Fly #31: Steelhead Hairwing

After a trip to the local fly fishing shop, I loaded up on some material and hooks to tie some hairwing steelhead flies. Using a small size 10 salmon/steelhead hook, I began a tying frenzy.

This is one of my first attempts. Using a Tiemco 7999 hook, this fly is decorated with a silver tinsel butt, a red guinea tail and hackle, and a red bucktail wing. I added a little flash upfront with a gold tinsel nose. The dubbing is black with wire ribbing.

I've heard that the Trinity River steelhead prefer smaller hairwing flies. That will explain why I chose the rather small sized hook.

Fly #30: Thanks Stripes!

For this fly, I'd like to thank my two cats, Boots and Stripes. I believe the fur came from Stripes, although I can't say for sure. All I can say is that it works great for dubbing.

Tied on a size 12, this rather simple soft hackle has the cat fur dubbing (shorter stiffer hairs found on one of their beds) and natural colored partridge for the hackle. Copper wire provides the ribbing.

Fly #29: Attractor Soft Hackle

Here is another attractor fly that has been working rather well for me on the Lower Stan. This one is on a size 10 scud hook and features silver tinsel on the rear, red dubbing, olive marabou, and blue guinea hackle.

This is another attempt at crossing regular soft hackles with features that make steelhead flies successful. Brighter colors and marabou. Not tested on the anadromous fish themselves, however, it does work on your everyday trout.

Fly #28: Reverse Spiders

You've got your flymphs, soft hackles, spiders, and now reverse spiders. I can't remember where I first read about these, however, a month ago I decided to tie a few.

They are almost the same as your regular spider, except for the obvious. The hackles are tied forward. I doubt I'll make a habit of tying these guys. Not that they are difficult, but tying a knot on the concealed eyes while on the river isn't exactly easy. Below is one that has successfully caught a trout or two with.

Piercings

While on the Trinity last week, I was swinging a small fly downriver when it got hooked on a rock about thirty feet below me. I'm yanking on the line trying to dislodge it, when all of a sudden "doink", it comes free and the line and fly come flying back towards me.

Before I could duck, the next thing I know, I have a size 10 soft hackle stuck deeply in the INSIDE of my nose!! Immediately my eyes start watering as I try to gently pull it out. Not so easy to get my big fingers in there gripping a tiny hook bend.

For what seemed like an eternity, I'm pulling on this thing having visions of walking into the emergency room with a fly for a nose piercing.

I told myself just to grit my teeth and yank it out. I did. And it hurt! But the fly was out and I was back to fishing minus the embarrassment of having the whole world see my new piercing.

And thank God for barbless hooks.

Trip Report: Trinity (Day Two)

While it was still dark, I drove from Douglas City back to Lewiston. Because of the success I had yesterday, I decided to return to a spot a few hundred yards upstream of the bridge.

Once again, I was catching trout pretty regularly. They were in the 10-16 inch range and put up a decent fight. I really enjoyed this section because it has such a variety of water type. There is pocket water to precision cast into, then below a few nice runs to step/swing through. I hooked a few larger fish that broke off in the wider sections. Whether they were steelhead, salmon, or just a large trout, I'll never know. They were holding in both seams and behind rocks that lined the river floor.

Unlike the day before, I worked my way further down river past the Lewiston Bridge. The good looking water was difficult to get to, so I didn't stick around too long trying to find a way to access it. I didn't want to waste the best fishing hours. After a climb back to the road, I made my way to the car.

Driving up river, I got out underneath the Lewiston Dam to wade the section near the hatchery. I spent a couple hours here until the sun started to heat everything back up. Again, I caught plenty of fish under 18 inches. I could see both salmon and steelhead holding in the current as well as a few jumping out. Even caught a glimpse of a handful chasing my flies, but nothing more than a grab from any of the big boys resulted.

Realizing that I left my water bottle at the car, I had to get out of the water to replenish. It was now past 11am and the heat was already intense.

I drove up river past the Lewiston Dam all the way to the Trinity Dam about 12 miles away. What a beautiful drive. An excellent area for fishing slow water if you're into that. However, I made the drive just for the scenery, not for fishing. I wasn't disappointed!

My memory is a little foggy, but I believe I went back downstream and parked at another access in between the Lewiston Dam and the Lewiston Bridge. There was really only one access point I hadn't visited yet and this was by far the best place in my opinion to be. I'm sorry that I didn't try it earlier. There was access to a very long stretch of water that included riffles, wide broken surface water, and a little bit of pocket water. The whole stretch had very large fish jumping almost continuously, even during the heat of the day. I caught a few, but it was largely quiet for a long stretch of time.

