C
ChezJfrey
I was reviewing my notes this year and find that I am at the exact same number of banked steelhead for 2014 so far as I was for the entirety of 2013. In the interest of keeping a little mystery, we'll just say it's more than the number of initial tag slots, less than 100 
What I find disturbing, is that the Clack, my primary river as it's so close and convenient, was a slight struggle. I have a couple spots that I did extremely well in 2012 and 2013, but did not pan out when I targeted them at the appropriate times of the run this time around.
Killer spot lower down for the arriving winters was way down...hooked a few, but nowhere near the numbers I nabbed in 2013.
Another spot lower down, I only hooked one, and that was only the result of a desperate-motivated casts, gridding into water where I'd never caught steelhead and after a bit of wandering, got a surprise not too far down river from 'my spot'. Again below the success for this area during 2013.
A particular mid-river spot I like was a complete bust...and this was a spot I got my first ever daily limit back in 2012.
A couple higher spots for summers were also complete busts, especially one of my favorites that for the last couple years I termed my 'money' spot got me absolutely nothing this year.
Another higher, 'flat spot' was a tad low for number of fish, but was able to nab a few, again lower than last year.
I had to adapt, walk, and scout others...you know, actual work, and I'm not sure I liked it after settling into relative comfort last year (remember, I caught steelhead in every month of 2013 on the Clack!), LOL
But I was able to scrape up the numbers to match 2013 (partly because I cheated with two trips to the Wilson, two Sandy trips, and a Deschutes trip, ) and any further fish in 2014 will put me at my highest success rate so far in my short steelheading career...phew!
What I find disturbing, is that the Clack, my primary river as it's so close and convenient, was a slight struggle. I have a couple spots that I did extremely well in 2012 and 2013, but did not pan out when I targeted them at the appropriate times of the run this time around.
Killer spot lower down for the arriving winters was way down...hooked a few, but nowhere near the numbers I nabbed in 2013.
Another spot lower down, I only hooked one, and that was only the result of a desperate-motivated casts, gridding into water where I'd never caught steelhead and after a bit of wandering, got a surprise not too far down river from 'my spot'. Again below the success for this area during 2013.
A particular mid-river spot I like was a complete bust...and this was a spot I got my first ever daily limit back in 2012.
A couple higher spots for summers were also complete busts, especially one of my favorites that for the last couple years I termed my 'money' spot got me absolutely nothing this year.
Another higher, 'flat spot' was a tad low for number of fish, but was able to nab a few, again lower than last year.
I had to adapt, walk, and scout others...you know, actual work, and I'm not sure I liked it after settling into relative comfort last year (remember, I caught steelhead in every month of 2013 on the Clack!), LOL
But I was able to scrape up the numbers to match 2013 (partly because I cheated with two trips to the Wilson, two Sandy trips, and a Deschutes trip,
) and any further fish in 2014 will put me at my highest success rate so far in my short steelheading career...phew! 
