon point and above. I landed one wild 6#er  and broke off another one. That was it... Nothing rolling. Saw a few in a deep hole that was too dangerous to scale down and fish. Only a couple salmon also. Heard there was a push (probably when Chris was up there) earlier, and supposed to be some below. Timing is everything with that game... good luck boyz

Awesome, hopefully the mouth busts open, would really get some fish moving.

All this talk has me daydreaming about how to get a yak on it...

 

It'd be an anchor show, and it's almost purely an ego trip to even consider it. 

 

If I weren't heading to Sac this weekend for son's soccer tourney I'd try to show up and paddle it.

Best of luck.   

Eric not to thread jack, but how old is your son? My son play D3 and D1 soccer,  but Redding has a hard time going on after u16. My son went to ODP with a kid from over there, that made the team! Luckly my son was cut on the last round! Way intense!!!! They call the kid Pikachu ??? Last I heard he was in Europe on a developmental team, he would be 17 now.
Jeff

After hitting the lower Klamath last week, we swung up to the Trinity in search of some steel. The lower Klamath was ABSOLUTLY DEAD! First time I ever left before I had to there... The Trinity was not much better for me. I think I was above the run. I fished around pigeon point and above. I landed one wild 6#er  and broke off another one. That was it... Nothing rolling. Saw a few in a deep hole that was too dangerous to scale down and fish. Only a couple salmon also. Heard there was a push (probably when Chris was up there) earlier, and supposed to be some below. Timing is everything with that game... good luck boyz

Thanks for the report Jonesz.  A buddy of mine reported the same thing about the lower Klamath this weekend: slow slow SLOW!  They had six lines in the water over two days, and only landed one fish.  Absolutely dismal, and they were fishing from a jetboat.  So either the bulk of the salmon run is running very late this year, or there's no "bulk" at all and the run estimate is way off.  There was a push of steelhead around Pigeon two weeks ago...but that was two weeks ago, and those fish could very well be to Douglas City by now.  I'm not holding my breath on getting many salmon this year in the Trinity.  At least not any that I'd want to keep.

All this talk has me daydreaming about how to get a yak on it...

 

It'd be an anchor show, and it's almost purely an ego trip to even consider it. 

 

Eric, I've kayak fished several sections of the Trinity.  Del Loma, Hawkins Bar, Willow Creek, etc.  I think the Willow Creek section is the most conducive to it: long pools with wide gravel bars make it ideal for a boat.  In the Del Loma and Hawkins Bar sections, I'll typically use the kayak just as transportation between good-looking bank fishing spots.  The anchor is extremely helpful on this river, especially if you hook up on a fish in a tailout just about a rapid  .

One of my favorite kayak floats is Hawkins Bar to South Fork Trinity.  I'll often make that a 2-day float, camping out on a river bar adjacent to a SWEET riffle-run-pool that's almost a guarantee for fish, for one night.  I've done it three times I think, and have also squeezed it into a couple day trips.  You see very few anglers in this stretch due to access, and drift boaters have to take out waaaay down at Kimtu or Big Rock, a 13 mile float.  Taking out lightweight kayaks at South Fork results in a much more manageable 7-8 mile float.

My boy's on U12, Jeff.

That sounds like a fun run, Chris.  We used to tube from Gray's Falls to Hawkins Bar, and once we tubed from Hawkins Bar down to Willow Creek, but that was a LONG day.  Did see some nudies though...   

If you want to float that any of the trinity, I'd be down. I havent fished it much but I have floated by kayak or inflatable Helena to willow creek minus the gorge. Hayden to cedar is not too hard, del loma section and hawkins to either Salyer or south fork are really nice floats as you get away from the roads and, as you've said, there is very little pressure because access is limited. 2 Day would be fun, could bring the inflatable as it can haul all the coolers and gear and what not. Dont want the yaks waited down, might end up with a hole in a scupper from bottoming out in a shallow section, DAMHIK.