Spey fishing the Trinity River

[Adam Grace]

My enjoyment of spey casting and the consequent practice and refinement of the art of spey casting was important to my recent success. I am by no means a Simon Gawesworth or Jeff Putnam but my casting is good enough to encounter different casting situations. Basically practicing your spey casts will make those difficult casting situations much easier and less frustrating.

The key to my success was my spey rod. Fishing the seam and riffle on the other side of the river allowed me to fish water that would be extremely difficult withou a spey rod. I even strained at times to cast a little bit further than the 80' or more that was required. The length of my spey rod (12'8") while short for a spey rod, made the distance easier to control the placement of my fly. The extra 3'8" over a normal 9' single-handed rod allowed me to control my line enough to control the speed of my flies as they swung throught the river.

I have never caught so many adult steelhead before on my spey rod. I usually fish our valley rivers becuase they are close by and more convenient, but after two sucessful trips to the coastal regions I have experienced for myself what more experienced steelheaders have been telling me for a while; fresh steelhead (closer to the ocean) are more likely to take a swung fly. So here I've been frustrating myself on these Sacramento Valley steelhead river when all I needed was to commit to traveling to the REAL steelhead water near the coast to catch steelhead on the swing.

The Klamath River was my first experience of great spey fishing (2 years ago with Rick Jorgensen), that water in the lower Klamath is perfect for swinging, with or without a spey rod (MUCH more enjoyable IMHO with a spey rod). I loved how productive swinging was on the Klamath for the half-pounders. And now another great swinging experience on another coastal river, the lower Trinity river. It is very easy to say that I am now a believer and will be hooked on coastal steelhead forever.

Below are some spey pictures for you spey guys.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/IMGP0100.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/IMGP0104.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/IMGP0203-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/IMGP0209.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/Steelie5.jpg

[Jasonh]

Well said Adam. I too have been addicted to spey fishing for a couple of years. It makes steelhead fishing more enjoyable especially when you can make an 80' cast where you might not be able to with a single hand rod and hook fish. My last trip to the Trinity was productive as well. I was hooking fish my dad could not get to with his single hander. I think for xmas i maight have to get dad a spey rod or a switch rod tocat further and learn spey casting.

Speaking of switch rods, i was working with Jeff Putnam today on my spey casting and tried a new TFO 11' 5 wt switch rod. very nice rod especially for the price. We were throwing a Hardy Mach 1 8/9 single hand line. It threw very well both single hand and spey casting. I think switch rods could be huge to the sport of steelheading in allowing people to single hand cast further and learn spey casting at the same time. Steelheading isn't always about distnace casting, but in some situations it sure helps!

Jason Hartwick

[Adam Grace]

Jason, I totally agree about your comment about distance. Distance isn't always required when fishing for steelhead. What's nice about a spey rod is that with the right rod, like my shorter than averavge 12'8" 7wt Scott ARC, I can fish in to about 10-15' and out as far as 100' with the right conditions. Some large 15' 9wt spey rods can cover and cast much farther distances but they are also meant to be casting farther and catching larger fish usually. I couldn't have felt the fight and power of those steelhead nearly as well with a big 9wt spey like I did with my 7wt.

Spey on Brotha! 8)