I've had way too many "best" days - probably more than I can remember

One of them happened a long time ago, on a Lake Chelan camping trip with my father and brothers when I was in high school. We stopped and fished most every sizeable creek that empties into the lake, and me being the oldest and fastest (and heavily into cross country running at the time) would pretty much take off upstream and just keep heading up, leaving my brothers down by the lake to catch fish in the easy water. I fished a dry fly all day, and in every pool or behind every big rock would be a nice trout that I would catch and release as I moved upstream. Low down near the lake would be rainbows. Mid way up I would start encountering rainbow/cutthroat hybrids, then I would hit an impassible waterfall - above that would be native cutthroat for a thousand feet or more straight up. I attempted to keep count but eventually couldn't remember which hundred I was on. A few of these creeks headed in little lakes that sounded like the one Cleo was on - huge cutts with not a clue - hook one and the rest would come running to find out what was going on. I know I fished areas probably not even visited much today, and this was in the 60's. I also know there is still no trail into some of these lakes, and you would need to be a crazy kid track star to get up to them the way I did. Nice to know something is still likely the same as it was - although I'll never find out

Like everyone else I have quite a few but I will only mention two.

#1 Alaska - on the Kanektok fishing silvers in fall of 1985, landed 177 in two days of fishing. 50 or so on flys and the rest on hardware. Never saw another fisherman the whole time accept 2 or 3 boats that motored past me up river and were never seen again. Had my tent set up on a 100 yard sand bar. Woke up the second morning and the river was like glass the bottom looking unusually dark. I put my fish locators on and was dumb founded as there were 100s if not thousands of fish sitting only a couple of feet from shore extending down river for as far as I could see. I proceeded to catch fish after fish after fish. I know I will never have fishing like that ever again.

#2 Day after Christmas on the Kalama, 2001. I was sick for several days during Christmas and finally started feeling better around noon the day after Christmas. I told my wife was going to the Kalama for the afternoon. Arrived up in my favorite area around 2:30pm. Hiked down to the river and there was virtually no one around. First cast..fish, second cast..fish, then it was a blurr after that. I ended up going 9 for 11 in 2 1/2 hours of fishing. Went down there the next day and went 8 for 9. There were 2 or 3 summers mixed in the catch but most were chrome bright winters. Ended up going 17 for 20 in about 10 hours of fishing. I doubt I will ever top that for steelhead as far as shear numbers of fish in a short period of time goes.

Either that, or you gotta know a guy with a helicopter.

Dan, I those lakes are in the Glacier Peak Wilderness Area - a dim view is taken of helicoptering into wilderness areas I understand

The best day I have had as far as sheer madness was about 12 years ago when after loaning my brother a fair amount of cash to pursue his life long dream to own/operate a charter boat in Kona HI. After a few years of learning the ropes I was invited over for a few days of night time YELLOWFIN Fishing. Many fish over 100LBs, and one jumbo of about 200+. My arms ached for a week..

#2) After selling everything I owned at about 18-19yrs old, I took off to Alaska to pursue the big bucks$$ yeah right. I got off the ferry and found a campground to set up home. I was not in Alaska for more than 1hour and I was running up and down a small river chasing big Nates on the end of my line, not one person at the campground just me and the steelhead. I had found my home....

I can think of several great trips. Best day was a small creek with lots of kings in it. Hooked them from 5-50lbs, yes 5-0lbs. Brought a 45lb home and a 6 pound silver home. Most of the fish were so dark they looked like boots, but it was still a blast. My arms hurt from fighting so many fish. Best ever was trout fishing from a boat using worms and bobber. Caught tons of fish between three of us, then landed a 3.68lb bullhead. Was a state record for three years or so. Funniest was with the "boss" on the Puyallup a couple seasons back. She hooked a "fish" and was backing up to the bank when she hit a rock and SPLASH, complete dunking. She thens stands back up and lands her "fish". A nice big "Y" shaped stick, about 3lbs or two feet long. Everyone laughed about that. Even this past season people still remembered.