Spring Chinook?

[JasonB]

I hear rumor that there is a decent run of spring Chinook starting it's way up the Klamath and lower Trinity at the moment. Curious if any of you have spent any time targeting them with fly gear, and any tid bits that you wouldn't mind passing along. I'm heading up to the Trinity tomorrow evening and thought I might bring along a Spey rod to give it a shot or two while in the area. I really don't have much of experience fishing for kings, and have never fished for the spring run; my only experiences have been incidental while steelheading in the fall and winter. So far most of what I tend to hear is on the negative side; but I'm dying to break out the long rod and the cool flies again!
Thanks for any help,
JB

[winxp_man]

I know a very good source that says there not coming in real big numbers at all yet. He was saying there are in here and there.

[JasonB]

Thanks Aron,
I wasn't expecting prime time fishing or anything, hell even if there were big numbers present I'd still be figuring on long odds. I'm already going to be up in the area, non fishing trip and hoped to maybe put a little time in with the spey rod. I'll probably stop in the Trinity fly shop and talk to Herb...
Thanks anyways,
JB

[Mike R]

Toss streamers for browns on the T. Kill 'em and eat 'em.

[ycflyfisher]

x2 what Mike said. Or the lake.

[shawn kempkes]

Any fly you toss for springers better be in the shape of a tuna ball. They will be in the deep holes and swinging a spey fly for them won't be productive. However there should be some summers around below a couple of the tributaries. I am not going to tell which ones.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Spring run samon are a beautiful, super fresh fish but they are not normally caught on flies or any artificials (without protien).

Wild ones on the Sacramento River are scarce and protected now.

Years ago in the spring they fished for them from anchored boats below town on the Sacramento River using fresh sardines that were set up to spin in the current. These fish were chromers.....

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I fished them once on the Rogue River with my buddy Al Perryman.

The fresh ones like the deep fast water and are caught on fresh salmon roe.

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On the Trinity River in the summer they are caught on "tuna balls".

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Where they are legal to catch in rivers they are very good eating.

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[JasonB]

Any fly you toss for springers better be in the shape of a tuna ball. They will be in the deep holes and swinging a spey fly for them won't be productive. However there should be some summers around below a couple of the tributaries. I am not going to tell which ones.

This is interesting to me; I did not know that there were 3(?) separate chinook runs on the Trinity. So I'm not sure how to differentiate between a "spring" or a "summer" chinook, but I will say that there were a handful of fish around and so I did my best to put my fly in their face. Some pretty good sized, and very bright fish too! Each day there were a few more visible kings here and there, although not one pool had any fish really stacked up. Perhaps below the gorge, or in the gorge there are some holes that have a lot more fish in them; but between the north fork and cedar flat they were visible and present all along the river but not concentrated in any one area.

As for not getting them to take a fly cast on a spey rod and swung through a hole, I think I can see why one might say that. Assuming a typical "swing", I'm under the impression that the fly rarely gets down that deep or stays there long. That said there were a fair number of fish holding in water that wasn't all that deep, and there are lots of options as far as how one might swim their fly that can open up some other layers of the water column (indicators aside). At any rate I DID manage exactly 1 take (which I missed) in 4 days of fishing for about an hour and a half at dawn and dusk. Not exactly fast action, but I am kind of intrigued to try again; if nothing else I enjoyed the challenge and creative thinking to try some different things.

On another note, just an fyi, but I did hook into what I had assumed was a mid sized trout (14-15"?) that put up one hell of a fight against a 7wt spey rod! I started thinking it must have been a half pound steelhead, but I never did get to verify for certain as it came off the hook right at my feet as I was leaning over to inspect and release it. I suppose it's possible that it was just a really aggressive resident rainbow, but I am leaning more towards thinking that there are some half pounders in the river already.

Lastly, I got exactly what I wanted/needed: some very peaceful solitude on a gorgeous river playing with my spey rod. The casts are finally starting to get to where they wouldn't disgrace any fish I might happen to luck into :D

JB