trinity river

shon42073 · Senior Member

trinity river

lightfoot · Senior Member

All reports I have seen indicate the water level is way down, fishing is tuff and you need a reservation for which rock you want to stand on.

General concensus is we need a storm front or two to move through to get more fish into the river and increase the turbidity a little bit.

shon42073 · Senior Member

thanx for the info. seems like an awfully long drive for uncertain fishing conditions. I'm really itchin to try some place i never have been. so the plan now is to hit the middle fork stanislaus this weekend, ever fished in that area?

Eric · Veteran Member

I fished the Middle Fork a few times this summer. I really like it - it is a classic, small Sierra stream. My posts from my last visit is still there...

Eric

shon42073 · Senior Member

what area did you fish in the middle fork, i was checking out the map and was thinking about the sand bar flat campground area to start with. how is access to the creek as i dont have a truck, just a car.

windknots · Senior Member

I've been up there a couple of times this year, the last being a few weekends ago. The Sand Bar flat area was great, bring a tube if you have one and you can fish the still water above the diversion dam. Even without that you will find plenty of water to work with. There is a trail above the dam that provides very good access to the river. You'll find a wide variety of everything from very large pools that are more like ponds to riffles, plunge pools, and even some meadowy areas. I also fished below the dam, there is no trail so there is a lot of rock scrambling. You'll find plenty of wild rainbows and browns to keep you busy.

On my most recent trip I fished the afterbay and below the afterbay up by Beardsley. There was lots of fish action on the surface. You'll see fish cruising in the still water of the afterbay but you'll find the fishing more rewarding if you head down below it to the moving water. The conventional wisdom of the day was the smaller the better, but I seemed to be doing fine with obnoxious terrestrial looking things like ants and stimulators, though I also had success with copper johns.

Unlike the Trinity you'll likely have the place practically to yourself. There are lots of fishing willing to take a good presentation, and there are some good sized fish in there too. Chances are good you'll be sight casting to some decent cruising browns.

Good luck!

Patrick · Veteran Member

Hey windknots, I was at Sand Bar Flats earlier this summer for the first time. Great camp site, but not many riffles to access. Plus I found lots of bait guys so I planned on fishing at dinner time when I knew they would be scrambling to get back to camp. LOL

If I could live vicariously through someone, I would fish the Middle Fork Feather right now. Cold nights, but the fishing and the fall scenery is suppose to be spectacular right now. If anyone wants to twist my arm hard enough, I may tell the wife I'm off for a couple days next weekend to give that area one last look...

MotoGP · Veteran Member

I like the Markleeville area for fishing. The Aspens are turning color and its quite a site. There are lots of areas to fish (streams, rivers, and lakes). I dont recommend the Markleeville creek though, its all planters and they will take any fly you throw at them (a fish every cast). The Carson River (East fork I think) is fun and has easy access. And then there are some good streams in Sierra County as well. Plumas county is another great area for streams, rivers and lakes (Deer Creek, Feather River, Goodrich Creek, and too many to name) as well. Just my 2 cents! Good luck and have fun.

Otter · Senior Member

Captain,

I have found the Kienes Fly Shop site to be good. They tell you the flies and areas to fish. http://www.kiene.com/messageboard/viewforum anyways good luck. Herniators, bread crust, caddis and stone flies always seem to work.

windknots · Senior Member

Hi Patrick,

I also saw some bait fishermen near Sand Bar Flats, one of them had a nice 20+ inch brown. I had picked up about a 16 incher on a stimulator and saw another rainbow very close to it that was in the 20 inch range and I got the impression that these were not that unusual fish to find here. Mid day was quite a bit slow but the evening hatch was great, I covered quite a bit of trail upstream from the campground and fished it all day long, doesn't sound like much but it was perhaps 1.5 to 2 miles of stream that I covered. I probably didn't get more than a half mile downstream of the diversion dam, it was much tougher going without the trail.

The area that I was disappointed with was up by Kennedy Meadows. The water looked great but it seemed much like a put and take fishery that had been picked clean over the summer. There were camp sites everywhere and the access is easy, so I imagine what the place must look like in the peak of the summer. Even at this time of year there seemed to be a lot of people camping and fishing up there. The fishing was night and day compared with the lower sections. Personally I wouldn't bother with that stretch again, there's too much good stuff that you drive by long before you even reach there.

Patrick · Veteran Member

Hey Moto, why are you talking about Markleville when you've got a place by the MF Feather and its tributaries?

I love the Markleville area to fish, but what I've heard (and expect) are tons of fishermen this month. I did the 10 mile Barney Riley trail this summer (Jeep trail) and
it drops you out at a great section of the East Carson. There is a natural hot tub there that people who frequent the area built some time ago. Plus you can cross the river in your Jeep when the flows are low. Kinda cool if you're into that sort of thing. BTW, the river was blown out the day I drove in so I can't comment on the fishing.