The midday heat is a good time to practice casting. I find a joy in two handed casting that I never really had for overhead casting. Whether you are doing a double spey, single spey, snap-t, snake roll, or any of the other type of spey cast, there are so many elements that can be tweaked to increase distance, accuracy, or efficiency. The possibilities are endless and getting the proper moves committed to muscle memory makes it much easier when you are casting to actual fish. Besides, I'm a very technical person by nature, and I get a kick out of analyzing every nuance of something to try and improve.

During the this time, I decided to see how far I could cast across. While river left, I was pushing out almost 85 feet of line cack handed. I think I could of gone a little further, but my flies were hitting the trees on the opposite bank. The heat gave me an opportunity to focus more on my mechanics without worrying about catching a fish.

As the temp started cooling down, I transitioned from playing around to actual fishing. I saw no reason to leave the area considering this looked like the best water I've seen so far on these two days.

As evening came, the activity picked up as bugs started filling the air. I tied on a small winged wet fly and caught plenty of small fish. A few larger ones put on a decent fight, but nothing that really bent the rod over. As the evening wore on, the fish become even more aggressive and if I didn't catch a fish on every cast, I at least got a pull. There were times that the fish were attacking my fly line as it hit the water.

I swapped flies quite a few times trying to see what would work within this hatch and what wouldn't. Most everything small and white performed. Whether it was a soft hackle, a winged wet, or a dry. Everything comes full circle and eventually I went back to a winged wet which seemed to work the best.

I made a cast along a shelf into deeper water as night was fast approaching. The fly swung until it became hung up on something. Or was it? The line started shaking ever so lightly. Either there was a fish on or the current was making the line flutter. I pulled on the line gently and it seemed to be stuck on something since there was no reaction on the other end. I pulled harder trying to dislodge the fly only to find out it wasn't hung up after all. There was a violent shake and my rod bent to an almost 90 degree angle. Something big was on the other end.

Next thing I heard was my reel spinning at high speed as the end of the line shot down river. The fish stopped on his own about 50 feet away, I put a little more pressure on the line and before I could let out a “yeehaaw”, the line shot straight back at me almost hitting me in the face. The line snapped right where the tippet connected to the leader.

I cast out a few more times hoping that I'd somehow luck out and get his interest. Unfortunately, it was now so dark that I couldn't really see anything beyond my hands and decided this was a good time to end my two days on the Trinity.

All in all it was a great introduction to the river. I'll certainly be back. Actually, I'll be returning in the next few weeks as more steelhead push into the system. Although I didn't catch any monsters, I did catch more than 40 fish ranging in size from 5 to 17 or so inches to make this a very exciting trip.

Trip Report: Trinity (Day One)

This is the first post of two for a trip to the Trinity. As you'll read, when I visit a river for the first time, I like to go to as many fishing locations as possible to try and get a feel for the best water. This means less time in one area in favor of more locations. As you'll discover reading these posts, I literally covered miles of access points and river frontage. Next time I visit, I'll know exactly where to go.

I generally don't like to travel too far for a day of fishing. For that reason, the Trinity has always been skipped over. At 250+ miles in one direction, it stops making sense for a day trip. After hearing so many stories, I couldn't wait any longer and since my wife was out of town with our son, I took advantage of the time with a two day fishing adventure.

After driving more than 4 hours, I arrived at 4am to the Steel Bridge Rd access. It was so dark out that the stars were absolutely stunning. There were so many of them, something I hadn't seen in a long time. It was almost mesmerizing. Beautiful.

I started gearing up in the dark and was on the river with just enough light to keep from falling in. This was an early start to a spectacular two days of fishing.

The length of river I had available for fishing at this particular access was limited. I covered a section of riffles about 200 yards very thoroughly. Catching only a few rainbows under 10 inches, the action wasn't particularly noteful. However, something I did witness that is pretty rare at the rivers I usually frequent, but ended up becoming almost routine on these two days were the large fish jumping out of the water. Here we had one that kept proudly showing his length to be clearly over 24 inches long. He was pretty darn fat too. He could easily clear the water and made a huge splash on his return. I tried everything in my power and a box of flies to catch him, but it just wasn't meant to be. Eventually, after an hour or so, I gave up and went down river.

