Another day another silver dollar...uh pink...whatever

Ok, maybe today wasnt as good as yesterday but it was still awesome. I got to the creek late at about 12:00 to try to avoid crowds which worked out really well. As soon as I walked down to the stream I ran into a fellow and started chatting about the fishing and it turns out he hadn’t seen anyone catch a fish all day. I talked with him a little while longer and headed down to my favorite run to get my feet wet. Little did I know the gentleman I was chatting with snuck in downstream while I walked upstream and walked up the opposite bank to fish right where I wanted to be. I couldn’t get too mad though, he had no idea where I was going to fish so I fished the near side patiently, waiting for him to move on. I managed to land a nice five-pound brown right off the bat and then it slowed right down. Sure enough after a fishless hour for everyone he crossed back over, I think he was a little surprised to see me starting to cross as soon as he got out but we basically traded fishing spots. He wanted to get to where he saw me catch a fish and I wanted to get to the water I knew he hadn’t fished correctly. Much to my dismay after a half hour I was actually starting to believe there weren’t any fish in the run or they just were not going to eat and as I was thinking about moving downriver my line came tight. It wasnt a huge fish but it was a welcome relief to the doldrums of the day.


My second cast landed right where I had connected on my first and five feet into a drift my fly got absolutely hammered. This fish was a beast, it almost immediately showed itself on the surface with a giant tail slap and all I saw was a huge tail and nice pink color. This fish took off upriver so strongly I was sure I was about to be broken off but to my delight he stayed on. I was about to land what I thought was the biggest most colorful steelhead of my life, I didn’t have a great gauge on its size by sight but this fish was strong as hell, bringing the six weight was immediately regretted but after a tough battle I brought the fish in and was surprised to grab this beautiful bastard.

Right about now I knew we had just gotten a fresh run of fish or at least a few fish pushing up from downriver. I made a few more casts with no luck and just as I was beginning to settle in I picked up my line to cast again and bam! This guy hit so hard it scared me and it instantly shot upriver so fast I was almost spooled in just a few seconds. I looked down at my reel and I could see the bare spool with a few wraps of backing left on it when he stopped and came back. Than the fish did something I will treasure forever. He swam to the other side of the river and just stopped, finning and holding firm…right at the feet of the guy who cut me off in the morning who consequently still hadn’t hooked up. That fish hung out there for at least twenty seconds giving that ass a good show before I was able to pull him out. Once I was able to pull him from the current up onto the beach I was so happy to get a good look at this fish, one I will remember for a long time.