C_Run
Well-known member
My steelheading so far this year had been kind of dismal all throughout January and February. If you added up all the times I went for a few hours here and there plus a couple of hard fishing long days, it was probably about 4 1/2 days at least with no results. The high point was once seeing a fish chase down my spoon only to give it a gentle nip and then disappear about a month ago. It was time to apply the decal.
I got a call from a friend with an open seat for last Friday to the "secret river". This is the guy who got me going on salmon and steelhead fishing about ten years ago but we hadn't fished together for maybe five years or so. So, it was pretty cool to get to go with him again as it's always fish-on and a real clinic to go in his drift boat. It didn't take ten minutes to get into the first fish, a native hen. (The camera date is not correct.)
Fish number two came soon after, a less photogenic downer buck, but still bigger and a hard fighter. Fish three got under a log in heavy current and took some serious coaxing to get out. The first keeper. Later I hooked fish number four , a second hatchery buck and a near clone of the previous one. No pictures from the field but here are some pieces of 3 and 4.
My trusty spoon let me down but the pink worm ruled. If I would have been more on the ball the numbers would have been higher. There were three or four bobber-downs when I was asleep at the wheel with too much line out to set the hook in time. I am not used to fishing out of a boat. It was a great day and my mental state is now much improved.
I got a call from a friend with an open seat for last Friday to the "secret river". This is the guy who got me going on salmon and steelhead fishing about ten years ago but we hadn't fished together for maybe five years or so. So, it was pretty cool to get to go with him again as it's always fish-on and a real clinic to go in his drift boat. It didn't take ten minutes to get into the first fish, a native hen. (The camera date is not correct.)
Fish number two came soon after, a less photogenic downer buck, but still bigger and a hard fighter. Fish three got under a log in heavy current and took some serious coaxing to get out. The first keeper. Later I hooked fish number four , a second hatchery buck and a near clone of the previous one. No pictures from the field but here are some pieces of 3 and 4.
My trusty spoon let me down but the pink worm ruled. If I would have been more on the ball the numbers would have been higher. There were three or four bobber-downs when I was asleep at the wheel with too much line out to set the hook in time. I am not used to fishing out of a boat. It was a great day and my mental state is now much improved.
