57 Days

That's how many times I was out on the water this past year.
Notable memories:
1. First Carp on a fly
2. First time ever fishing in Kansas and Missouri
3. First Coastal Cutthroat
4. First time fishing the Rogue River
5. First Musky on a fly
This year has brought me many amazing fishing opportunities and I'm looking forward to more in 2013. My goal for in the New Year is to fish more than 70 days. That means cutting back at work and I think that can be done.
I also want to make sure and keep a positive attitude about all kinds of fishing. I don't want to fall into a  "purist" frame of mind, I don't think that's cool. People should fish in whatever way makes them enjoy it most. If you want to use a bobber every time you fish, if you want to use trout beads, if you use a spey rod to indicator fish, so be it. The above are all things I've recently heard people speak poorly of and I sat, listened, and just respectfully nodded.
Just have a great time and stop to smell the air and listen to the river, or lake and the animals that make that place their home.

Hopefully 2013 will bring me closer to this place!

Lower Yuba 12/18

Took the new whip out for its inaugural trip to the Yuba this past Tuesday. It was great. My buddy Chuck and I cruised out at the leisurely hour of 7am and were fishing by 9:30. The ski/snowboard rack works great for transporting rods.

 The water was high and off color but the fishing was good. We spent more time hanging out and looking at the water than we did fishing but managed a couple of nice fish on egg patterns (still some spawning salmon in the river) and big stone fly patterns.
I also spent about an hour swinging a olive/black wooly bugger and had two takes but didn't set well and came unbuttoned.
If you go, use a lot of weight to get the fly way down to the bottom, nothing new there, but with the higher water its even more of a necessity. I would suggest swinging dark streamers also.

Trinity River 12/7-12/9

The original plan was to take my brother who came in from WI and my buddy Scotty who came in from CO to the Trinity on Friday, have them catch a Steelhead, and then leave the crowds for the Pit River. Mother Nature had other plans.
The Pit was completely blown out as was everything else in the area. Luckily the upper section of the Trinity, all the way to about Junction City was fishable. Because of the high water the sections down river further were a little tough to fish.

Carson with a nicely colored Trinity fish

We hit Graveyard hole early on Friday morning and each caught nice hatchery fish. Fish were caught on Hot Turds (Rubber Legs with a bright orange lead bead), Psycho Prince, Prince, Eggs. I swung flies for a while for nothing.
Saturday we fished Steiner Flat road where we could. There were so many people on the river I couldn't get into some of the good spots but that was expected. We only caught a couple of smolts and one Brown.

Scotty with a nice Hen

That night at dinner we spoke with some guys who were drifting with guides and said they did good down river further around Junction City so I think the fish that had come up after the rain weren't quite holding around Steiner Flat Road yet. We didn't want to drive all the way down where all the drift boats were gonna be so we made the call to fish the top section again on Sunday. We went back to Graveyard hole and caught 5 more fish in about an hour. All hatchery fish, but nice fish.

As a side note. My brother and friend were using 6 and 5 weight rods. I get a lot of people in the shop wanting to buy 7 and 8 weights to fish the Trinity but those rods are overkill in my opinion. If you're going I think a 9'6" or 10 foot 6 weight is perfect for this river. A light spey or switch rod is also awesome.