Just got back from the Trinity. Went up on Wednesday and got there in the early evening just in time to get totally rained out on the fly water below the Lewiston dam. fished the next evening down river below Lewiston with some success, no steelhead, but several juveniles, all on swung flies. Back to the fly water on Friday to find the river badly discolored from all the rain. It had been clearing from maybe 3-4 feet in late June up to about 6-8 vis on Thursday. Fishing was slow, mostly small fish. Did hook up a really good adult fish in the 28-30 inch class but lost it trying to land it in a bad spot. Snapped off a ten pound FC dropper. Visibility was about 1.5 feet at best and no insect activity. There was at least a couple of inches of rain Wednesday into early Friday and it's falling on the exposed lake bed at Trinity. All of the west side tributaries to Trinity are glacial remnant streams that flow out of the Alps and there's a lot of fine glacial flour silt, now resuspended in the lake and it will be months before it clears up. If we start getting rain in the early fall, the lake will cloud up again and the river will be poor visibility all winter and into next spring, so I wouldn't be looking for the gin clear water again on the upper Trinity for a long time. So much of the lake bed is exposed that I doubt it will clear until the lake fills again. Given the drought situation that might not be in our lifetimes.
The good news is that the downstream tributaries are all clear, so the further down you get, the better the vis.
Even though the vis was bad in mid to late June, there were a lot of fish spawning in the fly water. They were all hatchery fish, and I landed several in the 16-20 class, lost several more and landed one really good fish. All of the bigger fish had worn down tails and were all beat up from building spawning redds.
Looks like you got a [chromer] chinook in the pic? Congrats!
Originally Posted by flyfshrmn
Just got back from the Trinity. Went up on Wednesday and got there in the early evening just in time to get totally rained out on the fly water below the Lewiston dam. fished the next evening down river below Lewiston with some success, no steelhead, but several juveniles, all on swung flies. Back to the fly water on Friday to find the river badly discolored from all the rain. It had been clearing from maybe 3-4 feet in late June up to about 6-8 vis on Thursday. Fishing was slow, mostly small fish. Did hook up a really good adult fish in the 28-30 inch class but lost it trying to land it in a bad spot. Snapped off a ten pound FC dropper. Visibility was about 1.5 feet at best and no insect activity. There was at least a couple of inches of rain Wednesday into early Friday and it's falling on the exposed lake bed at Trinity. All of the west side tributaries to Trinity are glacial remnant streams that flow out of the Alps and there's a lot of fine glacial flour silt, now resuspended in the lake and it will be months before it clears up. If we start getting rain in the early fall, the lake will cloud up again and the river will be poor visibility all winter and into next spring, so I wouldn't be looking for the gin clear water again on the upper Trinity for a long time. So much of the lake bed is exposed that I doubt it will clear until the lake fills again. Given the drought situation that might not be in our lifetimes.
The good news is that the downstream tributaries are all clear, so the further down you get, the better the vis.
Even though the vis was bad in mid to late June, there were a lot of fish spawning in the fly water. They were all hatchery fish, and I landed several in the 16-20 class, lost several more and landed one really good fish. All of the bigger fish had worn down tails and were all beat up from building spawning redds.
Definitely a steelhead. There are no spring run kings in the trinity anymore and it's a bit early for the summer run fish. Also, look closely at the tail. It's all worn off on the bottom edge from redd building. I have never had Trinity salmon take a fly and this fish was actively feeding on the hatch of the evening, small golden brown mayflies about size 14. I had a fish much larger than this rise within a rod length, a nice male beautifully colored up, and missed his twin brother about five minutes later when he slashed at my caddis dropper swinging on the surface. The great thing is that those fish are actively spawning, something I haven't seen in past years, and if successful, their progeny will come back as wild fish in future years. This indicates to me that the restoration project may actually be having some success.
Trinity report - sorta-
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Originally Posted by flyfshrmn
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