Show: The Fishing Show Station: KNCO File: 10:17.mp3 Air date: 2026-10-17 Source: OpenAI whisper-1 · shrunk from 98.9 MB to 12.4 MB --- transcript --- do not represent those of ownership, management, and staff of Nevada County Broadcasting and KNCO. The KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report with Denis Peirce is a service of Craig Johnson Plumbing. Honest, reliable, and fair. You can find them online at craigjohnsonplumbing.com. The KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report with Denis Peirce is a service of Craig Johnson Plumbing. The KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report with Denis Peirce is a service of Craig Johnson Plumbing. The KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report with Denis Peirce is a service of Craig Johnson Plumbing. Good evening, this is Denis Peirce. We are live here on Fridays with the KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report. And this time of the year, my show is followed by NU football coming up after the end of the Fishing Show. Well, typically I predict that in October, by October 15, is the end of Indian summer and it's the beginning of the fall cool and damp season. And that's not quite happening right now. Today's the 16th and we're looking at nice warm weather through the weekend for sure. And I don't see rain on the horizon anywhere out there, but hang on, dry times are a sign that wet times are coming. It's just a matter of time before we get there. Before we get too far into our program this evening, I'd like to thank our sponsors, Drs. Jerry Chan and his daughter, Dr. Tiffany Chan. Together, they are the Chan Family Optometry. They're located at 360 Sierra College Drive. If you're looking for quality eye care as well as business people that really do a lot and support the community here, you can't do any better than the Chan Family Optometry. In fact, Jerry Chan used to play football for Nevada Union High School and that was quite a few years ago, but he still was a member of the NU football team back, I think it was in the 1960s. So, anyways, good people, great family eye care and if you're looking for an eye doctor, they're the ones that I've been using since I was talking to my wife the other day. I think we've been going to them for about 40 years now. Anyways, Chan Family Optometry. Second sponsor is TrollingFlies.com. It is the time for JFair Trolling Flies at Eagle Lake. I've got a more in-depth report coming up toward the end of the program, but I talked to Tim Noxon this afternoon and Eagle Lake is now just getting down to the lowest of low 60s. I think it was 60 or 61 there this morning. Overnight lows, though, are getting down into the high 20s, which it's the overnight lows that drop the water temperatures and such. It won't be long before the water temperature at Eagle Lake begins with a 5 rather than with a 6. The fish have come up shallow and Tim was telling me that the shore anglers are doing really, really well. I mean, it's very, very common for shore anglers there at Eagle Lake to go home with a limit of two fish and good sized ones at that. Anyways, we're going to get more into the Eagle Lake and such later on in the program. What I would like to lead off with this evening before we get to our guest is salmon fishing, which is really popular with people here in Northern California. I talked to Sean Rainsberger this afternoon and Sean has been fishing down the Sac Metro area. That's where the majority of the fishing pressure is right now. The general rule of thumb is that the vast majority of the salmon that are up in the Feather River complex, as you get upriver towards Yuba City up to Oroville, are tending to be darker fish. The fish up there have turned. There still are some bright fish moving in. The spawning has begun and the peak of the spawn typically happens around Halloween. That's really where the focus is there. If you wanted to fish steelhead egg bite there, it would be a good thing to be aiming for. But, Sean is going to fish tomorrow down in the Sac Metro area and then he's going to head back up to the Feather River. One more try up in the upper stretches of that here. I think it was going to be on Sunday, but those are his two choices. Down at Sac Metro, he said the water traffic down there is considerable. He said there are all kinds of people moving up and down. Typically, the way he fishes down there is he's trolling with spinners. The determinant on how fast you go is typically a lot of times they're going to go downstream with the current while they're going. You've got to go fast enough so that the blades on the spinner will work. That is the speed that you have to go when you're heading down through there. He said people heading back upstream tended to go pretty fast. I had a comment a couple weeks ago from Justin Leonard, who also fishes down there. His recommendation was to get off to the side and anchor up because all the boat traffic out in the center tends to push the fish away from the center. With the relatively high water we've got, the water is flooded up into the bushes on either side. Anyways, that's what's going on right now. Sean was saying that on an outgoing tide, the water speed in the Sacramento River is four-tenths of a