August 29 - 31, 2013. Trinity river by Lewiston.
After a month of Les Miserables, and Celtic Camp, and a week to catch up on other work and prepare for the trip, I take the boys camping for a week. We spent 3 nights at Lassen park, at Lake Manzanita. We hiked to Bumpass Hell and the Cinder cone. Nice time there..
Camping trip, Day 4:
We packed up the campsite, drove down to the store and used the showers. Off to Redding on the 44. We got off at a likely looking place to find a Starbucks, for internet so I could look up where the fly shop is in redding, but ended up at the Shasta Mall without any starbux, but they did have mostly working net. Fly shop was only 7 minutes away, so that worked out well. I got some advice on where to go, Hayden Flats campground, which we then ended up not going to at all. I bought some steelhead flies and nymphs too, as this is the polite thing to do when going in for information. Boys called mom, while I was in an actual starbucks to get some coffee. Off on the 299, and I turned right to go to Lewiston, thinking that this was Lewiston road where the Trinity Fly Shop is located. Well, that was wrong, but we bumped into a sign for the fly shop, and Lewiston road when we got to Lewiston, so no biggie. We almost missed the flyshop guy; he was out when we came in, and we were just leaving when a truck pulls up. This was good as we got some great info from him. Very nice man, named Herb. (Hell.. if I'd taken Lewiston Rd, we'd have gotten to the shop sooner, probably missed Herb and as a result had a much less fun stay in this region.)
Armed with new directions, (and a few more flies) we decided to stay in the area, and drove to the Mary Smith campground on the Lewiston reservoir, stopping at the Lewiston market for some groceries and ice cream. Some great flyfishing water is just below here. All but 2 campsites were reserved for the weekend, but we got a nice one, next to the last one at the end. Another family came in later, a couple from San Francisco with their 3yearold daughter. She's german, named Delia, and a musician (weird), knows a swedish flute player (weirder), has a nice Fjällräven backpack: we had a few things to talk about. Her husband (Eric) is American, and very nice. Daughter is named Daphne. Very cute.
We went down to check out the river, and I did a little fishing. A very small PMD hatch is going on, but I'm there to figure out the 2-hander. Super fun being on the water, swinging a green butt skunk. No bites, but one fish jumped close to me.
Its Veeeery quiet up here. And beautiful. There are bears, but no sightings the first night.
Linus took some photos:
This reel is too heavy for the 6:er.
The last morning. Nautilus reel balances perfectly.
Day 5:
I wake up at 5:30 needing to pee, and stay awake. 7hrs sleep, so not bad. I watch the sunrise while I make pancakes before the boys wake up, and have breakfast pretty much ready for when they crawl out of their tent..
I reeeealllyy want to go down to the river, so we manage to do that around 8:00am. I talk to this funny guy who is preparing to go fish. He's pretty opinionated, and seems kinda San Francisco, or at least Bay Area. The casting works out better today, I'm getting the hang of it. The boys are hanging out in the car reading and doing D&D prep. I try the black bunny fly (nothing), the hare's ear nymph (nothing). Then I switch to the 5'/5' sinking MOW tip and put one of them little peacock soft hackle flies that I tied about 25-30 years ago at while working at Creative Sports. Nothing in the same spot, but I go up and talk with the upstream fisherman who is just leaving. Nice guy, friend of Herb at the fly shop, and gives me a tip to try up by this rock over by the big drainage pipe. Well, after a bit of casting I have a bite, and this little steelhead jumps like 3 times, splashing water. I get it in close to me, and as is classic, about when I have the leader in hand (was this the mistake?), heading over to where my camera is, the fish comes off and disappears. Well, I'm really thrilled anyway. :)
Back at the capsite now, and time to cook lunch and take it easy. In the afternoon I leave the boys for a while, and do some exploring, plus a little shopping. I drive back to the flyshop, ask more questions about the area and get the local river map. I also pick up some "skating flies" to try out. I took a peek at the Bucktail Access area, and found a beautiful, deep pool, and a trail that headed upstream along the river. Downstream were houses on the opposite side. It looks like a place where people launch drift boats, but upstream it looked very intriguing. I was considering getting the rod out, when this jeep pulls up and drives down the road, music playing, teenagers with fishing rods -- and I decide to move on.
Later, I went back to the river, switched the line setup to the "steelhead scandi" line and a floating polyleader, and fished a little, without success... not sure what the technique is for the skating flies; I'll have to ask Jeff when I have my lesson next month. My left wading boot has suffered a pretty serious failure, coming apart in two places :(. I ran into another guy, a local, who was very informative about fishing this stretch. Interestingly, there was now a nice hatch going on, but no fish were rising. He thought that they were spooked by the changing river conditions (they had just released a bunch of water, and now it was going down again).
Day 6:
I had made a deal with the boys that I could leave early to go fishing, and be back by 7:30. I woke up a little after five, and felt anxious, but it was too early, and fell asleep again. Woke up again at 6:30 and cursed myself for falling asleep like that. Got up and went down to the river. I only had a half hour to fish, which was annoying, as I didn't feel relaxed. There was a family of guys and at least one kid setting up to go down. All fishing with "bobber" indicators. Not my style.. No hits, nothing, but I finally figured out that if I aim the cast at 6 feet above the far bank it goes out nicely. Yay.