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.