mile faster than when the tide is rising and coming in. There is tidal influence in the Sacramento area. Picking what tide you want to fish when you're down there can influence whether your blades or what it is that you're fishing with, what the speed of the water is relative to what you want to fish with. The other thing is your choice of lures down there, whether you're trolling or anchored up. It's all about your lure working properly with the current speed that you're dealing with. Figure that out. Have stuff that works at different speeds. You've got to have something that works at real slow speeds to be up against the edges. You can go trolling downstream a bit quicker, but you won't be the only people fishing down there. The other spot to maybe try if you want to drive a little bit further would be the McColumby River down by Wimpy's, New Hope Road off of I-5, that general area down there. The salmon fishing does continue. We're up against our first commercial break of the evening. When we come back after a word from our sponsor, we've got a new guest, Mario Gell, who's going to be with us. I'll introduce him after our commercial break. If you're a business owner in Nevada or Placer County, who should you choose to maintain your business's landscaping? There's one obvious choice, and here's Adam Weiss to explain. 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Showing through October 22nd at your Prime Cinemas at the Del Oro, Street Fighter, rated PG-13, Whale Fall, also PG-13, and Other Mommy, rated R. Now let's check on the Sutton. Sense and Sensibility, rated PG, The Social Reckoning, rated R, and Verity, also rated R. Playing through October 22nd at your local theaters. Now you know what's showing. Be sure to enjoy a movie on the big screen at Nevada County's two Prime Cinema theaters, the Sutton and the Del Oro. This is Dennis Pearce. We're back with the KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report. And we've got a new guest on the program again this week. His name's Mario Gell. And the back story to this is my good friend Bill McRae was over on the Trinity River this week. And I got in touch with him thinking that he was local here. And he said, no, he's over steelhead and salmon fishing over on the Trinity River. And long story made short, he fished with Mario Gell, got in touch with him. And I've been looking for a guest who frequents over on the Trinity River. Mario is the man. Mario, welcome to the KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report. Hey, thank you for having me, Dennis. Let's start off by how was the fishing with Bill this week? Oh, I love fishing with Bill. First, number one, I always say that for my fishing, I'm blessed enough to where I get to have wonderful clients that I enjoy on a regular basis. And Bill's been with me now for, I think, three or four years. We had a good time. Good laughs, everything. We fished two separate sections of the river. And he fished good. Now, Bill has been having some issues with his hands that have actually gotten a lot better. He's been doing some sound wave treatment on them. So what I try to do is I try to focus on what I call my A-plus runs so that we're not hitting every single run on the river. We're trying to conserve our energy so that we're hitting the good stuff. And it was good. It was fun. Cold in the morning, though, that was the part that was kind of tough. We didn't start until about 8, 39 o'clock each day. And then it got to be where when we were taking off the water, there was like a 50 or 40-degree change in temperature. So 28 one day, 33 the next day. Pretty big shift. So I noticed that the fishing got better as the day went on. Now, also, too, this is my first week out for the fall season. Last year I actually started on October 5th because I work in Alaska in September and I come out to the Trinity typically the first week after I get back at the end of September. Last year, this time of year, we were seeing a lot of adults. They were all behind a lot of salmon. Last year was one of the better falls that I've had, actually, up here as a guide. I've been guiding here for seven years. And on the first day, we ran into some fish. But the day before I was with some other clients, there were definitely more fish active the day before, and we were fishing behind salmon and trying to get those fish that are eating on their eggs, you know. And they weren't really grabbing that much early in the morning, to be honest. And so it took a little bit of temperature change to get that sun to come up, and we were able to hook some half-pounders. And the first day with Bill, after we caught some half-pounders, which they were fun. They were beautiful fish, you know, Trinity River fall half-pounders, which could be defined differently by different people. The few that we caught before the crazy salmon fight we got into were probably about 18 to 20 inches, you know, on a seven weight. They fight really hard, really fun. Go ahead. It's my experience that a lot of people don't understand the geography of the Trinity River. And let me set it up a little bit, because if you only go over there once a year or just drive through on your way to the coast, you really don't comprehend what's going on. But if you come