Steelhead, Wherever!
I was looking forward to escaping my work life, working in a small box with too many people, pills and personalities. And I love to see and fish new waters, probably due to the residual effects of one of my former lives involving frontier dating. The last time I fished with ace guide Chris Parsons he had mentioned the marvels of the Klamath River steelhead. Lots of half pounders and amazing 8, 10 pound plus adults. I made a mental note (in the middle of a mend) to arrange a trip to the Klamath for some winter steelheading, (Yes, you too can look like a snow monkey...).
Due to circumstances beyond our control, my usual partner and mentor, Ed Kelleher couldn't make it. So, plan B, short version was to fish it with Ken Reed, my friend from the SCFF, a little later in the season than was ideal (3rd week in February). This was looking like a good decision as the Klamath was blown out January and early February.
As recommended by the The Fly Shop we stayed at the Yreka Super 8 motel (3.5 stars). (The Redding Super 8 will give you a 10% discount just for mentioning The Fly Shop.) I was incentivised by Chris's half day rates for Wednesdays on the Klamath. (See his web site for other discounted days: www.bethefly.com.)
When Chris met us at the Yreka Black Bear at 0800 he didn't have on his usual "glad to see you" smile and we soon learned that although the flows on the River K were low enough to fish (although a little on the high side) the river was way, way too muddy.
So, as usual, life is about how you handle plan B. We took a sight-seeing drive to the river to take a look. Yes, MUD. No one was sure why there was so much mud but, there was rumor of a collapsed canal upstream (unconfirmed), that had dumped tons of mud into the river.
Chris' Plan B was to fish the lower Sac half of Tuesday and for a full day Wednesday and with luck, get us up to the Trinity River Thursday, hoping for some leftover winter steelhead. Chris spent some of our time on the lower Sac teaching Ken & me how to do the type of long, long drifts that would be needed to get a steelhead hookup on the Trinity. I let Ken try out and use my 10 ft 6wt TFO (love that rod) and of course he took to it like a duck to water.
So we caught and boated about 30 beautiful, beautiful rainbows Wednesday. On the Trinity, Thursday, Ken got his first adult steelhead (see picture), a brown and a couple of wild quarter pounders. I had a nice brown, two wild quarter pounders and an 8 pound hen on for about three minutes, until (Chris said) she rolled on the line and hooked herself with the trailing egg. At that point I lost control of her head and of course she broke off. I did get my wish to fish new waters, a part of the Trinity that I've never seen before.
Great trip. Thanks, Ken, for the great company and the use of his truck. Nice work on that first steelhead, and for not smothering me in my sleep for my buzz saw snoring. And, again many thanks to Chris Parsons, my favorite guide. He saved all of the days with a great plan B. - Tom Pelikan