My first Trinity River Steely!!!!! (Warning!! Long Post and the steely was a dink.:)

[Greg Madrigal]

I just returned from an excellent trip up North with my lovely wife and my BFF. The plan was to stay with Julie’s cool cousins in Redding and use that as a jumping off point to fish the upper and lower Sac, and somewhere else like Hat Creek near Mt. Lassen, or the Trinity River.

Well, day 1, we went out with a friend who happens to have a sweet jet boat, and owed our cousins a favor. We fished right in the middle of Redding. We caught nothing drifting nymphs on fly gear for about 6 hours, but it was VERY cool to see others hooking ‘bows, and seeing the king salmon spawning up and down the river. Very cool indeed to see 4-5 10-20lb. scattering salmon as your boat drifts near them in 4-5 feet of crystal clear water. That made my day! Temps were great and the sun was partially showing tho it was brisk. I accidentally broke another dang fly rod which pretty well peed me off.

Day 2, Harvey and I headed out into the rain that had settled in overnight, and drove our awesome sparkly-baby-blue Hyundai rental up into the Trinity Forest off 299. the fall scenery was beautiful, and the drizzly mist scattered through the forest was beautiful.

After traveling for around 30 miles, and in the middle of nowhere forest, Harvey sees a small sign for a turn-off to a winery. A WINERY?! What the?! Ok, I roll pretty easy, so we cruise down this side road, and low and behold, we see a fly shop in the middle of nowhere! Sweet!


We pull up and get the local happenings and decide to fish these upper sections since the rain had washed out down lower where the sea-run fish were have know to reach (around Junction City.) We were in the sparse town(ship) of Lewiston, Ca. and we headed to our first spot on a bend with a supposed great wading gravel bar.


We arrive, and get dressed into our waders in the rain-Good times. Note I'm rockin' the Team 57 Beanie!


Once changed tho, the rain wasn’t even a factor. We stepped into God’s Country. Our first scene was a perfect hole on the far side with a few jumping fish.

Note the rain drops on the water and the perfect wading gravel bar on the right.



Just downstream, and on the far bank, sat a nice little house with an expansive green lawn adjacent to the river. I counted six deer grazing on the lawn. How cool!

Can u see them?





I got a hit here, but nothing stuck. The Trin is a barbless river. The raincontinued as we fished. Harv managed a small 11” steely that I never saw (did he really catch it then????)

We moved to another rainy spot by a hundred y/o single-lane bridge. We saw some salmon cruising upstream from our surveillance point on the bridge. A river-wide natural dam formed a pool a couple hundred yards downstream where we saw fish rising. I got the first fish at this spot.



It was small second year steely that hadn’t left the river system yet. This pup was a native too-No clipped adipose fin. I caught mine on an elk’s hair. Harvey followed up with a hatchery dink shortly thereafter on a blue dun I think.





As we were fishing, I peered downstream to see a momma doe & her fawn swimming across the river! AMAZING! They were pretty oblivious to us. This really added top the experience!

Total was 2 or three fish for the day, but my first steely! Stoked baby or not! I consider us lucky to have caught anything considering how high up we were in relation to the incoming steelies, and the weather.

Day 3- We headed North to Mt. Shasta. We ate lunch w/the girls, and they went shopping and we went fishing! First stop, ol’ Lake Siskyou.



It was gorgeous out, but nothing but a few dink trout were biting off the dam area. As we drove out of that area, I remembered stumbling upon a small pond the last time I was up there. I decided to take a looksy and I am glad I did. It was around 3, and the fish were rising consistently around the pond.






I caught five or six fish out of this pond and Harv got a couple. Pretty sweet fish for one taken on a mosquito fly in a pond!



Here is another brown I caught there. Probably the biggest of the trip for us. Also, another photo op for a new net I made.




And another... Does this picture make me look content???????



I also caught what I believe is a grass carp. Go figure!




We ended the day with a meager attempt at fishing the high-flowing and famous upper Sac near the Norcal fly fishing capital of Dunsmuir. Nothing there, so it was off for a 55 mile drive back to redding for dinner.

I want to thank Bruce for taking me out on the Lower Sac, Harv for coming w/me on this adventure, and Lori & Julie for letting us follow our passion. You guys are the best. I had a great time on this trip.


GM<><

[tpfishnfool]

Awsome places to fish.. Great pics. Too bad only jail bait on the steelies..

[Troutman65]

Great read and report . Very cool up that way . Nice going on the trout . Thanks for sharing

[NachoFish]

Wow Greg......Looks like an amazing trip. Great report!

D

[TaperSteve]

W0W!!! those are some amazing pics!!!

I especially like this one...

TS

[Beancounter]

Very Very nice report mi Amigo.
Beautiful country.

[smokehound]

Your "grass carp" is actually a Golden Shiner.

Nice report. That area is beautiful.

[Big B]

Very nice report and pics! While fishing in central oregon this summer the kids caught a ton of the fish in the last picture. Up there they called them Tui chubs like bluegill fishing for the kids it kept them smiling while is was catching trout. There were some very large boils on the chubs free swimming the dropoff and was told these fish were very large Brown Trout. Next time I head up there I am bringing my swimbait rod for sure.

[El Capo]

I love fishing the trinity in fact I am going to the Junction city area in about a week to do an electrical project. I got my first piece of chrome there about this time last year. Nice report, gotta love the pond fish too.

[Trout Daddy]

On our trip to Medford last year we stopped in Dunsmuir for breakfast. That place is absolutely beautiful. It is on my list of places to fish someday......