from Redding up over Buckhorn Summit and come down, before you ever see the river, you can turn off and go to Lewiston. You keep going down, you go along the river for a bit, and you come to Douglas City, where you leave the river and go up to Weaverville. And then from Weaverville, you drive another 10 minutes down the hill and you get back to the river, and then you're following the river all the way down. Yes. Where were you fishing, generally speaking, with Bill this week? So I started in Junction City on the first day, and then the second day I did what's called the Canyon. So Junction City is past Weaverville. It's where basically the Road 299 reconnects with the river. Junction City is a good stretch of area for boats and also wade fishing. And that's a pretty popular area right now at this time of year. You're going to see a lot of boats. On Sunday when I was there, I must have counted 12 boats in the put-in area. It's busy. It's busy there. That does say something about the quality of the fishing, if there are that many guide boats, drift boats, working on the Trinity River. A hundred percent. What I try to do is, obviously not everyone can come out here on weekdays, but I try to get some of my key clients to come out on weekdays because the numbers do cut in half. And again, to your point, that is the quality of the fishery in that area that specific time of the year because there's a big bulk of salmon in that area hanging around, and those steelhead like to hang around them in the fall season because it's a good source of protein, eating their eggs and hanging out with them and grouping up behind the salmon. They don't try to stay in front of the salmon because the salmon are aggressive, so they try to push those steelhead out and around. So that was the first day, and then the second day I did what's called the Canyon. The Canyon is a specific area down the Trinity River that not a lot of guides do. You have to do it in a specific boat, specific flows on the river. And Bill had never done it, and he's been coming up here for decades. And I felt like it was an honor to try to just get him down that section to show him how beautiful it is. And that was actually pretty fun, too, on the second day. So, yeah, you're right. There is a lot of different areas on the Trinity River. This time of the year I am focusing more on Junction City. And I have clients that want different things, right? I'll have clients that want numbers. I have clients that want big fish. I have clients that just want to go for a drift. And then I have clients that actually want to try technical things like Scandinavian-style swinging, spay casting and such. And when they want that, I'll go to a different part of the river, and maybe I'll come up to Lewiston where there's less boat, less traffic, and use those lighter presentations and more traditional fly-fishing techniques. Okay. Now, you had mentioned the canyon stretch. Now, that starts at Douglas City where the road leaves the river heading to Weaverville, correct? That is correct. Okay. Once you get into that canyon, we're in the middle of October. Does the sun shine in the bottom of that canyon, or is it solidly in the shade throughout the day? It actually shines through the canyon in fall. I would say that it probably starts to get really cold in there in the middle of December. I'll do canyon trips when I have more water moving through there because it's a good spot where fish can move and there's less pressure. But if it's low, if it stays low like this throughout the winter, I won't go through there just because it's so cold for the fish and for us. Because the sun does start to get lower and you won't see as much sun through there. But right now, it's shining bright, really bright. When you go through the canyon section, do you use a raft or do you use a drift boat? I use a raft when the water is low. Actually, last year in January, I was just looking through my pictures from last, or two years ago, January 2024, it was like the end of January. I used my drift boat through there. It was probably 1,500 CFS. It's some technical rowing. I would say that that's probably for this top 40 miles of river. Yeah, I'd say 40 miles of river, 25 miles of river. That's some technical rowing back in there. It can be scary. I would say if you do decide, if someone does decide to try to DIY it, I suggest definitely going down with a guide first. Okay. Gotcha. So a more benign stretch of the river is down in the Junction City area below. That's correct. I love the canyon too because it's just so beautiful. It's a gorgeous area. There's some amazing rock structures through there. You'll run into some boats, but it does spread out really well. Now, the Trinity can get busy in fall, and that's one of the reasons I like to go through the canyon when I have a chance is because I'll see less people. Also, it's beautiful. There are some areas where you can get some fish in deep water pools. You can swing back in there. Yeah, it's a really fun spot, and Bill loved it. He was just really excited about doing it. I got some great pictures of him standing near the water and a nice backdrop of him using my digital SLR camera for him to print out. All right. Well, the next question I have, how would you rate this year's fish run? First, either salmon or steelhead, but I would like to cover both species of fish. Have we come back from the drought? Are we still in a rebuilding phase? What's your opinion based on spending time on the river? Simply put, being here since Alaska, it's been slower than last year and the year before, for sure. I am not also seeing as many adult steelhead in the water like I did last year and the year before. 