MagBay and Trinity River Pre-Synchronized Storm Event Flows Report

My last report was written December 6th, since then, I've been to MagBay, ate chocolate clams, recorded a podcast, got severe carpel tunnel, taken a lot of shits, and got to fish the Trinity River. I'd say it was a good December. It's December 26th today and I wish you Happy Holidays and a belated Merry Xmas. I hope you had a great year and had some good times with your family and friends. Much love and thank you for the continued support! I hope you enjoy the report and get out fishing or eating tacos soon.

MagBay! Wow. Insane fishing. Epic trip and I am so stoked to have been able to get out there when the striped marlin numbers were so high. They were everywhere. I recorded a VLog style video I might never put out but we will see. Also filmed a good number of hook ups and stoked to watch the homies shred some fish. You can listen all about the trip by clicking the link here. I got to admit, I wish things went differently on this trip but it is what it is. There is always next year and I am going to say the good tremendously outweighed the annoying. People suck. Haha. Nah...I love people. But yeah, people suck.

We did it all! Roosters, marlin, and tuna. Open ocean and beach fishing. Mangroves as well. Nuts fishing down there and if you haven't been, you really need to go.

"LA ULTIMA DIA!" is what we kept saying the last day with Will and Iggy on the boat. You can listen about it in the podcast as I get waaaaay too excited about how it all went down and you can hear it in my voice but here is a clip of Ignacio hooking up on a yellowfin tuna on the fly! 

We ate well, fished hard and holy shit, I was beat after this trip. Thank you to all who came out.

 Here is will with his beast of a yellowfin on the fly. So rad!

 And Ignacio worked his ass off for this fish! Great work my man. I heard that blood doesn't do good in fly fishing posts or media but f&%K that! These decks got bloody!

 And my marlin. I am super stoked on this fish although it was hooked in the eye! Haha. I had purposely snapped off one the day before when I shouldn't have so this evens it out. Amazing animals and watching them light up all neon blue is so rad when they are smacking bait!

And no kooks, it's not a competition. That's not the vibe on Taco trips.

I am hosting a trip there next year November 30-December 6th and there are a few more seats available if you want to join us. Hit me up for more details at @tacoflyco on instagram or email me at info@tacoflyco.com.

So then I came home. The trip was epic but it was time to get back to work. My next set of trips were from Dec 18-Dec 23. I nice little reminder that my body is completely fucked and that I am getting old. I was really excited for this week though as my brother was going to come up and bring some homies and there was a day where I got to fish with the homies.

FISHING WAS VERY GOOD. I put a very good on the fishing quality as GREAT is like lights out fish in every run. You still had to work for the fish but they were there. While in MagBay, there was a big water event that blew out the river which is pretty sick because December fish need that to be radical. It can get low, clear, and cold in December which can contribute to it being very slow...so having that push while I was out was great. I had heard the fishing was great after the river cleared. Judging by the pictures I saw, it was another group of hatchery fish that came up. Before I left to MagBay, there was a good mix of unclipped and clipped fish.

I will try to make it quick here but it's hard when the 6 days of fishing were so jam packed with so much awesome.

Stephen booked me for his first float down the Trinity. He is new to fly fishing so being the first guide he hired to take him down the Trinity is an honor. What a rad dude with great stories. He got completely "f*&ked" on by a nice big buck that jumped and showed us his middle fin after he pinched the line to tight. I said, "DON'T PINCHE THE LINE!" He did. Hahaha. Yeah, pinche, not pinch. The fish kept jumping and flipping us off too after we popped it. But he was able to get a nice one to the net with a few other halfies. We lost a few others but fighting steelhead ain't easy so it's all good. Each fish is a learning experience and it's own experience. Cheers buddy and hope to see you on the water again sometime soon.

Then I got to chill with Michael and Alex. Two homies with a profound love of getting outside and ripping lips. I can't tell you how stoked I am to get new clients in the boat that quickly become friends. We were meant to fish together bro! Ha! Thank you guys and yeah, we brown folks fishing foo! FLY FISHING FOOS! Epic day and a nice number of adults to the boat. We also got a big ass rainbow to the boat too. Was it a steelhead, was it a bow, what was it? DUNNO, but it was a shredder and it's in steelhead water! Beautiful fish. I loved fishing with these dudes as the way they fish with each other is all about the other persons stoke. No competition, all fun, and an appreciation for the views.

