SteelieD
08-30-2005, 12:49 PM
As mentioned previously, a group of eleven of us hit Lewiston and the Trinity "Fly Only Water" on Thursday through Saturday for some much needed relaxation and fishing :D .
Me and a buddy from So Cal who had never even heard of waders before this trip :shock:, headed up before everyone else and got in the Fly Only water just below the dam at about 5:30pm on Thursday evening. After doing my best to explain some basic concepts to my friend, we were fishing! Spent the evening primarily high sticking the chop beneath the first riffle. I managed about five or six smallish hatchery fish to about twelve inches and my buddy with absolutly no experience cought a few more similar fish. As dusk settled in, I tyed on a small (#eighteen) cream colored PMD extended body dry to see what I could drum up... a couple more of the same ten to twelve inchers. I knew there was bigger fish in there as I had spotted them earlier, so just before getting out of the water, I rerigged with a PT and Copper John... bam!!! I was into a pig! :D :D Well after about a ten minute fight with my little 4 wt., I told my friend to be sure he was ready with the camera as this was going to be a beauty and I wanted to be sure to have a great photo for my avatar! I am pretty sure that fish heard me because at my feet and with my net in my hand, he did one more jumping spin move and was GONE. :x I got a good look at the son of a gun and he was a good 20-22 inch steelhead. Lesson learned... do not tempt the fishing gods, talk about the landing and picture AFTER you've actually landed the fish and taken the picture :oops:. (It's alway the one that got away, isn't it?!)
So we left and hooked up with the rest of the crew for fish stories and beers at the Lewiston Inn, somewhat dissaponted at the lost biggun' but extremely excited at the prospect of the next couple of days!!!
The next day, 10 flyfishing newbies and I (still pretty much a newbie!) headed out with the assistance of several guides from Shasta Outfitters www.shastaoutfitters.com. What a great day! Everyone was into fish all day. The grins on these guys faces was priceless! :) It was very much like my grin the year before on this water when I became addicted to this sport. The guys at Shasta were great and I highly recommend them. JD runs the show there and he's awesome (also gudes some hunting trips too).
There were several large fish hooked up, a couple landed. The largest I heard was about 22 inches (guides estimation) and my buddy, the one who had never heard of waders, landed an 18 incher. The guides kept commenting on how many big steelhead were back this early. The hot fly for me was a little (#20) black, beadhead zebra midge. Tiny and dark seemed to be the ticket. The highlights of my day... well after spotting a large fish (I'm gussing 22+ inches) sitting in front of a rock, I drifted a dry dropper combo over its head from close range for about 30 minutes. I changed that dropper probably four times after watching him refuse me several times (heck, that dropper must've hit him in the nose several times!) and I either found one that worked (a dark HE varient) or I finally irritated him so much that he took it! :D :shock: He took off running downstream, turned headed upstream and airborne and shook me off! :cry: Probably only had him on for 20 seconds or so but after spending that long working him, I was still pretty pumped. Towards the end of the day, I dredged the top riffle again, looking for one last biggie. No real biggie but found a little pocket where I hooked and landed about 12 fish in about 30 minutes!! :lol: I had several of the group watching me and though the biggest was probably about 14 inches, it was a blast!! These little steelhead/rainbows are fun fighters. Lots of jumping going on. I love seeing a fish get airborn! :shock: :D
Friday, night more of the same… many beers and many more fish stories!
Saturday, was pretty much a repeat performance, only this time I was the guide! :? Seems no one really paid much attention to the knot tying or fly selection the day before! I guess those guys that watched me nailing all those fish at the end of the day figured I knew what I was doing. It was OK though because I had so much fun watching these guys catch fish and getting “hooked” on the sport. I also became much more proficient and knot tying and fly selection that it was a great lesson for me. Having someone come to me with a big tangled mess of inappropriate flies and sending them to some productive spot with a new double nymph rig and catch a fish fifteen minutes later was and absolute kick in the pants!!! :D I'd do it again in a minute. :lol: I can see why some of those guides get so excited. I didn’t really understand it before. So while didn’t fish a whole bunch, I did mange a very successful day on the water, helping to land several good size fish (16, 17, 18 inches). I still managed 7 or 8 fish for myself, but still no pigs.
