High Sierra Trout
 
Christmas Steel
 
While most of us spent quality time with our families on Christmas day, Matt and Dan decided to spend their Christmas chasing steelhead.  Dan escaped the evil clutches of familial obligation by sneaking out to freeze his ass off and catch some fish in New York’s Salmon River.  He started off the day by landing a big brown on a nymph (pictured below).
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                  Fatty brown
 
 
He followed that fish up with a nice steelie, also caught on a nymph (pictured below).
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                        
                                  Nice steelie
 
 
Dan claims that he caught a 37” steelhead later in the day, but has no photo to prove this.  My guess is he probably foul-hooked a spawned out salmon.  Matt the Polish piscator of Brownzilla fame spent his Christmas freezing his ass off and catching fish on the Trinity River in Northern California.  Matt has been hitting the Trinity pretty hard this season and has figured a few things out.  He’s been catching so many fish that guides have been pulling their boats over to find out what he’s using.  He’s discovered a secret stonefly pattern and a killer egg pattern supplied by the guys at the Orvis shop in Reno that the fish have been going crazy for.  On Christmas Eve Matt landed three nice fish in the Steel Bridge area.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
On Christmas Day he followed that up with an unbelievable eight fish day.  Most of the fish he’s been catching have been wild and full of fight.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
There have been some recent reports of a fresh batch of wild fish entering the river due to the recent storms.  Matt, Rich and I plan to head up there on the 6th and 7th to see if we can locate some of these beautiful fish.  The fishing on the Truckee River has been very poor recently, due to water temps in the low thirties.  The skiing has been decent, last week’s storms dropped 2-3 feet of snow at the local resorts.  While the snow was good, it wasn’t quite enough to cover up all the hazards in the trees, and my skis paid the price.  The Reno Fly Shop has been reporting some good fishing at a couple of the reservoirs near Truckee.  If the temperatures get up above freezing within the next couple of days I might get up there to check it out.  If not I probably won’t fish again until we head to the Trinity.  Happy New Year.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Sunday, December 30, 2007