First trip to Trinity (non-yak)

I've been working way too much lately plus holiday madness.  Fortunately, a buddy asked if I wanted to join him chasing steelhead on the Trinity.  It took a couple tries to find a hole in both of our schedules, but we ended up heading there right behind last week's storm.

As we rolled into Redding, there was snow on the ground in many places along the side of the road.  As we got closer to where we were staying (Indian Creek Lodge), the snow became much more plentiful:



We had cold temps (mid-30's), overcast skies, and a storm had just come through.  We had high hopes for the trip.

Neither of us had ever fish the Trinity before so part of the trip was about exploring where to get on the river and we tried a bunch of spots from Cemetery Hole to several things downstream from Douglas City. 

We were staying two nights so we drove out early Monday morning and had time to try the first few spots before darkness set in.  Nothing was working so on the last hole, I tried a fly that was as close as I had to what the lodge owner told us was working for somebody else recently.
 
We were drifting a hole not far from the lodge when I decided maybe I wasn't nymphing deep enough (since I hadn't snagged lately).  I adjusted my rig a bit and the next drift it was fish-on!
 
Landed my first ever brown (15").  It danced on the surface several times as we played...put on a good show:




After that, I swapped ends of the pool with my buddy and before long, he hooked and landed a 23" hatchery steelie on a fairly similar fly.
 
By then, it was too dark to try anywhere else so we headed to dinner in Weaverville.  Ate at the Nugget (good burger and good pie).
 
Next day, we figured we had it dialed in but the fish didn't agree.  Tried several more new places without even a nibble.  About Noon-ish, something started rising just upstream from me.  We didn't see any bugs on the water so figured it was a midge hatch.
 
Drifting nymphs past those fish produced nothing (it wasn't a big enough hatch for them to normally get that picky).  I switched to the smallest dry fly that would fit on the 8 lb mono leader I was using and fairly soon had my first smolt in hand.
 
Another one of those and my fingers were numb!  Time for a lunch break then on to yet another spot.  We ended the day just above cemetery hole and saw a couple fish but couldn't buy a bite.
 
Next morning, started where we left off and within the first few casts, my buddy was fighting something clearly better than the 23" steelie from the first day.  No surface dancing for this fish..finally beached it and it was a nice hatchery steelhead.  Good color and a good six inches longer than the prior steelie.
 
Mid-day, the hatch came off again, this time we could see mayflies on the surface and nymphing wasn't working for me.  So, what the heck, back to the dry fly the smolts like and sure enough, landed more of them (best was only 12" but it beat getting skunked).
 
I had one "weird" catch on the last day.  I had some slack line in the water and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a small fish jump over my line (the second time on this trip that this had happened). I think it's the smolt's version of mooning a fisherman! 
 
But somehow, this fish managed to get tangled in the slack line I had on the water.  I pulled it up and it turns out, the fish had broken off somebody else's rig and there was maybe a foot of mono still tied to the hook in its throat.
 
The other end of the mono had tangled up a big blob of moss/algae and the mono/moss blob didn't clear my slack line when the fish went over it.
 
I was able to "land" the tangled fish fairly easily.  The hook was in its throat and didn't seem to want to budge.  I'm figuring it was still barbed so all I could do was cut the mono at the hook to free the fish from the weight of the algae and set it free. It was maybe a 9" smolt so no point in inviting it to dinner.
 
About mid-day, we were wading in really shallow water and my buddy spotted a dying salmon in maybe six inches of water.  We didn't touch it of course, but since my camera is water proof, I was able to get this pic:



We saw a much larger salmon not far upstream.  It dwarfed the 29" steelie from that morning!

I think my brown, plus all the smolts I landed didn't add up to either of the steelies my buddy landed but it was still a blast. Not bad for a first trip up there.

WTG on the "fly rod"! Nymphing is not as easy as dry fly. Congrats on your 1st brown. Ain't she a beauty? Gotta love the fight. What pattern did it take?

LL

The fly was about a size 14 or 16 hare's ear sort of thing.  Not an actual gold-ribbed hare's ear nymph (that'd be too easy).  Gold bead head, tan-ish dubbing, fuzzy, etc.

My buddy had a similar fly with a wire body that's a little flashier but about the same color, size, etc.  I guess steelies like a little bling this time of year... 
 
I don't have the fly with me right now (I'm on the road for the holidays).  When I get back, I can post a pic if anybody really wants it.  By now, the fish have changed to wanting something different to eat most likely. 

Thanks for the entertaining report.  Way to have some fun and explore new territory in the cold weather.   

Thanks for the great read this morning on Christmas day. Congrats on the brown.

Jedmo

Thanks for the kind words.

I was poking through pictures from Christmas morning and started wandering back in time to other recent pics...found a good view of the river from the Trinity trip that's worth sharing since it captures the conditions very nicely:


 

Some buddies are headed there next week but I'll be doing family stuff (and being very jealous of them).

Back in the day I would fish the Trinity every Veterans weekend.
Tent camping and it was COLD!
We stayed at Steel Bridge. I hooked all my steelies on a glow bug.

Congrats on getting out!!! The Trinity is a sweet river!!!!

Badog

Beautiful pics.  Haven't fished there since I was at HSU...might  have to go back.

Gosh guys,

"Steel Bridge", the lodge, what memeories that brought up.

My uncle used to live in the cabins right under the Douglas City bridge and I used to fish up there a lot as a kid. I got my first salmon under that bridge. I've caught a lot of big brown trout as well as a couple of steelies too. Still as beautiful as I remembered it. Thanks Sean for the pictures.  I actually had salmon run me down river,from the bridge all the to the end of "trailer park swim hole." I'd come back exhausted battered and bruised, but I won the battle.

Just the pics of snow and you in the water is enough to send me to the cafe' for a cup of hot chocolate&thaw out!
I don't know anything about flying, but i do know it's hard work and from the read, you guys did have some good action in unfirmillar waters, resulting in:
A great trip! and thanks for sharing it!

If Tote says its' COLD..it must have been more like FREEZING!

Love that last shot.