It's a bit early for the Trinity to be on everyone's radar, but that doesn't mean it's not worth doing a little exploring! Kevin Kay and his daughter, Ashely, joined me for a trip below Lewiston to see how the water looked and to see if we might get lucky and catch a fish or two. The bad news is that the smoke is still around due to the Monument Fire; the good news is that we found some fish. In fact, we managed to both hook AND land two nice adult wild steelhead. After getting them to the net, popping off the barbless flies, and lifting them up for a quick photo, both shot off so fast we couldn't even say good-bye! They had a lot of energy (even after being caught!). It's good to see such healthy fish in the river. Ashley's fish was caught earlier in the float and as soon as she hooked it, we watched it jump out of the water a couple of times and we knew it wasn't a half-pounder. "Hey, that's a real fish," I said. Ashley was a pro and even though we were floating through a bunch of rocks and fast water, she managed to keep it on and put it in the net quick. After Kevin jumped on the sticks, I caught mine a bit later after he back rowed the meat of a run so I could have a second pass through it. Second time was the charm!  After I threw a cast and a quick mend, game on! My fish took a bunch of line and I immediately knew it was a decent fish. I'm happy to report that mine was larger than Ashely's (ha ha, sorry Ashley!). Throughout the day Kevin caught a decent amount of half-pounders and all in all the day was a lot of fun and successful. We were just doing some recon and the fish were all bonus! The Trinity River is something EVERY fly angler should get excited about because it's majestic, and the season is really right around the corner. I'd suggest it's something that you start thinking about. Water wise, the flow was just a tad over 450cfs and CRYSTAL CLEAR! As everyone knows, we need rain and I'm hoping we get some soon so that these fires can meet their match and we can get on with our fishing season. We'll keep you posted about how the fishing continues to go over on the Trinity. So far I've been pretty happy about the few trips I've taken so far because we've landed adults each time and anyone who knows anything about managing steelheading expectations knows that results like that are something to celebrate! I'm on the Lower Sac for the next two days and then head up to Alaska for a week. I hope you get on the water soon too!