Our Boy Is All Grown Up

This past weekend was supposed to be a 3 day trip to the McCloud River. I'd tried to fish this river twice this past summer but both times something came up and I couldn't go.
The plan finally came together so me and a buddy from work were on our way to McCloud at 4am on Saturday morning.
The forecast was 4 inches of snow above 3000 feet, rain snow mix below that for the entire weekend and that's exactly what we got. Allen and I fished in the rain all day on Saturday at Ash Camp. We couldn't get down to Ah Di Na because we were supposed to meet our other buddy Nathan and he drives a... ahem...Miata.

I caught fish on a size 12 Irresistable October caddis and a size 16 flashback PT and size 18 PT dropper. I probably caught a dozen fish but all were small, from 6-10 inches. I switched to a nymph rig to try and get my flies into some deeper pools but I didn't catch anything. On Sunday I nymphed with October Caddis Pupa #12, copper johns, PT and even some midge patterns and could only manage one small fish. We had a nice PED hatch and I had some fish rise to my 16 Para Adams  but didn't hook any.
We had to leave around 2pm because Allan hurt his shoulder or some bullshit.
Nathan never showed on Saturday night because his ahhh....Miata got stuck on a paved hill with about an inch of snow on it. He got a hotel in McCloud and left his car there while we fished on Saturday. We picked up the Miata after Allen pussied out and went home and drove down to the Upper Sac. Our options were pretty limited with the new ride so we just fished in Dunsmuir. We managed a couple of nice feisty bows on FKA Prince nymphs.
We decided our best bet for Monday was the Trinity. We knew that the crowds were epic, even on Monday but we thought we could probably find a nice run with out a million drift boats or old retired guys sitting there dying along with the salmon.

Luckily I brought my switch rod and my new 6 wt Helios. Nathan used my 6 weight since he only brought trout rods.
 I wanted to swing but forgot my Skagit line. I still swung a black bantum for about an hour for nothing. I got frustrated with my shitty rig so I switched to nymphing with a black stone and a copper john. We used a bunch of other nymphs also. Nathan and I fished the run for about 5 hours and Nathan managed one nice Steelhead, one little half pounder, and I managed a big sucker. It was Nathans first chromer so he's finally come of age. Congrats! Welcome to the world of  jerking awake at night while you set the hook in your dreams.