Hey windknots, I fished the area upstream from the campground that had the concrete V on the trail. Lots of big fish holding in the river. Nice destination that I would go back to, but it was awefully crowded. We were lucky enough to be spotted by two guys who just happened to be leaving when we were driving thru the site and they gave us their site. It was so crowded we had another fly fishing group share our site.

I fished the NF Stan this summer a few times at Big Trees and Board's Crossing. Not much to report other than most of the fish are planters until 10". But since my buddy has a place 2 minutes from Board's Crossing it was fun to check out the area.

I'm still trying to talk myself into going to the MF Feather some time in the next few weeks, even if I have to camp and freeze by myself. Poor me.

-- Edited by Patrick at 08:53, 2006-11-02

windknots · Senior Member

Hi Patrick,

When I went to Sand Bar flats I pulled off the road prior to the campground and car camped. I've done this in a number of places and it's great for solo trips, I have a little stove that I use to heat up some oatmeal for breakfast, then I just carry snacks and water in my vest and stay knee deep all day long.

I only hit the NF Stan once this year, no big fish but it was a good early fall excursion. I parked at the bridge in Big Trees and bushwacked my way up from there, skipping the first quarter mile or so. I only picked up one planter, the rest were natives, nothing bigger than around 11", mostly rainbow and a couple of browns. The trail vanishes pretty quickly but it wasn't too difficult to make my way around on things that are probably more game trails than people trails. The fish weren't big, but the river was beautiful and I didn't see any one else other than a few families/bait casters down by the bridge. I did notice a couple other fly fisherman that had parked in the lot and taken off down stream. I imagine they had that section to themselves as well. This was on a Saturday in September. Not as many fish as the middle fork, or so it seemed, but there are certainly worse ways to spend a day.

I'd like to hit the Feather, but the Stan has been a little more accessible for me this year.

MotoGP · Veteran Member

Patrick wrote:

Hey Moto, why are you talking about Markleville when you've got a place by the MF Feather and its tributaries?

I love the Markleville area to fish, but what I've heard (and expect) are tons of fishermen this month. I did the 10 mile Barney Riley trail this summer (Jeep trail) and
it drops you out at a great section of the East Carson. There is a natural hot tub there that people who frequent the area built some time ago. Plus you can cross the river in your Jeep when the flows are low. Kinda cool if you're into that sort of thing. BTW, the river was blown out the day I drove in so I can't comment on the fishing.

Hey windknots, I fished the area upstream from the campground that had the concrete V on the trail. Lots of big fish holding in the river. Nice destination that I would go back to, but it was awefully crowded. We were lucky enough to be spotted by two guys who just happened to be leaving when we were driving thru the site and they gave us their site. It was so crowded we had another fly fishing group share our site.

I fished the NF Stan this summer a few times at Big Trees and Board's Crossing. Not much to report other than most of the fish are planters until 10". But since my buddy has a place 2 minutes from Board's Crossing it was fun to check out the area.

I'm still trying to talk myself into going to the MF Feather some time in the next few weeks, even if I have to camp and freeze by myself. Poor me.

-- Edited by Patrick at 08:53, 2006-11-02

With school its hard to drive for 4+ hours each way to go fish (for only a day or two) so I go to places that are only a couple of hours from Sac. I get up there over winter break (most lakes are open to fishing year round) and summer , but school.... it kills. I'm probably going to get up to the area for the 7th through the 11th to fish before all of the streams close and then thats it until late December.

shon42073 · Senior Member

Thanx for the info. guys. I made it up to the middle fork stanislaus, damn dirt road takes awhile in a car. I stayed overnight at sand bar flat campground and fished about 2 miles upstream and i must say that it is absoluty awesome river to fish, easy to read, and lots of fish. I Managed 11 fish saturday, 8 wild rainbows, average 11 inches, and three browns, 2 were about 8 inchers and one was a hard fightin beatiful 16 incher. Once i got about a mile upstream there were fish holding water everywere, pretty much everything was working, i stuck mostly to a crazy looking #8 black wooly worm, #14 hellgrammite, #14 zugbug, and a #16 prince nymph, I didnt try any dries, didnt seem to b much surface action. On sunday i decided to try the small creek just off the highway, about a mile before the pavement ends and didnt catch much, 2, 8 inch rainbows, I defenitly wouldn't bother with that area again.

windknots · Senior Member

Hey captain, sorry, I forgot to mention the 15 miles of dirt road that it takes to get to sand bar flats, but as far as dirt roads go that one isn't too bad. Glad to hear you had a good trip, that's my favorite type of water to fish. For all the effort that it takes to get there you don't find a lot of casual fisherman, you really have to want to get there in order to be willing to put up with all the travel time, the dirt roads, the camping, and hiking in. Once you're there it's fishing as it should be. I can't wait to get back there, also looking forward to doing some more exploring.