Had a plan to go to Cape Mendocino for some rockfishing this morning but bailed at the last minute to go to Stone Lagoon instead.
I was at Stone about 3 weeks ago and saw some nice fish breaking the surface. I trolled a panther-martin spinner for a bit and got a 12 inch trout. The sign on the shore says if you don't see a red mark on the jaw then you must assume it's a steelhead . . .I assume it was a steelhead, then.
This morning I returned to the same spot and again saw breaking fish. This time from shore I used a size 2 and 3 Blue Fox to get the trout pictured below. I am not sure but I think the smaller one is a steelhead and the larger a cutthroat. I released them both, anyway. I also hooked and lost 3 other smaller ones.
The bigger guy fought really hard . .took me a good little while to get him or her on shore with my 4lb line and no net.
I fished from about 6:30-8:30 or so. I was checking the photo's on-line and I would now say they are both steelhead . . .sorry, not too good at trout ID yet. I had the yak on my roof but I never took it down . . .there is really good shore access and the trout are in close.
I'm going to try and hit it again once or twice before returning to the Trinity . . there are half-pounders in the river now and should be some early adults starting toward late Sept (so I hear, anyway). I don't know if there are any really big fish in Stone right now . . .my feeling is 22-24 inch fish perhaps? Anyways the 16-18 inchers are a blast on light tackle.
There's some good steelhead action on the Trin right now, I talked with EB Dugan who's a guide on the lower river and he said it should be heating up between Willow Creek and Pigeon Point. A couple friends and I might be camping/fishing up there this weekend around the Del Loma area. We fished for a bit there a little over a week ago and I nailed a 7 or 8 pound hatchery steelie, not huge but not a 1/2 pounder either. Fish hit a Panther Martin, size 9, gold blade/black body with yellow dots.
Can't say I've fished Stone, but I've tried Big Lagoon once and caught a 14 inch rainbow. Sources tell me the lagoon can be really good if you fish it late in the season, right when the sandbar breaks open to the ocean and lets in all the waiting steelhead.