High Sierra Trout
 
Steelhead Bonanza
 
Matt and I left Reno at 3:30 this morning to travel to the Trinity River for some more steelhead action. Dense fog made the drive a little dicey, but we were on the river by 7:45 ready to catch some fish. The first run we hit gave up three fish, including the first of four double hook-ups.  With a hot start like that we knew we were in store for an awesome day.  We worked our way upriver hitting the spots that produced fish for us last week.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                
                                    First fish of the day
 
 
Matt was kind enough to loan me one of his Orvis Zero Gravity rods, a 9.5 ft 6wt that was an absolute joy to cast.  The extra length and stiffness allowed me to fish drifts that I just couldn’t reach last week with my St. Croix 5 wt, thanks Matt!  The fish were very active today and the action was consistent all day long.  My third fish of the day had a wire tag inserted in its back that offered a $10 reward if mailed in to the address on the tag (pictured below).  This is the first time that I’ve been able to make some money by catching a fish!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                          
                                    Money fish
 
We had an awesome day, we had the river all to ourselves until about 1 p.m. when the flotilla of drift boats started trickling through.  The final tally was 18 fish hooked with 11 landed between the two of us.  Four double hook-ups provided lots of excitement, we successfully landed both fish three times and managed to avoid getting tangled up.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                    
                                      Double hook-up number four
 
 
Only one wild fish was landed today, but all of the fish fought nicely and took out lots of line.  We traveled almost five hundred miles today, round trip, and it was more than worth it.  We ran into lots of guys that had caught few or no fish, so we really felt like steelhead kings.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We caught fish on lots of different stonefly patterns, but yellow Jumbo Johns were the most effective.  One of the guides I talked to said that he hasn’t been able to catch any fish on Jumbo Johns this season, weird.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We saw the bald eagle hunting for fish again at the end of the day, unfortunately it flew by too quickly for me to get a picture.  I did get pictures of some bear tracks in the snow however, it seems the bear likes to frequent the same holes as we do (pictured below).
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ryan is talking about heading up to fish the Trinity this weekend, I think I’ll try to get Saturday off in order to join him for one last trip before school starts again on the 21st.
Monday, January 14, 2008