Northern California’s Winter Trout

It seems like after the general trout season is over, people put there trout rods away and head for their favorite piece of steelhead water.  Last year the Northern California river of choice was the Trinity River with a run of some 60,000 fish!  The only thing that could equal that was the number of anglers that showed up to fish it.  This season, however, the fishing on that river has been more realistic and back to normal.  Steelheading is a lot like duck hunting.  If the birds aren’t down from the north, then you’ve just wasted a lot of gas!  It’s the same thing with steelhead fishing….if the fish aren’t in, then you are spinning your wheels!  But, don’t put that rod away just yet!  There is still a lot of fishing to be done and a lot less people around.  I haven’t run into one person on the Pit River this winter while fishing, yet the crowds on the Lower Sac are spread out and the fishing on that water has been pretty darn good this winter!  A few of our local lakes, Baum lake, Lake McCumber, Keswick Res and others have some excellent midge fishing starting about now and running through spring.  Later this winter and early spring we will start to see some calabatis going off, so for further updates just drop me a line or give me a call; I can certainly help you get lined out on something or another that can peak your interest!