3/12 Dreary Days

This past Saturday probably was the perfect example of what guys mean when they say its "steelheading" weather. Flat gray skies, temps in the low to mid thirties, windy as hell, rain, sleet, snow, and just an overall miserable feel in the air. Most people stay inside when the weather gets that nasty....we put in a 10 hr day on the river. I wish I could say the steelhead followed suit and lived up to their reputation of being a foul weather loving fish, but that just wasn't the case.
We started off in some water a little higher up in the system than we've been fishing. I decided to swing some streamers and Bob and Jeff planned to clean up the mess with bobbers. It actually didn't take me more than a half hour to get a good pull and a hookup. I could tell pretty quickly that it wasn't a steelhead which was a little disappointing...but I'll never complain about a nice fat brown on a streamer.

Mouthful...

Thinking that was a pretty decent start we continued on downriver in hopes of finding some chrome to go with the gold. The next few runs didn't produce anything, and as I rounded the corner Jeff got this cool shot of me working down through some good looking water. Cast, step, swing...

A little further downstream and Jeff got on the board with another chunky brown. This guy ate a nuke egg out of some fast water behind gravel.

Not too bad so far. After fishing one of the prime runs in the whole river without any love we moved down into a nice little pinch that has given up its fair share of fish over the years. Sure enough, about halfway down on the far bank Bob had a run away bobber and was hooked up with a serious piece of steel.

After a lengthy battle and some alligator rolls in shallow water Jeff was able to tail this handsome winter buck. This is about as pretty a specimen as you'll find anywhere....

And getting released....

Good thing that was an impressive fish....because it was the one and only steelhead we saw for the day. After fishing another few hours we decided to head back to the truck and grill up some lunch. Jeff made chicken tacos with all the fixings which were delicious.

After lunch I switched to my indy rod and we headed off to a handful of normally productive spots. Despite 3 guys beating the water to a froth all we could muster up between us was a 9 inch brown I caught on a small black stone. Finally around dusk we called it a day. It had been alot of work for just 1 steelhead but thats what makes steelheading so fun.....they are mysterious and difficult to predict! Numbers will only improve from here on out....