We got up at about 7:30 on Sunday morning after a long night’s sleep, ready for more steelhead action.  We drove to the same spot we fished Saturday, and this time the parking lot was totally empty.  The river was even more dirty than the day before, but the water level was about the same.  The guy at the sporting goods store had suggested we walk further upstream than we had been, he said that the further upriver you go, the better the water.  So we took his advice and walked a couple of miles upriver before we began to fish.  On the hike up I spotted two river otters munching on a fat steelhead that they had captured (pictured below).  We had seen a few dying fish swimming around with fungus covering their bodies, we figured that the otters had caught one of these.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                              Otters

 

To make a long story short, Ryan hooked one fish briefly and that was it.  The dirty water had really turned off the bite, so we decided to head back to the car and drive upriver in search of cleaner water.  On the way back down we stopped to fish the hole that I had caught my three fish out of on Saturday.  Dan hooked up with a nice fish (pictured below) on a fly that I designed and he tied.  Basically this fly has a bead head, flash back, red/chartreuse hotwire body, peacock herl thorax, black rubber legs and a big black aggravator-style tail.  It is pretty much a Frankenfly that contains elements of my favorite nymphs.  We still haven’t come up for a name for it yet, but we were stoked that it works.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                            

                                              Happy Dan

 

We drove upriver to an access spot near Lewiston, as we got out of the car it began to rain lightly.  We slogged up a side channel until we reached the river at a nice pool that Ryan and I had fished two years ago.  On that day I caught a lunker of a brown trout in the 24-26” range on a small black copper john.  The Trinity River has a nice run of sea run browns that is not targeted by many anglers.  Every once in a while somebody will catch a huge brown while steelhead or salmon fishing.  This time I didn’t catch any browns, but I did catch one sickly little steelhead, again on a yellow jumbo john (pictured below).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                            Nasty little guy

 

 

I got a couple of bumps in another pool upstream, but that was it for the rest of the afternoon.  The water was much clearer upriver, which is good to know for future trips.  We quit at around 4 pm to begin the long drive home (with a required stop at In-N-Out in Redding).  The wind and rain got heavier as we traveled down I-5, my wife called me with news of blizzard conditions over Donner Summit on I-80.  By the time Dan and I reached Auburn, I-80 had been closed due to low visibility over the pass.  We were forced to hole up in a smelly little motel room until the highway was opened the next morning.  Overall the fishing wasn’t that good, but we had a great time with Ryan catching his first steelhead ever and Dan catching his first real (West Coast) steelie.  Ryan is going to try to get up there in early February, but I think I am done for the season due to the amount of schoolwork I have to do this semester.  The rest of my early season fishing will have to be done in the Truckee River when temperatures finally warm up a bit.