Rod for Upper Trinity Steelhead

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Switch rods sound pretty interesting. I guess that about 11 feet is the standard? I hear Sage has a few nice ones in the Z-Axis series.

I have fly fished for Steelhead for about 40 years now with a fly rod with some pretty good fly fishers but it has been mostly single handed rods so I am not really qualified to make a defining answer here.

I fished the Trinity River for about 30 years with single handed rods with only a floating line mostly from above Junction City downstream to Big Bar on foot and car.

It is very brushy so thinking back on those days I would like a longer rod, but not too long, with a floating line. Maybe a 10' single hand, 11 foot Switch rod or a 12' Spey rod?

I would think that some "single handed Spey casting" would be killer when you are backed up to some 15 feet high willows and waded 4 feet deep. This is the Spey casting techniques with a short rod (9').

I think the lower Trinity River would be more open and conducive to using the longer 13-14 foot Spey rods.

[Adam Grace]

On my last trip to the Trinity, which I have not posted about because there was nothing much to tell about, I loved fishing my 12'8" Scott ARC spey rod. Jason Hartwick joined me and my friends from the Fish First fly shop from Chico for the last day of our trip. Here are some pictures from that trip.







We spey fished all day long, without any success, but we had a great time.

I did however catch about 6 HP's the day before in the Bucktail to Steel Bridge drift. Here's the largest of the bunch:

[bigtj]

A little late but better late than never...

I think most traditional 2-handers line 6-wt and heavier are too heavy for indicator fishing the trinity, or steelhead in general, for my taste, anyway. The problem is that these rods are designed to throw 500+ grains of line and thus have pretty thick, less responsive tips. A 12' 5 wt i.e. the latest trout speys might work - I haven't tried them - but casting indicators with something like a Sage 6126, for me, isn't a whole lot of fun. I'm sure many other folks will disagree with me on this because personal preferences differ, but I've got to say that a 6 or 7 wt 2-hander is really meant to fish the swing.

"Switch" rods have been a favorite of mine for indicator fishing for many years and I think they are a great way to go. I use an 11' 3-pc 8 wt Sage RPL for winter steelhead fishing and if I think I might pick up something similar in a 7-wt since most of the winter fish I've been catching are about 30-32". On the Trinity, most of my indicator fishing is done with a 10' 6-wt GLX that I use a 7-wt line on. It's one of the finest nymphing sticks around and in my mind perfect for the Trinity this time of year. It's a little under-gunned for the bigger fish but for the average 6-8 pound steelhead it is perfect, and serviceable for the occasional 10-12 pounder. In fact I used this rod in AK for Silvers and had no problem landing chrome fish with sea lice up to 14 lbs. on it!

I guess what I'm saying is, before you plunk down the cash, be sure to try out a rod if you can, maybe at a demo day or as a rental. If you are like me you might just find the heavier longer rods are too clunky. Sure, they're long and help with mending, but they're also heavy and less responsive. It's up to you to decide at what point length and weight turn from an asset to a liability for indicator fishing.

Good luck,

-John

PS Bill hit the nail on the head...using a single hander with 2-handed techniques is far and away the way to go on the Trinity!

PPS if you do get a longer 2-hander try fishing the swing a little more. Not as many grabs as with the bobber but it is such a more pleasant way to fish with a 2-hander.

[steve sullivan]

It is very brushy so thinking back on those days I would like a longer rod, but not too long, with a floating line. Maybe a 10' single hand, 11 foot Switch rod or a 12' Spey rod?

I would think that some "single handed Spey casting" would be killer when you are backed up to some 15 feet high willows and waded 4 feet deep. This is the Spey casting techniques with a short rod (9').

I fished the upper trinity with a 12.6 foot spey and it seemed way overkill. I had wished I had brought my 7 weight (aftma, not spey) 2 handed 11 foot winston 2bx. Beulah has a 10.6 foot switch rod that is just a cannon, and light as a feather. Fetha Styx is going to be coming out with a Pro Switch rod using beulah as a blank, it will be preety awesome.
Also, I think TFO's 5 weight (aftma) rod that you can take the butt off would be preety nice for the budget conscious for the trinity.