Trinity River Fly Fishing Report

Dave Neal, Reel Adventures Guide Service

The rain dances are working, keep it up! The Trinity River region received a solid amount of much needed rain these past few weeks.

These storms have been lining up perfectly, dropping impressive amounts of rain in short periods, but then letting up just long enough for the river to heal and drop back down and avoid blowing out. I’m simply amazed at the number of fishable days we’ve had in the last few weeks considering the impressive rainfall totals that have been recorded in Northern California to date.

The Trinity River is a tailwater fishery famous for receiving and withstanding impressive rain events while staying in shape and remaining fishable at least somewhere.  Usually, a 12-hour window or less of calm weather is enough to get the river on the drop. This is a great benefit for steelhead anglers in California trying to plan a quick winter fishing trip. As you get more familiar with the river you will find there are plenty of wading opportunities in the upper river from Lewiston through the Steelbridge area, when the lower river is too big.

As far as my fish report… Each day has been completely different and conditions are changing all the time. In the last ten days it’s been all over the board. Some days we fish our ass off for 1 or 2 fish while the very next day we might connect to a half dozen or even more. It’s steelhead fishing and if you were to ask 10 anglers how their day went you would get 10 differing responses, but all would probably agree – they’d rather be fishing than not!!

We are definitely seeing more fish of the anadromous-with-adipose variety and less and less of the clipped-fin variety. With all this weather we should see more winter wild steelhead from here on out (the real fish). We are definitely experiencing a dynamic system this year with a lot of variable conditions. I love every minute of it!!

Only a few available dates for December and they are 22 & 23… **Update I might have a cancellation for this weekend 20, 21 so call me ASAP if interested.

Other open dates are: January 2-5, 21 and February 2, 9-13, 17, 18, 25, 26, 27