Dog's Country

Off to the land of  half loony hippie retirees, big and small time bud farmers,  window busting meth heads, surly Indians,  brain damaged Gulf War vets and some of the most amazing wildlife and scenery the country has to offer. My first steelhead trip in a couple of years. The fish of ten thousand casts.

Lead Bomber and I met up and ditched his ride at the nut tree 4:30 Thursday afternoon. Kurt travels expedition style and requires several porters to carry his shit. Inflatable yaks, refrigerators, sides of elk etc. We ran hard to Weaverville after decent Mexican dinner in Redding and arrived at the house around 9. Friend of the family gives him access to a great cabin right on the river in Junction City.  On the water at 9:00 AM Friday.

Talent Scout

Cold and foggy. Drift boat rolls by and curses our trip saying we should have been here two weeks ago. Move a couple of times. River is up and looking GREAT. We threw:
#5 blue fox
Little cleo
Mepps
Kastmasters
Wooly buggers
bead head nymphs

Everything but

Maybe should have been drifting roe or crawlers through the deep holes more. In desperation we planned our attack on this fish weir.

Wier the world

Another fisherman

Rare Fuzzy eagle

I picked up  a nice brown early on a chartreuse blade #5 Blue Fox spinner. Dark winter colors. Not the target species but had a  mean hook to the jaw.

Head Shot

Brownus Troutus

and got chased by half pounders on the bugger/bubble.
Kurt got a few punters. We explored thoroughly stopping dozens of times climbing down to every likely spot.

Local Bar

Fish Crib

Falls on the Trinity

green scene

Pounded it out for 8 hrs and retired to  Bloody Marys, salad Steak and baked potato at the River City Grill and crashed for the night.

Resolve to head the 1.5 hrs to the Klamath next morning and run to Weitchepec passing some fabulous water enroute as well as transiting from Hoopa to Yurok land. Hit Aikens creek to find the water high green and fishable.

Aikens

Paranoid about leaving my truck somewhere too remote due to recent crackhead activity evident on the ground in the form of broken glass. Worked it for 3 hrs. Looked great but half pounders only.

Mini Steel

Punter

Spent the day checking out a lot of amazing water

Early melt

Confluence

EZ access

Nothing but half punters on the K so we head back to the Trinity ending up back at Social security Bar.

Sylvan Learning Center

Late in the day we get checked by Mr. Ranger Jr. Warden guy and he also confirms that we shoulda been here two weeks ago.

Goodbye for now