I found a few more places to get to the river downstream off of Steel Bridge before reaching 299. Literally in people's backyards, I was swinging soft hackles and winged wet flies on a three-fly-rig. In this one area that looked quite fishy, I was catching 10 inchers on every cast. So much so, it started to become annoying. I was trying to get the bigger fish that surely were out there. But these little guys were attacking my fly with vengeance. Time to leave.

The next planned access point was Poker Bar Rd. I didn't find any good spots to reach the river, so I didn't actually get out of the car. Upon reviewing my trip with satellite images, I must of missed the road I was looking for that paralleled the river. Oh well, maybe next time.

It was still relatively early, so I made my way downriver by car to Douglas City. The riffle underneath the bridge was nice looking water. Unfortunately, the hot part of the day had already begun. Fish were staying down and not interested in eating. I pulled exactly zero fish out of this section. Although nice looking, I'll skip over it in favor of better water on my next trip. Being right under the highway, it probably gets heavy pressure too.

The next few hours took me to the miles along Steiner Flat Road. This area has a lot of good water. Deep holes, long riffles and runs. Still being the hot part of the day, I still managed to catch some rainbows under 15 inches. It was somewhere along this stretch that I saw a dead steelhead floating in the water. He was more than 34 inches long! This only confirms what I found out earlier. This river holds big fish! This was one of the better sections and deserves more attention next time. Although accessibility is difficult in areas, it is prime.

There was some discrepancy whether the "fly fishing only" section of the Trinity was open or not. I could of sworn I read that it closed on August 31st. However, the local fly shop said that that was a typo. I was willing to travel the 12 or so miles upstream to find out. Upon arriving, I was happy to see that it was posted clearly that I had until September 15th to fish. No need to worry.

My first stop in this section was below the Lewiston dam. This section runs along the hatchery and although isn't the prettiest water you'll find, it is loaded with fish. A lot of big fish. There were trout, steelhead, and salmon sharing the water. Once again, big fish were everywhere. Some of the Salmon looked really worn out and I went out of my way to avoid them. The last thing I wanted to do was catch one of these guys. Not only was I successful at that, I was also successful in not catching much of anything else! A few trout here and there. Technically they were steelhead, but to me, steelhead means much more than the official definition you'll find in the DFG books.

It was now late afternoon and I decided to head downstream. Closer to the Lewiston bridge, but upstream several hundred yards. The river was incredibly beautiful in this section. I seemed to catch trout after trout. Mostly smaller guys around 10 inches that were caught on various nymphs and soft hackles on the swing or high sticked through the pocket water.

Once again, large 24-30+ inch fish were jumping from the water. I tried for a while to nab one, but I was given the cold shoulder (fin?). It really was humbling to see these fish. I don't think I've ever been on a river and seen dozens of very large fish jumping like this. In one particular pool, they were everywhere. Getting a good cast out to them was difficult and I just couldn't get it done to where they were.

The water below this pool deserved some careful casting to the dozens of little nooks and crannies that looked to hold fish. When the pocket water ended and the river opened up, I did the step and swing with soft hackles. By using various spey casts, I could cover this river thoroughly - even though my back was against the brush and the river was 60 or more feet wide. I was rewarded with a lot of catches. Mostly rainbows, some wild and some hatchery, but also caught a couple of browns.

The sun was coming down and I made a decision to head back upstream to the dam. I covered it more carefully this time, but the big fish continued to ignore me. Fortunately, I caught some 15-18 inch fish that fought hard. One quick hook up with a large fish did take place, but he broke me off after a few seconds. Was he a larger steelhead? We'll never know.

While perched on a rock, I bent down to brace myself as I scrambled down. My sunglasses, which were in stuffed into my chest pack popped out and into the river. They weren't needed at this point, since it was now getting dark, but what about tomorrow?! For someone with very sensitive eyes to bright sun (blond hair/blue eyes), this was a bigger deal than it should of been. In an effort to get them back before they disappeared forever, I shoved my arm into the water and submerged my upper torso to try and grab them. I missed. Not only am I completely soaked from neck to toe, some steelhead is sporting a cool set of shades.

I fished for a bit longer, before it got too dark. While navigating the river back to my car, I tripped on an unseen submerged log and almost dunked myself again. For such a hot day, it was now pretty chilly out and this certainly didn't help. I shivered myself back to the car to end my day.

Stay tuned for day number two.