Planning a trinity trip questions

[nickstone]

Hi everybody, I've been reading posts here for a while and finally decide say hey and ask some questions. Hopefully i will have some pics to post soon. Anyways I am thinking about going up to the trinity with my girlfriend later next week for the first time. I have heard lots of different stuff about good areas to try, and was wondering what everbodies opinion was. We'll be fishing from the bank. I was also wondering if anybody knew what campgrounds were still open off of 299 and if anybody could suggest a good one. Thanks so much in advance, Nick

[medfly]

yea, im planning a trip myself in a few weeks, have never been to this area, id like to know about camping and any recommendations about fishing from the bank too

[Pimpinmeat]

Both the Canyon Creek and Bigfoot Campgrounds were still open.

[jhaquett]

You're going to have to try LOTS of different runs all the way up and down 299 to try and find fish. I've been up there a couple of times this season and haven't been able to locate a darn thing. You may be luckier than me though.

[PatrickM]

Welcome to the board, Nick. Always nice to have new people joining in.
Don't be too discouraged if people aren't lining up to share their favorite Trinity spots with you. As you're probably aware, it can get quite crowded up there this time of year. If someone has a spot where they can usually find fish and avoid other anglers, they're probably going to keep it to themselves. Exploring and finding good water on your own is always fun anyhow.
If I can give a bit of advice, get the Streatime map of the Trinity. Look at the boat access spots in the areas where you're planning on fishing. Get out there early in the morning before the boats put in, and fish down below those spots. Then when the boats start coming through, hike up above the boat put-ins and fish there. That way you should get to fish a decent part of the day without fishing water that the boat guys have already pounded.
Sorry, but I don't have any info on the campgrounds. I usually do the motel thing up there.
Hope that is of some help, and best of luck.

[fishon]

With regards to campgrounds, East Weaver Campground is located in Weaverville and not too many people know about it. It's located east of Weaverville, off of highway 3, and up East Weaver Road. I like this campground because it's close food and bars.

My buddies and I fished the Trinity last weekend. We all caught enough fish to make us happy and I don't mind sharing the location. Park at Junction City bridge and drive down river to the end of the road. Walk down river about 300 yards and fish the tail-out and work your way up-stream.

Have a blast!

[Frank Gonsalves]

If the douglas city campground is open it is nice and right on some good steelhead runs.

[bubzilla]

I don't know about the camping situation, but I will say that you'll need to take your own rock to stand on in order to fish. I met up with a buddy from Eureka in Weaverville on Friday, and I was in total shock. I have fished a lot in my life, and a lot of different places for anadromous fish, and I have never seen anything as ridiculously over crowded anywhere. This is a small river, and every likely holding water would have four and five guys standing nearly shoulder-to-shoulder. There were spots with guys, who weren't together, fishing the exact same spot in the same run from different sides of the river. Reminded me of the mouth of the Russian River on the Kenai during the B run sockeye return--only more sad because it was fly fisherman crowding each other like cattle while fishing for steelhead. You expect that on rivers with lots of gear guys during a salmon run, but not for steelhead. I was totally waiting for a fist fight to break out so it would be just like salmon fishing.

Have to say that if you're into a quality fishing experience, you might want to rethink going to the Trinity. Don't mean to be negative or to discourage you in the least about fishing, but I wish someone had told me what that place looked like in terms of crowding so that I would have talked my buddy into meeting somewhere else. He had just heard some of the glowing reports, like on this board even, and had not really done much homework otherwise. Just a really bad experience that made me wish I was at work. There were definitely fish being caught, but then I don't know how a fish could run that gauntlet and not get caught--deep sea drift nets don't put any more line in the water than what there was on the Trinity this weekend. Just ridiculous.

[bigtj]

Bubzilla,

With some of the reports I've seen lately on the internet it's no wonder it's getting so crowded. That really sucks.

-John

[Rick J]

It doesn't take internet reports to get the crowds - once the runs picked up on the Trinity a number of years back it has always been crowded - a river close to populations will always get hammered when th runs are in. If you think this is bad try fishing the Mad

I have pretty much given up on many of the rivers due to crowds. The lower river usually does not get hit as hard. I love the lower Klamath this time of year as much of the boat traffic is gone and the fish are still coming though - one of my favorite times is around Thanksgiving, weather permitting