Keep Calm and Fly Fish

Beautiful North Coast

This past weekend Amanda and I went on a camping trip for our 5th year anniversary. We left Friday afternoon and stayed the night in the car at Big Flat campground. We woke up the next morning to drive and camp at Patrick’s Point State Park near Trinidad. After a day of adventuring, hiking, and driving we left Sunday morning to fish the Trinity River on the way home.

Patrick’s Point
Its been a long time since I’ve been to the northern coast and it was exciting for both of us. We hiked the trails in the park to tidepools and watched some gnarly waves crash against the huge rocks. We saw a huge variety of wildlife I had ever seen in one trip including rabbits, bears, seals, ocean critters, salmon, elk, and deer.

The Scenic Northern Coast

We were able to drive through the redwoods and take a few pictures of the huge trees. The weather was damp but not freezing cold. In all, it was an awesome trip that we will definitely do again in the future.

Climbing a Giant Redwood

Trinity River
On the way home we stopped at several spots for me to fish. We drove and worked our way upstream from the lower part of the river near Willow Creek close to the top of Douglas City. I learned several things about this river:

1. You cannot make it a day trip.
This river requires that you fish it at least two days in order to be successful. There is a lot of water to cover. The big fish are there but they are aren’t going to be easy to find.

2. You need to have a planned strategy.
The geography of the river changes from the lower, middle, and upper reaches. This means different bugs and techniques need to be planned ahead of time to minimize time spend figuring out where the fish are and what they are eating.

3. It is a big river.
Although it is very accessible, the river is long, deep, and wide in various areas. You need to think safety first because no fish is worth your life.

4. You need a switch or spey rod.
Again, there is a lot of water on this river. Unless your fishing from a drift boat, its going to be difficult getting to areas and covering water where the fish are holding with just a single hand rod. Its still do-able but your doing to do much better if you can cast and present your flies further.

I caught my first around Big Rock. It was a nice skinny half-pounder that put a nice bend in my rod. We stopped around several places but I wouldn’t see my next fish until we fished around the North Fork of the Trinity. It was just a 12” native that decided it was hungry.

Trinity River Half Pounder

Around Douglas City my rod was caught on a snag and 2” of the male ferrule broke. I’ve had tips broken before but this was entirely new to me. I had to end the fishing prematurely but seeing how it just wasn’t my day I decided to give into the river. Next time…

Thank god for fly rod lifetime warranties.
Guess its time to finish setting up and using that switch rod I bought until my rod is repaired.