Whacked the trout/steelies on the Gate this morning

spoonman · May 26, 2012

Worked my way from the hatchery park all the way down to cantrell buckly with many stops along the way. Caught 12 legal trout, nice mix of rainbows and cutties. Highlight of the day had t have been hooking and landing a still very chrome 26 inch winter stealie hiding in one of my favorite holes. Small cleo, 4 pound test on my 6'6" lamiglas, was a battle.

dtikey · May 26, 2012

Awsome mangood job.Was it a spawned hen headed back out or a freshy still going up??

spoonman · May 26, 2012

Im guessing she had just spawned and was headed back down. Was chrome bright, I thought I had a giant rainbow at first until it took off into fast water. Did not have a belly full of eggs though, so ill bet she had just put them out in this hole or in the fast water above/below.

Boombollie · May 26, 2012

Nice!

steelhead_stalkers · May 27, 2012

The applegate is not open to harvest of steelhead now. Could not tell if you released the fish from your post. There should be a ton of steelhead still in the system as it was a banner winter steelhead run.

spoonman · May 28, 2012

Yup I snapped a quick picture and released her. I don't keep any fish at all out of the applegate, ill harvest fish from the rouge and umpqua no problem, but the gate is my home stream so I turn them all back hatchary or not. My big fish of the year on the gate was a 32 inch hatchary hen bulging with eggs and I turned her back

steelhead_stalkers · May 28, 2012

Sweet! I love the applegate. Beautiful river.