This is now the official C_Run Winter Steelhead thread. After about a month I went back to the same spot last week and fished hard in the rain all day. I lost about 5 jigs and about a half dozen spoons for only one split second bite all day. The only consolation was a nice cutthroat trout at the end of the day. Being almost entirely out of spoons I quickly whipped up a new batch of 10 spoons.
My wife wanted to go to the beach yesterday so we headed over and I got to fish about one hour on the way over and another half hour on a different river after we got there. Today we headed back along the same route and I fished about half and hour and got the first ink on the tag on one of the spoons. Beautiful weather today. 9#.
One thing about this fish is that it was really hot and started down a big rapids to the next hole where I wouldn't have been able to follow. I was seriously worried about getting spooled because this is when I usually start freaking out and either thumb the spool too hard or tighten the drag and break off. However, I recalled the trick I had heard of a few times of sticking the rod all the way under water to slow the fish down and then easing it back in little by little. I had never done it before but, sure enough, after I stuck the rod all the way in the water, the fish calmed down and I began the tedious process of easing it back upstream about a foot at a time until it was back in the hole where he started and fortunately he was solidly hooked and made it to the bank finally. So, now I am a believer. Anyone else employ that trick before?
