What is your first Salmon or Steelhead story.

Mine was when I was 5 fishing Gobar creek on the upper Kalama in 72. My great
grandfather used to be the forest ranger up there and they lived in the small house
there at the mouth of the Gobar. I was fishing the hole right behind the house for trout
which I started fishing for as soon as I could walk. While casting a small spoon I
hooked what to me at the time was the biggest fish ever. After much yelling for my
Dad to come help he realized I had more than just a trout and came down from the shop and helped me land the blackest steelhead I have still caught to this day. Was about 10 lb. and to
me the greatest thing in the world. After some explaining from Dad about the quality
of this fish we turned it loose.(so I started my catch and release career early)That was
29 years ago. The first of many steelhead out of the Gobar for me since I fished it
another 20 years. Love that creek fishing isn't what it used to be and the house on the
lower Gobar is gone, but I still spend a lot of time on the upper kalama at my
grandfathers place up in the fly only section. Love that area Fishe every chance I can, and as a firefighter I get a fair amount of cahnces

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I was fishing up on the NF of the Stilly back in about 76 or 77. I ended up hooking a Deer Creek Summer run fish in the Elbow hole. I was an east coast kid, not used to this sort of fishing, but taught it by my older brothers. This fish took off down stream, and into the backing, I was hooting and hollering, and my brothers came around to see what was going on.

I still have that picture of this kid in a demin jacket with a nice native steelie. It gives me a [Bleeeeep!] eating grin every time I see it.

My first several salmon were caught when I was in grade school when my brothers and I fished with Dad out of Illwaco, WA for them off the mouth of the Columbia. Loved it. My first river caught steelhead wasn't until my late teens or so when I caught a nice one in the Necanicum River near Seaside, OR. I was using a cheap fiberglass rod and using the spinning reel upside down. I caught the steelie drifting a flame red oakie with white yarn - like the guys at GI Joes told me to. I became an instant lifelong steelhead and salmon fisherman.

RT

Howdy Folks! First time post. Currently living in Denmark (moved from WA in '94)and sorely miss the fishing in the great NW. I follow the board regularly to help ease the pain of being away my favorite rivers.

My first steelie was caught on the NF Stilly in the summer of '91. I was dead drifting a babine special when my leader stopped in mid drift. Set the hook and was greeted with a head shake. Smacked it again and a slab of steel took off up river. I about crapped in my waders as I stood there with a mess of flyline in my hand. Well the battle was short as the line wrapped around my reel, the fish jumped and broke off. Stumbled back to the shore and when my hands stopped shaking I knotted on another fly. A few casts later and another take. This time played it for a few minutes but the fish wrapped the leader around a boulder and was gone. Back to shore, knotted on another fly and rested the water for a spell. Went to the head of the run in short time hooked another fish. This time a small Deer Creek native that was quickly subdued and released. By the time I got home later that day my jaws were sore from smiling so much. From then on I spent as much time as my marriage would tolerate out chasing steelhead.

Cheers,

DK Bill

I caught my first steelhead when I was 12, in March 1975. Went over to my friends house after school fishing for cutthroat in Dogfish Creek. Hooked a 20 1/4" sea run rainbow on a worm. Broke the line after a tough fight. The fish was so worn out that it was laying in the shallow part of the pool and I grabbed the line and pulled it out.
I was hooked on steelies after that and fished the Dosewalips and Big Quilcene a couple of times with my dad shortly after.
I quit fishing when I was a teenager and didn't get back into it until fishing for salmon a couple of times in my twenties.
Met my father in law and got back into it.

First steelhead hooked:

10 years old fishing the Satsop with dad for sea-run cutthroat in July. size 0 mepps spinners were the ticket then. I cast into a deep hole and counted 15 seconds to let the spinners sink. Looking back the spinner was probably on the bottom for 10 of those seconds. Anyway, I start a slow retrieve and as the spinner rises up from the depths, a HUGE white mouth appears behind the spinner, engulfes it, turns, then a huge flash, then my 6 foot fenwick is bent over doing double-time.

Beside myself with panic, I did what any 10 year old would do.....I put the pole over my shoulder, clamped down on the reel, and ran up the gravel bar. The line parted about 10 seconds later. But that was my first taste of summer steelhead and I've been ruined ever since. Looking back, it was probably a stray Wynoochee hatchery summer-run as this was back when that program was just starting.

But boy, was I glad that fish strayed into the Satsop!

1978. Fished for the better part of 2 months every morning before school and every evening after school. Was fishing a tiny creek the size of a bathtub, when my rod started shaking. It took off down some fast water and I chased it for several yards. After 5 minutes, it beached itself, and there was the yarn in its pec fin. I couldn't bring myself to let it go. Bonked it and brought it home. Felt like crap after killing it, realizi I wasn't good enough to catch one the right way.

Next morning went to a different river (to get away from the scene of the crime). Just before leaving, my line stopped in the middle of a rapids. I set the hook, and a mint bright 6 pounder jumped 4 feet out of the water. Peeled off forty yards of line and headed for Lake Superior. I ended up beaching the fish about two hundred yards from where I started. Hooked in the roof of the mouth fair and square. My mom picked me up at the bridge a little later, and I cleaned the fish at home. Brought it to high school that morning in a cooler. Can't say I was proud of the first one, but was dam proud of the 2nd one, and everyone after that. It was my first and last illegaly kept fish. I got to fish that little creek for the first time in almost 20 years, just this past weekend. I felt like a little kid again standing on that rock ledge where I caught my first fair hooked fish. Can't explain the feeling I had, but if I ever lose it, They can dig the hole, and cover me with dirt. Peace.

