The Trinity, Klamath, Rogue, Smith and Umpqua rivers are storied northern California/ southwest Oregon steelhead fisheries. When I was first pursuing steelhead fly fishing in the 1980’s, I spent many a rainy winter evening reading about the pioneers of the area; Bill Schaadt, Peter Schwab, Major Mott and of course the legendary Zane Grey. They wrote of rugged country, wild rivers and sizable steelhead runs including the trouty ‘half-pounders’, all responding eagerly to the fly. The first steelhead flies I tied and fished were developed for these rivers such as the Silver Hilton, Brindle Bug and Green Butt Skunk. I continue to use these flies today.

All this to say I was thrilled when friend Steve Jones gave me a call inviting me to share a boat on the Trinity River to swing some flies in one of the stronger steelhead fisheries on the west coast. So, I grabbed my gear and off we went for a two-day adventure.

Put In

We fished the same run both days to great effect. Pretty much had the drift to ourselves. The skinny water dissuaded many who did not want (or could not) walk their boats through.

The Trinity flows for 165 miles through the Klamath Mountains and Coast Ranges of California, with a watershed area of nearly 3,000 square miles. It was designated a part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System in 1981. The Trinity’s steelhead runs, like all on the west coast have suffered from drought, dams, overfishing and other insults such as hydraulic gold mining from the 1850’s, the effects of which are still visible today. The most recent were the devastating fires in 2020 that burned significant portions of the watershed including the outskirts of Redding and other communities. .

Through all this the steelhead have persisted with the 2020 – 2021 fall run of steelhead estimated to be from 2,434 – 4,858 fish. Fish are from 4 to eight pounds with the occasional 10 pound ‘bruiser’.

Down the River

Beautiful January day. Not necessarily what you want on a steelhead trip. But welcome just the same. Fish did not care.

We were guided by Brian Bommarito out of the Fly Shop in Redding. I rarely if ever have used a guide, and that is a mistake as I was to find out. Brian had the river and its fishery wired, was a pleasure to fish with and spent as much time getting us to be better fishers as getting us on the fish, which he did.

With the winter water temps, Brian strongly dissuaded us from swinging flies and set up our rods with two fly nymph rigs. The flies were small and trouty: a #12 Golden stone with a #16 peridot trailer. Color me skeptical, but I was wrong, again. Over the two days we brought to hand 10 fish from 6 – 8 pounds and lost several others, including one easily topping 10 pounds. The fish were in very specific lies in each run and I have to credit Brian to knowing exactly the drift we needed for success. At the end, it was one of the best days of steelheading I have had in many years.