Sacramento River, Trinity River

The Winter Steelhead

I’ve been fishing the Sacramento River and today I was at the Trinity both swinging bright and big winter patterns. So far nothing has been producing. I could have always beaten the skunk with a nymph but I already know how to nymph. I could have gone to the Feather or North Fork but I already know how to fish those two places. There is so much to learn and discover.

Sacramento River
As the title suggested I have been
gambling my odds for a nice winter steelhead. Winter steelhead are big
adults that are in the river for only a few weeks to spawn and then they
head back out to the sea. I’ve been getting nibbles on my fly but no
takes probably just small fry. I’ve been fishing near the Big Chico Creek mouth for tributary steelhead so far no luck. I will need to try and check out other
accesses to the Sacramento River towards the Red Bluff and Redding area.
I’ve heard the further upstream you go the better fishing it is for
trout and steelhead.

Trinity River
I’m going to put this river on hold for a while. Its a pretty frustrating place to fish. There is a lot of water and a lot of turnout access making it easy to find yourself fishing someone’s leftovers. There’s nothing wrong with leftovers but being the first one will give you way better odds.
Part of my frustration was probably the fact that I was swinging winter patterns the whole day. I just wanted my line to go tight and feel that fish rip the line out of my reel. After doing a little bit of research I found that swinging winter patterns aren’t too popular this time of the year. The Trinity is more of a summer/fall swinging river. Oh well, I guess it was good practice and a gamble. I saw a few people get into some fish though.

With all that said and done I’ve gotten a hell of a lot better at casting my switch rod. I have improved from 30-40ft casts to about 50-60ft. Feels totally bad ass. I can’t even imagine how far that would be on a Skagit head maybe 80-90ft? Now if only I could hook a fish on a swing…