I got a brand new rod and reel for Chistmas in 1955 an eight and a half foot solid fiberglass rod and a Winona reel it took about two weeks but on Jan. 6th 1956 I got my first Steelie at the mouth of the Stuck River (Puyallup trib.) I got it on a Cherry Bobber it was a chrome 10# buck, I was 14 at the time, been hooked ever since.

Duwamish/lower Green river...1965, day after Thanksgiving

Opposite side of river from what now is the Tukwila Community center, down by the old bridge abutment island.
Plunking with my dad, grandpa by Allentown. I used gramps Harnell rod, Pflueger baitcast reel (yes, cast it myself at age 10). Flame red/chart #4 spin-n-glo with very strongly anise scented boraxed eggs cluster.
Remember the warmth of fire, hot coffee-laced with cocoa just for me, and about 2 dozen other plunkers up and down the river on both banks....and chrome hanging from the riverside trees.

I still plunk there each early December, don't catch many there like back in the late 60's but plunk there more for the memories....
me: "gramps, can I have another donut"
gramps: "sure MAV, just go fetch some more firewood from the pickup first"

1960 upper Cowlitz by Kosmos. Caught it with a 166 Nebco Flashbait spoon. Brass with the orange stripe. Wright-Mcgill rod, Mitchell 300 spining reel, 15# Charter Boat Green line. About 12-14# buck. All natives back then. I was 12.
Ronnie, I used to work and fish with Larry Worrell and Fred Tereski, small world.

My Dad was an avid steelheader and I received my first hand-off at the age of 3, in 1973 on the North Fork Stilly. It was a 12 pound hen that slammed an Ottos "Ace-Bait", the go-to spoon of the era. Dad said everytime it took a run it would drag me down the gravel bar, and I just held on and eventually dragged the fish on the bank. He said that I gave it a bear hug for the next 15 minutes and was covered with scales and slime after the ordeal. I received countless hand-offs over the years until I hooked and landed my first winter run on my own in the Elochoman at age 11, just below the house that always used to blast the opera music, on a pink okie drifter with green yarn. I have been a hopeless steelhead bum ever since-

If only I knew then what i know now........

Man, that bings back some memories for me too. I caught plenty of salmon in the Sammamish but never a steelhead. My first hook-up came in March of 88 just below the Sultan. My first actual landed steelie was June 26, 1988 at Reiter.

hatchery run on the Sol duc river. 1990, i have to thank my brother. on second thought do you really thank some one for giving you an addiction.

First winter run, West Fork Humptulips River Jan '71 DAM Quick Spinning Reel, White Eagle Claw Rod, Charlie Anderson Clown Bobber. 8lb buck, second came later that season on the Dosewallips pick nail polish okie drifter.

First summer run, 6lb hen Dugeness River '73 Periwinkles on a trout rod.

First fly caught, Dogfish Creek, '69 swinging a Carey Special (actually I was just letting it wave around current in a tailout of small pool)

1996, cowlitz, 100 yards below blue creek. I was standing on top of a log, high on the bank. The log is still there and juts out a bit. Fishing with my best freind at the time, now all my other freinds fish with him. Must have snagged bottom ten or fifteen times and he is over there catching fish. What am i doing wrong, I asked him? Nothing he says, so I cast out again.
And i snagg up again, wtf, I am pissed, then my line starts heading upstream. Holy crap I got a steelhead!!! 8lb hatchery fish, peach corky and white yarn. It was the best!!!

1978 in the Lyre. Used to have a great fishery. Buddy lost something like 14 before he landed one on the last day of the season.

Hey Dan S. I thought I was the only one to ever catch steelhead out of that creek. I caught my first Steelhead out of Millcreek in 1983. Caught 3 of them that day.

An 8 lb buck, January 8th, 1986. I was plunking just above the 212th bridge on the Green River. At first I thought the fish belonged to the guy fishing next to me until he elbowed me and told me it was mine.

1973, Yachats River. 8 lb native hen on a nightcrawler. In '74 I caught about a 10 pounder right underneath Daybreak Bridge on the E. Fork Lewis. Made my dad smile. Then about an hour later, I hooked a freaking whale on a spoon about 100 yards downstream. Biggest damn steelhead he'd ever seen, he swears it was over 30 pounds to this day. I have no idea, I was just a zitty kid with a trout rod. It smoked all the line off my reel and had me crying in my Alphabits for a week.

