a little trinity advice

[sjpike]

Everyone, alittle advice when going to the Trinity this year……….don’t forget that license, Fill out that steelhead card before you hit the river, and crimp those hooks !!! I have a feeling the cotton balls could be out this year. I was up there on the 25th and was approached by fish and game on two consecutive days. They are getting in boats, driving into put-in and take-out areas, walking the river and next might be helicopters ( just kidding ).
We had a 1 day guided trip and two days using my boat. Very slow fishing. The rain should help. Anyway, according to many locals there are too many guides with boats fishing the river without tags. You have to pay and register your boat if you’re guiding on the trinity. They issued 80 something tags for this year. Last year was forty. They turned down another 100 applications. The compliant is, you can get 15 boats on one 4-6 mile run, plus walk-ins and you have a ZOO. So they are cracking down. If you pay for a guided boat trip make sure your guide is registered to guide that river. The ones without tags can claim that they are just out with friends, but who wants to pay money to be told half way down the river were just buddies fishing when fish and game shows up. Also if a local guide sees a boat that looks guided without tags they will call it in. If you own a boat makes sure your trailer has a license and lights and signals work. We saw a guy pulled over in Weaverville at the Tops market by highway patrol and he was going to tow his boat because he had no license plate or tags. This was all in 3 days. You can’t make this stuff up. I am not trying to scare anyone. I just got the distinct impression that the Trinity is going to be “by the book” this year. Anyway just my two cents, food for thought and debate.

[mikel]

sjpike...I hope you're right...I have friends making a living guiding on that river as I'm sure others here do too. People doing the right thing have nothing to fear. just my 2 cents...-Mike

[bubzilla]

A license on your drift boat trailer? In Oregon you don't have to license a trailer unless it exceed a cetarin weight (1350 lbs.). Obviously that would not include a drift boat. Of course California is the home of many crazy laws, but that still sounds very wierd.

[shawn kempkes]

I think it is time to adopt regs that require you to get out of the boat to fish on the trinity. Also it seems to me that most of the guides only fish one or two drifts. maybe they should follow the BC model and only allow a limited number of guides to fish certain drifts.

[Scott V]

A license on your drift boat trailer? In Oregon you don't have to license a trailer unless it exceed a cetarin weight (1350 lbs.). Obviously that would not include a drift boat. Of course California is the home of many crazy laws, but that still sounds very wierd.

Any trailer in California needs a license. The main reason for that is to keep the home built non-road safe trailers off the road. You have to have any home built trailer verified by the DMV for licensing, which is a good thing.

[stevie steelhead]

Many of us had forecasted the problems on the Trinity. The Trinity River is a "wild and scenic river" as a federal designation. The upper Trinity is much smaller than the lower Trinity, and therefore concentrations of fish are easier to find and fish. Guides from all over the state and many out of state guides, have flocked to the Trinity because of the great fiishing, and the closing of other rivers.
The media and the internet have worsened the situation because of untrue and bragging statements concerning the numbers of steelhead being caught. Obviously, if you are fishing from a boat with indicators, with a guide, you can catch many more fish than from the bank. The guide puts the fisherman in the right spot, in every riffle and hole all the way down the river. Hunting for steelhead used to be a truism, but not anymore with the numbers of hatchery steelhead being caught in the past few years.
I posted my feelings on this board a few years ago, and now my worse fears have come true. The wild and scenic Trinity River may be threatened by flyfisherman!
Last year we saw many illegal guides who thought that they could duck the legal system and bring clients from all over the world to the Trinity. The legal guides, who have guide licenses from our state of California, and also have BLM permits, are not the problem.
The Rogue River just north of the Trinity, has a wild and scenic designation for part of the river. They issue permits for individuals who want to drift the river, via a lottery system. They have many rules concerning trash and waste that will hopefully stop pollution on the river. This scenario is not far from happenning on the Trinity, and it is being discussed on a local and state level.
So my advice after living on the Trinity River for a quarter of a century, is to keep the Trinity River as a "wild and scenic" river, by being discreet and quiet about your spots and conquests, keep it clean and pristine, and report anyone who is doing anything illegal (especially illegal guides).

[arbolado]

So I went to the BLM web-site to check on the guide I'm fishing with next week and and luckily he is on the list. Here is the web-site if anyone wants to verify their guide in the future: http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/reddi...fishguide.html

[wjorg]

...so only the shop has to be Licensed, not each guide?


I didnt see one million fly shop guys names on that list....just mike michalak...

[sjpike]

Good question. According to BLM it is not per shop. It is PER GUIDE. They are issued a sticker number for thier boat. Now if that GUIDE has 3 boats he gets 3 stickers, but he is the only one allowed to be guiding in any of those boats. According to BLM the fly-shop has around 3 official, fly shop employed guides permitted to be on the trinity this year. But they can subcontract trips too guides who are permited and on the list. The Bottom line is....If their name is not on that list they are not permitted to guide on the Trinity. Now the website has not been updated since the 15th of Oct so all the permitted guides have not been posted but you can call the BLM's redding office to ask about any guides status (530) 224-2100.

[jhaquett]

It is companies like The Fly Shop that would make a lottery system on the Trinity a fantastic idea. They are an example where even legality IS an issue on the Trinity, since I assume that their guides are in fact legal.