2024 and 2025 fall season, it was phenomenal. It was amazing. I've got to be honest. I don't know what's changed. It could be a lot of things. I don't have an answer for why it has been so good the past two years, specifically lots of salmon coming back and a lot of adult steelhead for the fall run. From Lewiston all the way down to Hoopa. This year, though, I've got to be honest. It's not as productive as it was last year. I was lucky enough, I think, with Bill, when we were taking time between runs because we wanted to rest his hands and make sure we were fishing the good stuff, I stand up in my boat and I look down and I'm looking around for fish. Last year, I saw a lot of fish. They were everywhere. It was one of those years I couldn't believe it, to be honest. Last year was such an amazing year for adult steelhead, starting in October. I was blown away. 2024 was good, too. This year, it's a lot slower. I'm saying that out loud because I expected it to continue. It is funny because there is someone that told me, Mario, the moment that you expect something on this river, it's an adventurous fishery. Also, there are so many factors that can affect the fish populations. I was surprised, let's just say, seeing what I'm seeing right now. There are a lot of half-pounders around, which is actually different than last year. I'm seeing more of those what we call half-pounders on the Trinity River. They're really fun. They fight really hard. I'm still seeing those around, but not as many adult steelhead in that 22 to 27-inch range fish. I'm not seeing as many as I did last year. Okay. It's been my experience for years on the Trinity that the steelheading really got going in the month of November. Do you still hold out hope that we'll get a good adult run starting a couple of weeks from now? Definitely. I definitely have hope. I did fish lower yesterday. I went down towards the Burnt Ranch area, took my raft down there. I didn't see that many fish. I don't have a permit for the Six Rivers area, which would be where the Forks, the South Fork and North Fork meet, and into Willow Creek and such. So I don't guide that area. I will sometimes do some personal fishing down there. I haven't had a chance, so I haven't gone that far to go fish to see what it's like. But I have hope. I do. I think that what you stated as far as seeing more fish showing up in November, that's been the traditional thing that I've encountered in the past. I've been guiding here for seven years, but I've been fishing here since, like, 2011. And when I would come here for my personal trips after I did my first trip in the middle of winter and I was addicted to the winter fishing, I would start coming here in November not knowing, you know, hey, you could actually come here sometimes in August and start getting fish. But traditionally, I would say they do come. And we want some weather. I'm not going to lie. If we get some weather, it will definitely move fish around. Maybe we'll see some come up the river. But I do think that we might hopefully, and I'm, of course, keeping my fingers crossed for myself and my clients that we do see that run and see more fish show up. All right. We are up against the second commercial break of the show this evening. My guest is Mario Gell. He's currently guiding on the Trinity River, and that's the topic of this evening's program. We're going to be back after a word from our sponsors. 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This is Dennis Pearce, host of the KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report. Drs. Jerry Chan and his daughter, Dr. Tiffany Chan, have been taking care of my family's vision needs for over 35 years. If you have diabetes, you should have a dilated eye exam yearly. Diabetic eye disease is one of the leading causes of blindness in the United States. I recommend you see Dr. Jerry Chan or Dr. Tiffany Chan to have your eyes examined. Their family optometry practice is located at 360 Sierra College Drive, Suite 100 in Grass Valley. That's the third building on the left as you go from the roundabout down toward Ridge Road. They are experienced doctors, they have an experienced staff, and they are a winning team. Hi, I'm Pat Dyer. There are some things that never go out of style. Beautiful craftsmanship, quality that lasts, and creating something that's truly one-of-a-kind. That's what Utopian Stone has always been about. 