North Fork Siletz in 1968. She damn near ripped the rod out of my hands, came 4 feet out of the water, snapped the 15lb test line as I slid her on the bank at the waters edge and dang near bucked me off when I pounced on her!

1986 mainstream of the Nooksack, used to be call the feedmill hole by the Land o Lakes feed mill off hiway 9.

I fished hard off the bank for at least 200 hours before I hooked my first steelhead, a 13lb chrome bright hen. Coffee grinder of a reel and Wright McGill rod. That fish came hard but I limited out a couple times before that season was over and I was hooked.

Over the next 8 years I fished about 100 days a year, had a blast, then work, kids, divorce, work, building a house etc. and my fishing time decreased each year. Got married to the nicest gal this Fall and she likes to fish, wants me to be her guide so we have been getting out this past year. She has caught sockeye and silvers, I can't wait until I get her into her first steelhead.

nothin better than fishing with friends and family.

Great thread

I haven't seen this river mentioned yet? But my cherry was popped on the Deschutes River(thurston county). Plunking down at the original Olympia Brewery. I don't remember the exact year but it was around the early to mid 80's.

Talk about memories. I remember having my mother drop me off down there with all the old farts. Drive my pole holder into the ground. Hook up the big ol clown spin-n-glow with a chunk of borax cured eggs, dropper pryamid weight, put in pole holder, clip on the brass bell and sit under the plunking shack made out of pallets with the tarp stretched over it. Listen to all the old timers tell stories while they drink thermos after thermos of coffee. I had my thermos full of hot chocolate.

Green River in December of 1993. I was 6 years old. Got a nice 8lber with a corky/yarn/shrimo combo. Didn't even feel the bite or set the hook. The fish just took off running.

Winterrun- Sammamish, '74. We moved to WA state in Oct. '73 and for a while my folks humored me by taking me to rivers like the Sky. They quickly got bored, and when I (or anyone else) didn't catch anything, they started suggesting that steelhead were mythical beasts, like bigfoot. I was 11, and a fishing fool, and I didn't care. I found a stash of the old STS magazines at the local library, (back when they were B&W) andI devoured them. Eventually, my folks would just drop me off to hang out under the Kenmore Bridge (makes me a troll?). I'd use a spin'n'glow or corkie and crawler, plunking. The first one I hooked trashed me. The second one was only 5-6lbs., and I was able to handle it.

Summerrun- S. Fork Stilly, '80. GF and I drove up for the day, and she was happy to hang out while I casted. At one point she was chilling her feet downstream of me, when a buck slammed the blue metallic hotshot I was casting, and launched itself 4-5 feet out of the river. It was only 25 feet from her, and she fell on her butt!

Tolt December 1978 - 'happy time 2' hole -I think that's aka Vedder's 'cabin hole'. ....course I caught mine the day before Dave

maybe 7lb.
yellow eagle claw rod, DAM Quick 330, 26 degrees super low & clear, driftfishing what was probably a way-oversized corky & yarn- overweighted rig on a dull & rusty hook, slack-lined tumbling downstream drifting right toward me (along the deep rock/shelf that sat in middle of that beautiful hole.)

Must have lost a dozen in the prior couple years-most in or within 1/2 mi. of that spot.

caught next couple in the Cedar later that year. ya know how it is....once the cherry's popped.....you can't stop (course you sart branching out.)

March of 75 in Dogfish Creek. Was 12 yrs old. Behind my buddy Jeff's house. We were fishing bobbers with nightcrawlers. Fishing for cutts. I was using a Wright McGill fiberglass rod with a Daiwa spinning reel. It snapped the 6 lb test and I grabbed it and pulled out the searun rainbow. I used to fish alot then quit. My first summerun was back in June 95. Caught two the first day in the exact same places my father in law cast in two seperate holes on the Sletz. My first summerun in WA was on the Bogie on Nov 99 on my birthday. My next winterun since my cherry was popped was in 01 on the Kalama and the pic is somewhere on the board.

Methow 83 Black roostertail craped myself