With the rain comes beautiful, bright king salmon. The last couple days I've been fishing the Smith with very favorable results. On Wednesday, with the upper guage at about 8 ft, we hooked fish in just about every hole. Wednesday night the rains came and the river rose to a very fishable 12 ft. Right off the bat, we started hooking fish. We had 5 grabs in the fist hole, putting 3 of them in the net. One was a chrome bright silver that went about 12 lbs. Just like the day before, we had takedowns in just about every hole. All of our fish came on plugs and we ended the day with 3 quality salmon in the box, the biggest being a fresh 22 lb hen.

This is just the beginning of the run on the Smith and it looks like it's going to be a great season.

Fish on!

Patrick 

Wednesday the 29th I fished the gorge on the Trinity and it was decent.  At day light we got on some half pounders that would not leave us alone after catching a handful of these scrappy critters we moved on in search of something bigger.  We found what we were looking for and ended up landing a nice 28 inch steelhead caught by Ron Caldwell.  We moved on in search of salmon and Don Caldwell got the catch of the day.  He landed a nice Silver Salmon that came on a plug, after taking a quick photo we released it.  By the end of the day we ended up with a half dozen half pounders, 1 adult steelhead, two kings and and a silver.  The weather was beautiful and we were the only ones on the river witch made it that much more enjoyable.  Check out the pics in the Trinity gallery from Wednesday.

On the north coast we have some weather in the forecast for this weekend.  If we get a decent amount of rain the Smith River will come into shape and the Kings will start running.  When this happens I will be booking a few trips for Kings on the Smith in November and Early December.  If we do not get much rain the Trinity will stay in shape and I will be fishing this river until Early November.

Fish on!

Patrick

Fishing on the Lower Trinity is still slow. 1 or 2 fish per day is the norm for me right now with the occasional 3 or 4 fish days. Some days are easy and some days are tough. I have been catching more steelhead than salmon lately but have been getting a few grabs from salmon each day and the ones that do stick have been quality fish in the 15 - 20 pound class. Everybody is wondering why the fishing is so slow this year and my answer is, there are not many fish in the system. I would like to think that the run is late and we haven't seen the best of it, but at this point I'm not sure. From what I see and hear I don't see any signs of the fishing changing soon. I still have dates available this month, so if you want to try your hand at catching some fish and enjoy a day floating down a beautiful river let me know. I can't guarantee the fishing will be good, but I can guarantee you will get 100% effort at trying to catch these fish. Check out the new pictures in my photo gallery of some of the fish we've caught this fall.

Fish on!

Patrick  

Well I'm happy to report the fishing has started to pick up a little bit. Although there doesn't seem to be a lot of salmon in the river, we're still getting a chance at 4-5 per day. I'm also starting to see a few more steelhead, which is certainly good news.

On Friday, my group landed 3 chrome wild steelhead and 1 coho salmon and had chances at a few others. Today, we hooked 8 fish, landing 4 bright steelhead all in the 7-8lb range. The 4 fish we lost were all large adult salmon. For some reason, they just didn't stick on our plugs. 

We'll be back on the river on Monday and hopefully we'll see a few more fish start to trickle in. 

Fish On!

Patrick 

The  past few days, the fishing has been pretty sporadic. There doesn't seem to be a ton of fish in the river, and the ones that are there aren't being real aggressive. I've been getting 1-2 fish per day, but we're really having to work for them. I'm hoping some fresh fish are on the way as it seems like the fish are spread out all through the Klamath and the lower Trinity. I'm still hearing reports that salmon are waiting to come into the Klamath, so hopefully the fishing will begin to improve over the next week or so.

I still have some open dates in October, so if you want to catch some fish and see some beautiful country on the Lower Trinity or the Middle Klamath give me call.

Fish on!

Patrick 

On Thursday I had fished a double.  We switched between fly fishing for steelies and running conventional gear for salmon.  On the flies we ended up with a few half pounders and a hand full of trout.  The salmon bite treated us good and we ended up hooking four and getting them all to the boat. Two of these of fish went 7-8 pounds and the other two went 18-22 pounds.  The weather was overcast and the scent of rain was in the air. We did get a few showers throughout the day.

Friday I fished a single. We also mixed it up fishing for salmon and steelies throughout the day. The action for steelhead was much the same as it was the day before, a couple of half pounders and a few trout. The salmon bite seemed to be a little off today. We did get three take downs on lures and had one solid hook-up on bait.  Unfortunately none of these fish stuck. For some reason the salmon did not bite as aggressive as they usually do.  The bites we did get were very soft, even the ones on lures which are usually savage.  By nine o-clock it started raining and did not let up for the rest of the day. By the end of the day the river came up slightly.  I'm hoping we don't get much more rain or else the river may blow out.  After this system passes I do expect the fishing to pick back up. 

Fish on!

Patrick

On Wednesday I had a single in the boat and we had a great day. He had some experience on the rivers, and it paid off for us. For the day, we landed 2 nice adult salmon to 20 lbs., a jack, and hatchery steelhead. All in all, not a bad day considering the fact that these fish just aren't on the bite yet.

Looks like we're going to be getting some rain over the next few days, which may turn the bite on. It also may blow out the Klamath and Trinity if it rains as much as they're predicting. 

Fish on!

Patrick 

The fishing the last few days has been very consistent to say the least. We've managed to catch a few steelhead each day, along with some real nice adult salmon. On Saturday we put a 28lb in the boat along with 7 other adults. Sunday we ended up with a couple mint-brite steelhead in the 8lb range, and a few adult salmon.

Most of the salmon we're catching have a little bit of color to them, but more fresh fish should arrrive any day. They're still doing well at the mouth of the Klamath, so the action will only get better as these fish are going to move up river quickly.

I still have a few dates open in October, so now is the time to book if you want to enjoy a great day on the river!

Fish on!

Patrick 

The fishing today was about the same as yesterday. We found some fish, but for some reason we couldn't get them to go on the bite. We did catch a couple really nice adult wild steelhead right off the bat in the morning, but ended up with just 1 jack the rest of the day. Tomorrow's a new day, and we'll try a few different things to see if we can get these fish to be a little more aggressive.

Fish on!

Patrick 

Well, I'm finally back on the water. Tuesday we fished a section of the middle Klamath and found lots of fish, but we had a hard time getting them to bite. Adult salmon and jacks were rolling in almost all the holes, but the steelhead were few and far between. We ended the day with just 1 jack to the boat.

Today we faired a little bit better. My group landed one nice steelhead and a jack, and lost 2 big adult salmon. The fishing will only get better on the upper Klamath and lower Trinity as the fish start to move out of the lower part of the Klamath. Sounds like fresh fish are still coming into the mouth, so the fishing will be steady from here on out. 

I have a few dates open in October, so if you want to catch some fish and see some beautiful country, give me a call.

Fish on!

Patrick