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Mario is based here in Northern California, and seasonally, he's on the Trinity River, which is where he's spending his guide days right now. Mario, let's talk a little bit about the salmon and where it is on the Trinity that the salmon spawn. Now, the top of the Trinity is up near the town of Lewiston, and we've talked about Douglas City, Weaverville, Junction City, and below. Now, you're seeing salmon throughout that stretch. Are the salmon actively spawning over that many miles of river? Yes, definitely. What's cool about this fishery, and what I've seen a big change over the years since guiding here, by the way, I'm seeing more salmon come back year after year, which is awesome. When I first started coming out here, it wasn't like that. But to answer your question, yes. What we have is a hatchery up by the Lewiston Lake Dam, or Lewiston Dam up here. We'll have fish return to the hatchery, and then we'll also have fish spawn in the river, wild fish. I'll see fish spawning in the river from the dam all the way down to as far as I guide, which is typically Hayden Flat or right above. Yes, typically Hayden Flat. There are fish spawning throughout the river, and right now they are there. What's cool about what I'm seeing this year is that not only are fish already spawning, there's also a lot of fish setting up to spawn. So I think we're going to see a lot of fish active on reds, making babies over the next month and a half until it gets cold and they start dissipating and coming off their reds and letting their eggs hatch. Okay, because up here by us, the Yuba River, the salmon tend to run up as far as they can that they can find salmon spawning gravel, and that sort of fill down the river. I like to think of it as they drive up, and when they don't find any room at the end, they turn around back down until they can find a spot, and that's where it happens there. How many miles of river are we talking on the Trinity that have active spawning salmon? If you went from Lewiston down to below Junction City, how many river miles would you estimate that is? I don't actually know the exact miles, but I would say if I were to drive from Lewiston, let's say the Hatchery, to Del Loma, which is a town right on the Trinity River that I love to frequent, I would say that many river miles, oh man, off the top of my head, I'm going to say 40, 50 maybe. I'd say 50 to 60 miles, so they're active down the whole river. For salmon, I never really focused on salmon on the fly or conventional, but as a river guide on the Trinity, I've got to learn a lot about the ecology of salmon, and watching where they spawn and learning areas where they actually lay their eggs, it's been really cool, because sometimes I'm very surprised on what I see. But for that many river miles of spawning fish, compared to say the Feather River from Oroville down to Gridley, but much below that, there is not good spawning area down there. Wow, I didn't know that. It's more of a canal. They need riffles and relatively shallow oxygenated gravel bars to spawn on, and once you get down in the Gridley area, you're deep water and mostly canal type stuff with a silty bottom on it without riffles. Right. But the Trinity has just got mile after mile after mile, and the Yuba River this year, since the drought, we have not had a strong salmon return there. There are fish spawning in the system, but nothing like what you're describing on the Trinity. What I feel is that the steelhead fishing, in a river that's got actively spawning salmon, the salmon are the food source, whether it's the eggs or they're digging up nymphs and insects and that sort of stuff. But to have that many salmon going is really an encouraging thing over there on the Trinity. Oh yeah, I've seen a big change. Again, I would say for me, being here for not as long as a lot of people, there are some guides that I spoke to and people in the community that fish that say that the returns they've seen over the last five years has been really encouraging. And again, I can't answer why that's the case. There are people that have opinions on what, but whatever they're doing with water management and maybe restrictions on commercial fishing and such, I don't know what's causing it, but it's great to see it. I got to be honest, those times when Bill didn't want to fish or we wanted to take a break and I'm looking for salmon, I love seeing salmon on grids and just watching them do their thing and I slow the boat down. It's really enjoyable to see and just to see them doing it in the wild and not in the hatchery is encouraging. The other thing I really like about the Trinity River, particularly as opposed to the Klamath, is the walk and wade fishing, the shore angling opportunities on the Trinity are terrific. If you go over to the Klamath River, there are spots like Happy Camp and places like that where you get big gravel bars and you can wade, but most of the river, if you drive the length of the Klamath, it's a spot where you're standing on a rock and then you can float your hat with one more step. Oh yes, definitely. It is not a walkable, wadeable thing, but the Trinity is, and for the non-boat angler, the Trinity really is the place to be. I feel like it's a great place to get lost in California for fishing access, river access, and enjoying the river, even if you just like to raft. But like you said, for wade fishing access and exploring an inanimate fishery on foot, I don't really know a lot of places in California that can beat this, to be honest. I'm a big Trinity fan. This place is very special to me. When I grew up, I was always around rivers, the American River, Tahoe