December 7th, Trinity River
The "Fantastic Foursome" of Jim Livingston, Duwayne Norton, Harry Petrakis and Tim Loomis were reduced to the "Dynamic Duo" of Duwayne and Tim for the annual December Trinity River float. Harry was recuperating from his recent shoulder repair and Jim was busy relocating from Santa Cruz up to the Mt. Lassen area.
Down to two fishermen, we opted for one guide, Geno Bernero, to lead us into the wet and cold wilderness of the Shasta Trinity Alps in search of winter steelhead. Early that morning, Geno was notified that eight other boats were preparing to drift the run he'd selected. This caused a change to the plan B drift, West of Douglas City Junction. We saw fish roll six times in the froggy water of the river where we put in but Geno insisted that we were going to see better water downstream, 100 yards down stream to be exact.
Geno dropped anchor and had Duwayne fish off the bow while he rigged my rod. Both Duwane and I used a cast of three flies, Top fly was a #10 black stonefly with rubber legs. Middle fly was a #14 red copper John. Dropper was a #16 orange glow bug. Geno used the balloon indicator we learned about on the Green River years earlier. Finally I had something I taught Geno! Within a couple of minutes Duwayne hooked the first of two chromers he was to land. The second followed on the third drift after releasing the first fish. Both were magnificent in color and size, about 24" long and 5-6 lbs. After his second fish was released Duwayne felt that he was sure to land many more so, at last, he let me get my line wet. It took me only five drifts to land my first chromer. It was a pound or two heavier and an inch or two longer than Duwayne's fish. The rest of the day saw Duwayne go fishless but I was lucky enough to land three more, all in the 6-8 pound range. Geno did indeed put us onto fish.
We drove back into Redding after our full day of fishing and had dinner with Brian Bommarito who had spent his day guiding up on the Klamath. But that's another story for another newsletter. - Harry Petrakis