I was fishing the thorne river and hooked up with a toad of a chromer, my rod bent to the hum spot almost instantly and he just started barrel racing in the tail of the run, I could see him flashing like a ford fender on a summer day and then he pulled a red october... staight up and a free willey flop.. I finally worked him over to the shallows and my guide walked out to get him, he looked down then looked at me and his head nodded back and forth.. at that moment my fly line popped and gently shot back to me and he was gone... my guide kicked the water and somewhat lost his composer, looking at me he simply said.. that was the biggest steelhead I have ever seen, now we have all heard that from someone before, usally the 20 year old kid next to us or that friend who never seems to bank one.. but this guy had been a guide his whole life.. as his father and every other family member had, I walked off upstream and tried to hide my crushing dissapointment ( I know your supposed to be able to handle losing them.. but sometimes its just down right heart breaking) I pretended it didn't even happen and we didn't speak of it again that day. Later that night I overheard him tell another guide the fish had to go over 30 lbs... Ive hooked a lot of fish in my life... but that was the fish that hooked me-