Rivers. When I found the Trinity River and I first came up here, it was an epic trip. I did really good, and then I started coming back and spending weekends and weekends just discovering different areas to walk around, looking at Google Earth, and it's kind of endless. It feels like I haven't even really touched a lot of areas, but there are specific areas where I've found fish, steelhead specifically, in specific times of year that I fell in love with, and it's never ending. You can discover something new every weekend if you came up here for 10 years straight, find new holes. Another topic I'd like to touch on are brown trout. Have you taken any brown trout this season in the Trinity? Not yet. I feel like I encounter more brown trout in the Lewiston to Douglas City area this time of year. That's the very top of the river. That's correct, the very top of the river. Last year, I started encountering a little bit more brown trout towards the Junction City area, but no, we haven't hooked one brown trout yet this season on the Trinity, which this place is awesome for brown trout. It's really fun. They're hard to find. We call them Trinity Gold. They're very special, but it's cool that they exist in this river. There was a controversy 15, 20 years ago. I think maybe there might have been more brown trout then, but people were talking on the topic of whether they were sea-run brown trout that moved in and out seasonally, or whether they were just year-round resident fish that were up there. Any commentary on that? I think that there are sea-run brown trout. I really do. I don't know if they come all the way up here, but I have had a friend who did catch a brown trout one year up here in Lewiston. I think that she might have just spawned. Sometimes those big trout, the female hens that are 30 inches, when they spawn or lay their eggs, sometimes they turn bright, dying bright. We caught one that was bright, dying bright. It looked like it ran out of the ocean. This is far up. We're way high up from the ocean up here. It was a huge fish. Gorgeous. I do think that there are sea-run browns. I think they're very rare. Actually, a shout-out I'd like to give to E.B. Dugan. He's my outdoor buddy, and he'll do reports on the Trinity River. I've met him a few times personally. He's helped run a shuttle for me, and I had a great conversation with him in the car one time when we were doing a shuttle about sea-run brown trout and what used to be in the river, what's still in the river. I think there are sea-run browns. Because in Europe, they're known as sea trout. They don't have the traditional steelhead, but they've got brown trout that run from the salt up into all kinds of different rivers in northern Europe with cold water and that sort of thing. I was just curious if maybe that tendency to travel or to run to the sea or something might be... I don't know. It would be nice to think that it did happen over there. Yeah, and I would say, too, that this is not necessarily a brown trout fishery. There are things I know about brown trout that I won't say over there, but at the same time, the controversy is that they're an invasive species. The fish biologists would not like them to be here, I don't think. I don't think that the steelhead or salmon appreciate that we have brown trout here. I don't think you could ever get rid of them completely unless you were to do something like... You'll never be able to get rid of them. They are something that's not necessarily wanted here. I've seen what those brown trout do. They sometimes look like a lingcod on the bottom of the river. It's crazy. Big ones, really big ones. If you wanted to get those ones out of the river, you'd have to do some pretty insane hunting, I think, with a scuba mask. Okay. What are we currently looking at for river flows, cubic feet per second, on the Trinity? Okay, so last year, it was the same time of the year, same day, October 16th. If you go to trrp.net, it's short for Trinity River Restoration Program. They have a website, and they actually have everything published about water management, what they're doing to the river, when they'll change the flows. They have it published every year on October 16th. They drop it out of the dam to 300 cubic feet per second. Now, what that means for the Trinity River is it's pretty low. Drip boats are going to start banging on rocks, and you're going to dent up your drip boat. If you have a raft, you're going to perform a lot better. It's going to be quieter. Of course, for the fish, I have plenty of friends who run really big 18-foot willy boats at 300, no problem. But you need to know the river. It's a technical place to bring your boat if it is at 300. Right now, though, down in Douglas City, it's still running at around 462 because it's further down the river. There are tributaries, but they have dropped it. So now what they'll do is they'll keep it at that until December 15th or any date after that until January 15th for a synchronized flow. These are new things that are published on TRRP. You can go there and learn about it. And from December 15th to January 15th, if a storm occurs, they'll do a synchronized pulse flow above 6,500 CFS to coordinate with that storm. That's a new thing, I think, over the past two