This days best story?… remember “Mr. Never Heard of Waders Before”? Well, at about 6pm there were just four of us still on the water, and I here him yell “Oh yeah baby” and look up to see his rod doubled over and the fly line about 50 feet downstream! Holy moly, I’d better get up there! :shock:
The four of us gathered near him and I “coached” him on how to play the fish. This is truly the blind leading the blind as he was using my trusty Sage 6wt and I know it’s never been bent like that before. So we worked on this pig for 10-15 minutes on 5X tippet, trying to be extra careful. a couple people walking by had gathered to watch... we had an audience. What a rush! :D :D As I got close, I realized it was a salmon longer than my arm! I kind figured it was a salmon based on the way it was rolling on the water and then just hunkering down at the bottom, rather that just running/jumping and breaking that little tippet a lot sooner like a big adult steelie would. I got to with in a few feet of it with my net ready (like I was actually going to get that thing in my trout net!) and he got spooked and ran. I think the drag was a little loose and unfortunately a bit of inexperience (on all of our parts) as to how to play a fish like this, the big ‘ol fella shook us off. :( Man that was a BIG fish! I don’t know why he took one of those tiny flies :?: (the little zebra and a PT, I believe it what he had on there) just prior to spawning but he did and it was a kick trying to land it. On that note… it was back to the bar. It couldn’t possibly get any better than that! 8)
A VERY successful trip and many new flyfishing converts. Everyone wanted to know when next years trip was and how could they learn more and be better prepared. I directed them to Kiene’s as most live in the Sacramento area.
I highly recommend the The Old Lewiston Inn B&B (www.theoldlewistoninn.com). Chris makes an amazing breakfast and the restaurant is pretty good for dinner too. This is our second year there and with all those new fishermen, I am sure it will be a destination for years to come.
Get up and fish that water now! The fly only water closes on September 15th and there will only be more big fish in the next couple of weeks. It's not real technical or difficult fishing, but it is sooo much fun! :D :!: Check the flows though, I heard they may be cranking it up. It was about 450cfs when we were there. When the real Steelhead run begins in October, downstream of the Lewiston bridge will be hot! Shasta Outfitters does drift boat trips too.
Pictures? Well, it seems the camera got a little "damp". :wink: We are working on it and will hopefully have a few photos. I'll update the post.
Thanks for letting me relive this great trip on this forum! Hope you all get into many, many fish real soon. MSP, you must've be into some by now?!
Derek
Me and a buddy from So Cal who had never even heard of waders before this trip :shock:, headed up before everyone else and got in the Fly Only water just below the dam at about 5:30pm on Thursday evening. After doing my best to explain some basic concepts to my friend, we were fishing! Spent the evening primarily high sticking the chop beneath the first riffle. I managed about five or six smallish hatchery fish to about twelve inches and my buddy with absolutly no experience cought a few more similar fish. As dusk settled in, I tyed on a small (#eighteen) cream colored PMD extended body dry to see what I could drum up... a couple more of the same ten to twelve inchers. I knew there was bigger fish in there as I had spotted them earlier, so just before getting out of the water, I rerigged with a PT and Copper John... bam!!! I was into a pig! :D :D Well after about a ten minute fight with my little 4 wt., I told my friend to be sure he was ready with the camera as this was going to be a beauty and I wanted to be sure to have a great photo for my avatar! I am pretty sure that fish heard me because at my feet and with my net in my hand, he did one more jumping spin move and was GONE. :x I got a good look at the son of a gun and he was a good 20-22 inch steelhead. Lesson learned... do not tempt the fishing gods, talk about the landing and picture AFTER you've actually landed the fish and taken the picture :oops:. (It's alway the one that got away, isn't it?!)
So we left and hooked up with the rest of the crew for fish stories and beers at the Lewiston Inn, somewhat dissaponted at the lost biggun' but extremely excited at the prospect of the next couple of days!!!
The next day, 10 flyfishing newbies and I (still pretty much a newbie!) headed out with the assistance of several guides from Shasta Outfitters www.shastaoutfitters.com. What a great day! Everyone was into fish all day. The grins on these guys faces was priceless! :) It was very much like my grin the year before on this water when I became addicted to this sport. The guys at Shasta were great and I highly recommend them. JD runs the show there and he's awesome (also gudes some hunting trips too).
