After a very successful and enjoyable trip last January, Sandie and I returned to fish for steelhead on the Trinity River in Northern California for the second year, this time for three days with our guide Aaron Grabiel.We learned from last year that it's absolutely necessary to be prepared for cold, wet weather. So, we brought a few extra layers along and some better gloves. Armed with an assortment of rods and lines to test we hit the river early on the Friday morning. The morning was a cool 28 degrees and overcast. No boat traffic in the river. Aaron rigged us up and the routine of cast, upstream mend, downstream mend, recast begins. Regularly, we'd respond to Aaron's "hit it, hit it". Occasionally, we'd change from the left side to the right side of the boat. The day was relatively slow. The overcast quickly became a clear sunny day, but the warm layers of clothes never changed.
A few good strikes happened, one fish was achieved. I was quickly reminded that this was real steelhead fishing, a few strikes and maybe one or two fish for the day. So, by that definition, it was a successful fishing day. We were spoiled by last year's trip - about 25 fish in two days. That's now counting the missed fish. I fished an Echo 2 7wt with a Rio Steelhead line which both performed nicely. Sandie fished her Sage XP 8wt with an Airflo Sixth Sense line. We fished under an indicator using two nymph setup and used 2-4 Dinsmore AAA weights. Our roll casting skills were definitely put to the test. Aaron's ability to fix tangled rigs was tested too.
A good day overall, quiet and relaxing and we got in the groove.
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