Spectacular Steelhead

I headed back down to the states to steelhead fish once again as the weather was just too good to pass up. The air temps were in the mid to upper 30’s with occasional winds from the S/W gusty at times. A light rain began sometime after noon and lasted for the balance of the day. Jim & I fished hard to get the 12 or so bites that we received, but it was well worth every minute on the river. The largest steelhead landed probably went 6 or 7 pounds but as usual, the bigger ones just got off! Day two saw a light rain in the morning that just lasted all day long! I contemplated heading home early, but was glad that I decided against it. I felt like I had the river to myself, as there was literally no one around where I fished. On my third drift I was locked up with a beautiful steelhead that went ballistic as I drove the hook home. After landing the male of almost 6 pounds and letting him go, I set up for another drift and immediately was tight to another fish. This time however, it was a spawned out brown trout of about 4 pounds. Too bad, I needed the eggs! A couple more hook-ups and released fish later I decided to try another pool nearby. First drift through, the float went down and I was temporarily locked into another steelhead until she cut me off quite high up the leader. Another cast and another immediate hook-up! This was the way it was to be for about three hours, as I must have hooked into 15 or 20 beautiful chromers. Most of the fish were above 7 pounds with a few going over 10 pounds. I even caught one of the 4 or so fish that broke me off right on the hook-set. It seems that they were engulfing the sacs so far into their throat that my line was getting cut off when they closed their mouths. A six-inch piece of fluorocarbon was protruding from the landed steelhead as I released her back to fight again. To experience this type of day was unbelievable, but to be there alone was unheard of! By 2:00 P.M. I had enough and headed home. What an excellent day this was to be fishing!