My first several landed steelhead came out of the Sammamish River. Those of you who were lucky enough to fish it in the 70's and early 80's know that ditch was some prime steelheading, especially when every other river in the region was blown. Whew!

First time steelheading was in 1977 at Reiter Ponds. Being only seven years old, I had to beg my dad to take me. He relented, and then set me up with plunking gear so he could get down to fishing without me bugging him, or so he thought. He rigged me with a spin-n-glo on a three-way swivel with a pyramid sinker, cast it out, tightened it up, handed me the rod, and walked upstream. I was right below the big rock at the creek mouth during very low December conditions. By the time he was fifty feet away, I was into my first steelhead, on my first cast ever. With a Penn 209 and 15# test, I drug the poor eight pounder over the gravel bar that used to be there, then across the near channel, then right up onto shore. It took all of fifteen seconds. With me yelling, by the time my dad got back down to me, the leader had broken and the fish was back in the water. He tried vainly to grab it, but, alas, it was not to be. Off it went.

The next day we drifted the Sammamish. It may be hard to believe, but it was a great river to pull plugs in. If you ever fished there in the 70's and early 80's and saw a white rowboat pulling plugs, that was us. No one else did it that I ever saw. Right at 60 acres soccer park, I got a hit. Twenty minutes later, including a jump up onto the bank and two times thinking I had lost it due to blistering runs at the boat, I had my first steelhead in the net.

Here's the best part: That fish weighed just shy of 20 pounds, and was a hatchery fish. For all the hundreds of steelhead I have caught, it's still the biggest hatchery fish for me.

I was pretty much screwed from that point forward.

The results:

1. Fished every day I could get a ride, until I was sixteen, then fished nearly every day after school since I didn't need a ride anymore.

2. Went to college and got my degree in Marine Biology, which was amazing since I fished five days a week. (Ask Robbo, somehow he graduated, too, though we both spent a lot more time fishing than studying).

3. Went to law school, graduated magna cum laude with an emphasis in environmental law.

4. Worked for the Attorney General's Office, representing the WDFW.

5. My involvement in the Wild Steelhead Coalition.

It was a long road, starting with that first fish, to finally be involved with a group that I really believe in, and believe can actually make a difference.

Glory be to the steelhead!!

Fish on...

Todd.

I was nine years old and my time had come. After a few fishless trys earlier that winter my dad and I went up the upper Bogie. It was mid Feb in the early 80s. I can remember the ice crystals on the rocks and on the guides on my rod. My dad still had to rig me up every time I broke off, which was pretty frequent. I still dont know how he ever got to fish while he was rigging me up all the time.

Well, we walked up the trail, wich seemed to take forever. I must have asked him how much farther about every five minutes. It seemed like we walked twenty miles before we cut over to the river, we only went about 1 mile.

We were drifting eggs and the river was in prime shape. We fished about two holes before my dad hooked and landed 20+ double stripe buck. Now I was really excited, We went to the next hole and I threw out my eggs. I felt my lead tapping the bottom, then it stoped then the rod nearly got jerked out of my hand and the fish was gone. I was so excited I didnt set the hook. I put some more eggs on and casted agian. It didnt even hit bottom before the fish had hooked itself and started taking line. After a fight that seemed to take forever I landed an eight pound chrome wild buck. After that day I have been hooked on steelhead. Dont get me wrong, Ive been holding a fishing rod since I was old enough and loved catching bass, trout but steelhead is my love.

I'll post my first catch of a Salmon hopefully when we get back from Canada in June. I have caught a huge Kamloops here in the NC Mountains that made me swim the river to land him....this on a 4wt. rod! He was huge and I grinned all the way. By the end of the battle my arms were so sore I couldn't wip up the courage to go for it again. I love to C&R as it means that unless someone else doesn't it'll happen to me again. My grandfather taught me to flyfish when I was only 5 and C&R was the name of the game for him.....I fish with him on my mind as he was probably my best fishing buddy ever....in fact the only one as few can measure up to his qualities....there are those of you that can though so please don't take offense. My best to you all from an Southeastern fly fisherman.

Like Todd, I lucked out to start fishing in 77' with my Dad on the rivers a bit south of him. I learned to fish steelhead on the Puyallup during it's glory days. Caught my first steelhead on christmas morning of 1977. Caught a 19lb hen on the the north levee side of the hiho hole (remember when hiho shopping center was still there?). Started a long career for me. Caught alot of fish plunking up and down from 11th street to hiho. Foundest memory of that day, was an old timer on the river named Robbie. He had caught a ton of bucks to that point but no hens. My first time out and nailed a big one. He called me a lucky little mother*&*&*&. My Dad laughed and I smiled. I've been hooked ever since. Trout didn't seem as worthy to me as these big fish did. I still trout fish mind you, but especially once I turned 16 and could drive on my own it's been salmon/steelhead 24/7 365 days a year.

My first steelhead was a 9lb buck while plunking the canyon on the Green river above the Cummer bridge in 1967 it was a blast execpt for the long hike out dragging the fish through the snow the whole way back to the truck.And ive been hooked ever since!!!!
My first salmon was 15lb king out of Westport in 1971 on the Kandy Kid out of Salmon charters.