Steelhead
Oncorhynchus mykiss
“The fish of a thousand casts”. Well, it won’t take you nearly a thousand casts to hook into a beautiful Northern California steelhead with Five Rivers Guide Service. Catching a wild steelhead is considered by some to be the pinnacle experience in freshwater angling. Lightning fast runs, somersault leaps, tail walking, and extreme head shaking is standard fare once you hook into one of these awesome fish. One thing is widely agreed upon amongst west coast fisherman: successfully landing your first wild steelhead is a life-changing event. It won’t be your last if there is anyway you can help it.
We fish for steelhead in multiple Nor Cal rivers including the Trinity, Smith, Klamath, Mad, and Eel, where we will utilize various fishing techniques depending on season and river conditions. We specialize in utilizing varied fly fishing techniques to land trophy steelhead on the Trinity River, Northern California’s premier steelhead water. Indeed, the Trinity might be your best shot at catching a steelhead on the fly on the entire west coast. As a sweet bonus, we often get into trophy sea-run brown trout that can be just as awe-inspiring as the chromers.
Using traditional “down and across” swung flies as well as indicator techniques, we target these fish from October through March. If you're a first-time fly fisher, we will teach you the basics and get you into a really impressive “first fish” on the fly. You may also use a spinning rod if you prefer - we have light spinning rods rigged with floats and flies that are just deadly.