years. But other than that, it will just be traditional flows coming out of tributaries and such that will bring up the river cubic feet per second. If you were to go to the CDEC website and look at Douglas City, what number are you looking at there at which an angler could cross the Trinity from one side to the other wading across? Like what cubic feet per second? Well, you know, I would say you wouldn't want to cross the river in specific areas. I had some clients one time. The water was up at 1,000. I didn't know that they were going to go try to go wade fishing. They're sort of new to the game. And they told me the next day, yeah, we went fishing. We tried to go wade fishing in this one spot, and it got really dangerous. And you could wade fish here. You could bank fish up to 3,000. If you know where to look, you're not going to be crossing the river. But I would say that you can find spots to fish. Now, as far as like if you want to wade into some runs, maximum, I don't know. That's a tough one to say. I would say if you're not a strong wade fisherman, then I would limit it to 500 to 600 CFS to really try to get into places. Okay. What I want is just some general idea that somebody, you know, it's a three-hour drive from here. And if someone's going to drive that far, they should be able to look at flows and go, okay, once it gets above 500, 600, things are getting a little dicier, but you can always find a place to fish from the bank. That is correct. And then just for your listeners who are getting interested in coming up here, when the flows do get higher, it's just like any other river, this is a really long river, not compared to like what you had explained, the Yuba, which is long as well, but accessible fishing access on this river is down the whole 299. And when the water starts to increase and we get rain, the flows increase as the further you get down the river because there's more tributaries. So that's always something to pay attention to on trrp.net or looking at a map when you're looking at river flows. The further you go down as the flows get higher, the more dangerous it will be. So just remember that as a wade fisherman, that you want to try to stay higher as the flows get higher. Okay. We're about out of time for this segment of the program. Mario Gell, if someone wanted to go fish with you, how do they find you on the web? They would actually look up tacoflyfishing.com. So I created the name based off of like I wanted it to be something that represents my culture and something that was different than what's out there. So it's really easy. I love tacos and I love fly fishing. So I decided to make it tacoflyfishing. You could find me there. And then on Instagram, I am at tacoflyco, one word, and same with Facebook. All right, but tacoflyfishing.com. I'm sorry, tacoflyco.com. Fly company, so CO for company, tacoflyco.com. Or any number, any series of words that included fly fishing and taco, it's going to come up with you somehow. 100%. Mario, thank you for taking the time to be with us this evening. I enjoyed the conversation, and I'm looking forward to having you back as things on the Trinity change. Let's do it. I would love it. That would be great, Dennis. All right. Thank you, Mario, from tacoflyco.com. We're going to take our third commercial break of the evening. We'll be back after a word from our sponsors. Ace is the place with the helpful hardware, folks. Now is a great time to check your home safety essentials. Save on first alert alarms and fire extinguishers with Buy More, Save More. Spend $50 and save $10. Spend $100 and save $25. Or spend $150 or more and save $60. Now is the perfect time to replace your furnace filters. Buy three Ace basic pleated furnace air filters and get a fourth filter free. B&C, Ace Home and Garden Center. Why is my lawn still drinking like it's July? Good question. Even when it's still hot outside, it's a good time to check your water use. Check your irrigation timer. 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When you get a local State Farm agent, they can help make it easy and help you choose the coverage you need. Plus, they're available online, over the phone, or even in person. I'm so into this. Call State Farm Agent Mike Bratton in Grass Valley at 530-273-0521. This is Dennis Pearce. We're back with the KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report. And I want to just go through a few possibilities of fisheries out there that are actually pretty good right now. Down in the Delta, the striper fishing is good. And if I were to be the one going down there, I would be tending toward the McColumby River. The McColumby in October gets all the fish. The McColumby River. The McColumby in October gets a really good salmon run. The McColumby River Hatchery up by Lake Comanche is run as well, if not better, than any other hatchery in the state. And their returns of salmon to the McColumby River Hatchery are exceptional. And October is the month they come in late. But guys who are fishing the McColumby River, as well as the San Joaquin, the McColumby flows into the San Joaquin, into the Sacramento and down to the Delta. But on that run, from the McColumby, San Joaquin, Sacramento and down, that stretch through there, if you were