MY RETRO-ACTIVE STEELHEAD REPORT

Here is an update on a recent trip in search of steelhead.  A buddy from work and me headed out on Friday for a bit of fishing.  Got to the site and found we were not the only ones interested in fishing instead of working.  Wadered up and headed to the river.  As luck would have it, the area I wanted to fish was open and not a sould to be seen in 200 yards up or down stream.  My buddy was hitting it with a fly and I started with a bobber and jig trailing a glow bug.  We fished two holes pretty well and I figured I needed a basic change.  This was prompted by a nice steelhead leaping out of the water in front of me basically saying he was not impressed with my effort. The water had about 5 feet of visibility so I put on a very small corkie and a Luhr Jensen egg with flourocarbon leader.  It didn’t take long till I hooked a fish only to feel it catch me behind a boulder.  After some flailing the line cleared and the fish took off.  It was a nice, chrome fish I estimate at about 7-8 lbs.  After a few minutes fighting the fish, it decided it wanted to check out the hole downstream and headed for the riffle separating us.

I started to follow the fish and the line went pop.  I can only figure that the rubbing on the rock had dinged the leader.  A little later, in the same hole, I banged another fish.  I was enjoying the battle and figuring where I would land the fish just as it launched itself about 3 feet out of the water, shook its head and sent my gear sailing back at me.  Good adrenelin, no fish in the box. My buddy hooked another about 20 minutes later.  He was using 8 pound tippet and had to play it lightly. 

It was a big fish that started out just sulking in the current.  When it realized it was hooked, it got pissed and took him through the tailout of the pool and was down the riffle to the next pool  We were chasing it and I figured we were finally going to land one….not.  It popped the line and left us looking on in disbelief.     Fished pretty hard for another couple of hours and had no more action.  Enjoyed the day and enjoyed the fight but can’t show any pretty pictures, maybe nexttime.    Cheers-Sal