it’s spring here in western trinity county and the flowers are a bloomin’, the fields are bright green and babies are popping out all over the place. the birds have em’ the deer have em’ and we even found one out in our cabbage patch…. meet little forrest fulton. the next generation to terrorize trout all over the state of Jefferson and beyond.
spring steelhead fishing here on the lower trinity has been very slow this season with half pounders making up most of the catch. they are a real kick on a light trout rod but after years of wide open march madness to look forward to i must say the catching is a bit of a letdown. sorry to sound like a broken record but this has been the case across the board for the entire season. the department of fish and game missed the mark in a most severe way in regards to their run predictions and from the looks of things they are predicting another “banner” run for this next fall in the klamath basin. every year is different and i have not found their run predictions to be an indicator of anything in the past so we will just have to wait and see what comes up the river next fall. as for the ocean fishery, we will likely have no salmon season again, and due to the great expense of maintaining a top notch commercial ocean charter boat with very little interest in long range bottom fishing trips i will no longer be offering saltwater guide trips.
the fishing in the lower/middle trinity has been very slow for the last week or so. there are some native steelhead around but the odds of running into an aggressive fish that hasn’t already been spooked by someone else is not very good. if we don’t get alot of rain soon we will be looking at pretty serious drought conditions for next spring and summer. most of the driftboat trips for the last few weeks have been a struggle to get a fish or two with a few skunked days as well. i was beginning to feel that i was in a fish catching funk that needed to end. a solo day on a remote river is a good way to shake the skunk. lets hope it carries over to the driftboat. 
The river is back to low and clear and there are very few adults around. we have to work hard for every one we get but they are really nice fish when they finally do show themselves. mostly there have been native steelhead and halfpounders but a few sea run browns are starting to show up. the water looks perfect below the south fork and i have been hearing of fresh fish coming into the lower klamath over the last few weeks so maybe soon we will see a big influx on new fish. one can hope. we’ll keep trying.
Greetings,
the lower trinity River is low and clear and badly in need of some water. there are lots of half-pounders and a very few adults.
Caught this nice native at the end of the day.
Alex
The last rain brought in some big bright freshies. A good week was had by all who were on the coastal streams. another good shot of rain could bring on round two. we’ll just have to wait and see. the lower trinity has been very slow lately so it is now time to watch the weather and streamflow gauges to find the next hotspot.
although the catching has been a little slower than normal, the size of the salmon has been pretty exciting. the run size appears to be pretty good but the river is very low and in years past i have noted slower fishing following large forest fires which we have certainly had this year. as long as we keep catching a few of those big kings every day it is pretty hard to complain much about the success rate. the steelhead have been rather large this year too, though they are almost all natives and must be released. 
the fishing has been a bit spotty this season but there have been some excellent days as well, just ask fred and lance! native steelhead have been large and healthy this year and though the numbers are not as high as last year there have been some very good days and as of yet no skunked days. on the day pictured below we got our first fish at noon and then had a field day until dark. mostly all native steelhead with one very LARGE exception, a salmon that we never saw.
i got out on the river for the first drift of the season today and had a little unexpected fun. my buddy tyson and i were just hoping for a nice little summer float and some nice scenery. tyson had no idea he was about to get his first summer steelhead, and what a screamer it was! this is the earliest summer run i have ever gotten from the lower river. suprizing considering the water was probably close to 70 degrees, steelies in the morning, swimming in the afternoon…… 
Lots of fires in the region this spring, that didn’t stop us.
I got my first chinook;
and my new son got to see his first jack;
Alex pulled more than a couple miracle first casts. my camera and I were there to witness it!
anything can happen,
michael