Trinity report

[Jasonh]

Just got back this morning from a few days of fishing on the Trinity. Fished with MSP saturday night and sunday and then fished with my dad on tuesday and wednesday. I fished solo on monday. Fishing was a little slow and we had to do a lot of searching to find a few fish. Managed to hook three fish on monday and land two, both hatchery fish. Lost a really hot fish guessing around 10 lbs or so. I think it spent more time in the air than in the water! Tuesday my dad landed a nice halfpounder and i hooked three fish again landing only one. A nice wild fish of 5-6 lbs. The two i lost were very hot and one broke me off in the air! Yesterday we fished hard and only found one fish, hacthery hen around 5-6 lbs. All fish were hooked on the swing with either floating lines or type 3 tips. The fish were not too picky. I landed fish on three different flies. We decided to leave this morning as the smoke from the pigeon fire was awful even down in willow creek. Visibility could not have been more than 3/4 mile. Not to mention having sore eyes and having to breathe smoke all day. All in all, the fishing was great, catching ok. There are fish in the river but they are on the move with the low clear water. Should be pretty good here in a couple of weeks. I'll be back!
20" hatchery on jay-z hilton.

head shot golden stone spey with rubber legs.

wild fish taken on #3 Autumn Hilton.

Dad with a nice halfpounder.

Smokey sunset in the willow creek valley.

Dad fishing a productive run!

[Matt Frey]

Good looking fish! Looks like fun. Thanks.

[MSP]

Nice report Jason. I think you're right, we were about 2 weeks early. Hopefully the smoke will subside before we can get back up there. It was pretty bad when I left on Sunday, probably didn't get much better after that. A little rain just might be the ticket for the fire and the river.

At least you got some fish Jason, all I caught up there was this!

[Adam Grace]

Nice pictures Jason. Your Canon camera is awesome...I'm jealous.

Great report and nice fish. I'm gonna go fishing with my fellow Fish First! employees for two days in the last week of October up there. I'm bringing my spey rod!

Did you use a spey rod during this trip?

Could you take some pictrues of those crazy-named flies for us to see?
I'm curious to see what they look like.

[Darian]

Hey Mike,..... whadja catch the furry tan thing on

[Jasonh]

Adam, i did use my spey rods this trip, both the sage 6126 and scott 1287. I fished the new cnd gravity point spey line on my scott and that line rocks. Puts the windcutter to shame. If you have not tried it, give a try when you get a chance.

Here are pictures of the three flies i fished the most this trip and had success with. The jay-z hilton, autumn hilton, and october caddis spey. The jay-z hilton is a pattern tied by Jim Zech that has been successful on the trinity, klamath, and rogue. The Autumn hilton is probably the most productive pattern i fish on the trinity. It was designed by Jeff Bright, who fishes the Trinity a lot. I like to fish it in a size 2-6 tied really sparse. The last is a pattern i developed last year called the october caddis spey #6-8. I hooked two fish on this fly that absolutely inhaled it. Really hot fish and i did not land either one.

Jay-z Hilton


Autumn Hilton


October Caddis Spey


Jason Hartwick

[MSP]

Darian, I got him on a Fox Poopah, what else? You'd be surprised at what you can get on them.

Jason I really like the close up photo of the fish's head. Very nice!

[jbird]

Thats awesome Jason...What a great looking/sounding trip. Life just wouldnt be the same without steelhead...would it?

Mike, I am holdoing my breath til you start to slay 'em and post your successes with photos

Jay

[MSP]

Jay, I'm not sure that is a good idea health wise. Since I'm not living on the river this year I don't think I will run into the same results as last year. Since it is a 4 hour drive to the river now I can only hope to hit right when I do get up there. Your going to have to take up the slack this year and keep those Rogue reports heading down this way. Good luck and keep those reports and photos coming. All I do these day is clean up puppy poop wet spots! Hope to have some reports soon, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

[jbird]

Okay, I'll breathe a little. . The cool thing is now that youve got some good confidence in that fishery, you can probably maximize the time you do have.

I hope I can take up some slack in the reports. Its actually been kinda tough on the rogue lately. May be a personal problem. But we're certainly not knock'n 'em dead....yet.....

Jay