There were several large fish hooked up, a couple landed. The largest I heard was about 22 inches (guides estimation) and my buddy, the one who had never heard of waders, landed an 18 incher. The guides kept commenting on how many big steelhead were back this early. The hot fly for me was a little (#20) black, beadhead zebra midge. Tiny and dark seemed to be the ticket. The highlights of my day... well after spotting a large fish (I'm gussing 22+ inches) sitting in front of a rock, I drifted a dry dropper combo over its head from close range for about 30 minutes. I changed that dropper probably four times after watching him refuse me several times (heck, that dropper must've hit him in the nose several times!) and I either found one that worked (a dark HE varient) or I finally irritated him so much that he took it! :D :shock: He took off running downstream, turned headed upstream and airborne and shook me off! :cry: Probably only had him on for 20 seconds or so but after spending that long working him, I was still pretty pumped. Towards the end of the day, I dredged the top riffle again, looking for one last biggie. No real biggie but found a little pocket where I hooked and landed about 12 fish in about 30 minutes!! :lol: I had several of the group watching me and though the biggest was probably about 14 inches, it was a blast!! These little steelhead/rainbows are fun fighters. Lots of jumping going on. I love seeing a fish get airborn! :shock: :D
Friday, night more of the same… many beers and many more fish stories!
Saturday, was pretty much a repeat performance, only this time I was the guide! :? Seems no one really paid much attention to the knot tying or fly selection the day before! I guess those guys that watched me nailing all those fish at the end of the day figured I knew what I was doing. It was OK though because I had so much fun watching these guys catch fish and getting “hooked” on the sport. I also became much more proficient and knot tying and fly selection that it was a great lesson for me. Having someone come to me with a big tangled mess of inappropriate flies and sending them to some productive spot with a new double nymph rig and catch a fish fifteen minutes later was and absolute kick in the pants!!! :D I'd do it again in a minute. :lol: I can see why some of those guides get so excited. I didn’t really understand it before. So while didn’t fish a whole bunch, I did mange a very successful day on the water, helping to land several good size fish (16, 17, 18 inches). I still managed 7 or 8 fish for myself, but still no pigs.
This days best story?… remember “Mr. Never Heard of Waders Before”? Well, at about 6pm there were just four of us still on the water, and I here him yell “Oh yeah baby” and look up to see his rod doubled over and the fly line about 50 feet downstream! Holy moly, I’d better get up there! :shock:
The four of us gathered near him and I “coached” him on how to play the fish. This is truly the blind leading the blind as he was using my trusty Sage 6wt and I know it’s never been bent like that before. So we worked on this pig for 10-15 minutes on 5X tippet, trying to be extra careful. a couple people walking by had gathered to watch... we had an audience. What a rush! :D :D As I got close, I realized it was a salmon longer than my arm! I kind figured it was a salmon based on the way it was rolling on the water and then just hunkering down at the bottom, rather that just running/jumping and breaking that little tippet a lot sooner like a big adult steelie would. I got to with in a few feet of it with my net ready (like I was actually going to get that thing in my trout net!) and he got spooked and ran. I think the drag was a little loose and unfortunately a bit of inexperience (on all of our parts) as to how to play a fish like this, the big ‘ol fella shook us off. :( Man that was a BIG fish! I don’t know why he took one of those tiny flies :?: (the little zebra and a PT, I believe it what he had on there) just prior to spawning but he did and it was a kick trying to land it. On that note… it was back to the bar. It couldn’t possibly get any better than that! 8)
A VERY successful trip and many new flyfishing converts. Everyone wanted to know when next years trip was and how could they learn more and be better prepared. I directed them to Kiene’s as most live in the Sacramento area.
I highly recommend the The Old Lewiston Inn B&B (www.theoldlewistoninn.com). Chris makes an amazing breakfast and the restaurant is pretty good for dinner too. This is our second year there and with all those new fishermen, I am sure it will be a destination for years to come.
Get up and fish that water now! The fly only water closes on September 15th and there will only be more big fish in the next couple of weeks. It's not real technical or difficult fishing, but it is sooo much fun! :D :!: Check the flows though, I heard they may be cranking it up. It was about 450cfs when we were there. When the real Steelhead run begins in October, downstream of the Lewiston bridge will be hot! Shasta Outfitters does drift boat trips too.
Pictures? Well, it seems the camera got a little "damp". :wink: We are working on it and will hopefully have a few photos. I'll update the post.
Thanks for letting me relive this great trip on this forum! Hope you all get into many, many fish real soon. MSP, you must've be into some by now?!
Derek