  SLIPPERY AF! Haha. We almost doubled up here and almost got a good photo of Michaels pretty ass hen too.

 THANK YOU! Can't wait to fish again boyz. There was a lot of rain on us and this is steelhead weather. We need rain. Rain = great for the fish and the smiles.

And then my brother showed up. HOLY SHIT. I can go on and on about each day but it'd take too much time. Just an amazing weekend. They booked us 2 days with a homie day on Saturday. Homie day was us drinking beers on the bank at the house hole, playing music, shooting pellet guns, catching steelhead. I needed that. A great day of fishing with my family and good people. Thanks foos. And thanks to Cody and Nathaniel for helping us with the floats.

 X with a much deserved and much needed steelhead. Uplifting and amazing what this river can do for the soul. RECHARGE with stoke! Fly fishing is the shit.

 My man Pat! This is Pat, the dude that showed me the Trinity and my brother from another mother. Thank you Pat. Taco doesn't exist without you my man.

 And my big bro. Thank you for coming out foo. This dude loves the Trinity and we laughted A LOT. Sorry I couldn't get you into a fish that one day but man, you really have to come with the great vibes or else the river knows! Hahaha. HOT BOX!

 And Joel. I've been fishing with dude since I was a kid. CHEERS BUDDY! I only had one beer the whole time.

Again, I can go on and on about the trip with these guys but a lot of the memories we made will be left unshared. The fishing was great, the vibes were perfect, and the river provided.

BUT! I have to share one thing....I finally swung up a fish on the homie day. I hardly get to fish this river as I am so busy when I am out here it's tough to make time for myself. It was in the back of a bucket and I low holed the whole crew. EPIC. Single hand rod with just a Golden Stone.

 This rod is a blast to cast. No you don't need a spey rod to swing up fish. If swinging is something you want to do, let me know and we can try it out on a trip. I love swinging and want to get more clients into a swung fish if they're are down. I just don't force it upon anyone. Fish the way you want to fish. Eat tacos the way you want to eat tacos.

So then it ended with a trip con los McKenna's. Dad and daughter combo extraordinaire. Having Justin and Brooklyn on the boat is a pleasure and again, I am honored to share the water with these amazing people. And again, great fishing! Justin got his first steelhead and a few more and Brooklyn the same. Although Brooklyn didn't get the big dog, she fished well and got to rip on a few solid sub adults and half pounders. The shit talking between these two was awesome. THANK YOU! I am so stoked you two battled out the elements and kept a solid attitude the whole way down the river even though we were getting low-holed for the second half of the trip. So, when we are fishing, and a boat is below you the whole time back rowing on runs over and over and over, it doesn't make it for good fishing when you roll into the whole next and don't get fresh fish. It's a bummer. Before that happened though, we were smacking em'! Anyways, look at these two. Awesome people.

 Well, that was the fishing when I got back from MagBay. It was seriously very good. Again, GREAT is eating fish in every run. There were a lot of fish in the system and it was shaping out to be a great week of continued fishing. But, that was not possible as they TRRP decided it was time to shut down the river for the "Synchronized Storm Flows" that they are going to implement from Dec 15-Feb 15 once a year. Basically, it coincides with a storm, and they blow the river and the economy shuts down. I have no real opinions about this other than that it's a bummer for the local economy that they do this in peak steelhead season. I am not saying I don't like it, I am just saying it sucks for peoples wallets who depend on fishing to pay rent.

You can read more about it here. The posted flows can be seen here.

I had to cancel only 4 trips because I had already blocked off a week for personal time around December 31st but I am feeling for the guys who had to block off a bunch and for the Lewiston Hotel on the lost revenue. Anyways...again, I have no real opinion and I am not a scientist and I'll let the scientists make the decisions about what's good for the fishery.

SO! Here I am, taking 2 weeks off. I'll be back after they drop it down to 800 cfs and I have to admit that I am very excited to fish it at 800. SHOULD BE FUN! And from what I heard, a big pod of nice fish were coming up the river right before the increased flows.

So happy holidays ya'll. HUG YOUR HOMIES! Enjoy the rain, snow and holiday cheer. Hope you liked the report and stay tuned for more shit out of my mouth to these pages soon. CHEERS!

-Mario