fishing down there, the striper fishing is good. And you still have a possibility of picking up a salmon as well. The knock on it is the golden mussel thing that I'm assuming is still going on down there in the Delta. You've got to clean your boat well when you come back out of there. But that's a good fishery. The other fishery that's really good this time of the year for boat anglers is Pyramid Lake. Pyramid Lake in Nevada has earned their reputation as the fish farm. It is one heck of a food chain over there that supports a really, really good fishery. The water is still warm over there on the surface. You've got to go down deep and that means pretty much fishing from a boat to get down. But come middle of November, or Thanksgiving anyways, the water will be cooling off and the shore fishing will pick up. If you get a really calm day, there are guys that can go out on float tubes and small catamarans and things like that. But I wouldn't venture too far from shore. See if you can find some deep water close by. But the fish are deep. That's the thing that's going on on the Trinity. Collins Lake is still too warm. We need cooling weather to get down there. What happens at Collins Lake in the late summer, or during the heat of the summer when the shad bait fish spawn, they spawn up in the 80 degree water right up in the shallows. And they stay there until the lake cools off and the lake turns over. And then those baby shad get scattered all over the lake and up on top. And you get a really good top water bite on shad there once the lake cools down and the water starts mixing up. That hasn't happened yet. I don't think we need rainstorms to come through to cool things off. But good, good fall fishing on the Collins is coming up. The other place is Eagle Lake. I talked to Tim Noxon this afternoon. Eagle Lake is fishing extremely well. The Jay Fair top line system where you're fishing in the top 1, 2, 3, 4 foot of the water column. 100 to 150 or more feet back behind the boat. And the hot orange trolling fly is the ticket now. I mean the Jay Fair hot orange fly is it. Tim Noxon was saying last year there is the smaller one that's a size number 8. He said that was the hot ticket last year. He said this year it's the bigger number 4's are what's going on. But both he and I talked to Val Aubrey a week ago. And Brian Ricucci. All three of them mentioned to me that the hot orange Jay Fair fly was what's happening at Eagle Lake. The thing that Tim told me that I found interesting was how many shore fishermen there are at Eagle. And now I asked him when he was fishing is he fishing over shallow water? Is he out over deep water? Where is he pursuing fish? He said he'd like to get close to shore. But you cannot get close to shore without interfering with the casting of the guys who are on shore. And so it's a courtesy to stay out beyond their casting range. And he said that the number of guys shore fishing at Eagle Lake right now with jigs under floats is a real popular way to fish up there. Or small imitations. Spoons or plugs or something like that. But guys casting from shore are doing very well. As well as the guys from the boats. And he says it's very very common to see shore based anglers leaving with their two fish limit. The size of fish for the last three weeks or so has typically been holding around three and a half pounds is a good trout to get. He said just this week he got a three and three quarter pounder and a four pounder on his guide trip. And he believes that there's sort of a sea change happening where the bigger fish are now starting to show up. But still the vast majority of the fish are going to be like three and a half pounds up there. But that's still one heck of a good trout up there. But he said the shore guys are all over that lake doing really really well. I had more thought that shore fishing was more of a colder weather thing Thanksgiving towards Christmas. But he said no. Middle to late October is prime time for guys fishing from shore up there. The boat launch ramp was repaired by the local anglers. The concrete at the end of the boat launch ramp, Tim was telling me, had a drop off to it. And a bunch of campers who were at Merrill Campground and some of the staff from the marina got five gallon buckets full of rocks. Went and poured them at the end of the concrete launch ramp and filled in that ditch that was there. What happens is you run a boat up onto the trailer and you gun it and you give a lot of power and it digs that hole at the base of the boat launch ramp. But anyways, that's been fixed for a while and he says it's real easy launching right now. This is Dennis Pierce for the KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report. We'll be back here next Friday evening. Thanks for listening. Bet you're going fishing all the time. Baby going fishing too. Bet your life, your sweet wife, she's going to catch the best fish in the year. Many fish bites if you got good bait. Oh, here's a little tip that I can't relate. Many fish bites if you got good bait. I'm going fishing, mama's going fishing and the baby's going fishing too. Here we come. We're just six minutes away from the car show on KNCO, Grass Valley, Nevada City. 106.9 FM and 830 AM. It's 6 o'clock. --- end of transcript ---