My best steelhead fishing trip ever!
My recent fishing trip with MSP/Mike Putman to the Trinity River was a trip that I will never forget. The enjoyment of fishing with a friend like Mike greatly enhances a fishing trip.
The Trinity is looking beautiful with the emergence of the Fall colors.
I took plenty of pictures of Mike fishing, just in case another fly fishing magazine would like to feature more pictures of him.
The second morning on the River
I hid behind a bush as though I was stocking a gazelle, I'm very stealthy
Check out this super-duper ACTION shot.
The water evaporating off the rivers surface during the second morning provided us with a beautiful scenery.
The first morning Mike hooked and landed a nice small jack salmon at his favorite and semi-crowded fishing spot.
I went against my love for swinging flie using my sped rod and I used an indicator with my spey rod (GAASSSP!) to get a better drift through Mike's spot, five casts later I hooked and landed a steelhead that Mike approximated to be around 8lbs, Why do those indcators have to be so darn effective! Unfortunately during the fish/camera exchange, after Mike helped me land the fish, it slipped out of our grasp and it got away before we got a picture.
I did however get some interesting pictures of my spey rod/reel excluding the indicator
Later on during our first day, after a nice lunch, we found no other fish but I got to see some new parts of the lower river.
The next morning we decided to give Mike's fishing spot another try. Mike caught a great and powerful sucker :P
Unfortunately that was the only fish caught by either one of us that morning, the fishing for the rest of the day was looking bleak. After lunch we decided to try a super top-secret fishing spot only told to us after a vow of secrecy.
Not long after we arrived at this HONEY HOLE we saw steelhead rolling out in front of us, this spot looked very promissing. I was very happy to catch this 3-4lb steelie and to get a picture of it; a hatchery fish.
About 10-15 minutes later I hooked and landed another nice steelie using my spey rod, actually swinging a sinktip; not fooling around with an indicator. This was a wild fish.
Both of those fish took a large #10 peacock bird's nest pattern that looked similar to all of the Isonychia mayfly shucks that were littered on the rocks by the banks.
Here's a picture of an Isonychia adult mayfly.
A bout five minutes later I hooked and landed yet another steelhead, this time on an old favorite; the Silver Hilton, a small size 8 fly.
I was on a roll thanks to my trusty spey rod, without the long rang and long distance control of my spey rod I don't think that I could have effectively reached those fish with a single-handed rod. The bushes behind me prohibited Mike from getting off a long enough cast to reach the steelies holding area. This was prime spey water/conditions.
Here's a picture of that productive run along with my spey rod.
To my surprise yet another nice steelie succumb to my silver hilton, check out the bend in that spey rod.
This fish was strong and a ton of fun. It launched out of the water, like a couple of the others and then proceded to peel off line, once more getting into my backing. By this time I couldn't beleive that I had hooked and landed 4 nice steelhead when the morning had been so slow. I was further shocked when I hooked into the largest and most powerful steelhead of the day, about 15 minutes after releasing my fourth fish.
That steelie was not much longer than the others but it was heavier. Ain't it perty!
Luckily while I was catching those fish Mike was doubling my numbers of steelhead.....unfortunately his fish were about 4-7" long. I was feeling guilty, I tried to get him to fish the water but he was nice enough to let me continue to catch those steelhead, what a gentleman.
That evening was the best steelhead fishing that I have ever experinced AND I caught them fishing in a way that I truely enjoy with my spey rod, that made every fish even more special. Every grab was exciting!
Even if I hadn't caught those last 5 fish the trip would have stayed in my memory forever. I realize that good fishing like that doesn't come around often which makes the whole catching experince truely memorable.
Thanks again for a great trip Mike.
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nice report
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