First hook up was on the Tolt on a 5 weight bug rod. Fish kicked my arse. First landed was at reiter in the summer of 01 I think.

New Years day 2007, Cable hole on the Sky, jig an float. All by myself on a cold rainy morning, thought I hit that damn snag, again, went to pop it off and sumbeach there was a tug back. Nice chrome 7lb hen.
Yeah, I'm hooked for good.

Nestucca River, near Hebo, 1987, 8# winter

You guys are making me feel old. Anton Drift on the Puyallup, 1968.
I was using a Sammy Special. I thought I had snagged the bottom, jerked back on the rod back and a fish jumped. I yelled to my brother that I had a fish on and to get my dad, who was fishing farther upstream and had the net. My brother just laughed and told me I was snagged. The fish jumped again so he finally believed me.
Rather then reeling it in, I just kept backing up the bank. By the time my dad netted it, I was 40 feet up the bank in the bushes.
A chrome bright 8 lb hen. As a 8 year old I was hooked. I must have showed that steelie every fisherman on the river that day.

Skykomish River either '8 or '85. Family, friends and neighbors knew me to be a fishing fanatic (trout and salt water salmon). I was about 14. One of my neighbors who had a driver's license wanted to see someone catch a steelhead. He drove me up to Reiter a couple times and just sat on the rocks while I caught nothing. No clue whatsoever as to how to catch one of those things.

So, I went to the library and checked out a book on the subject. Back up toward Reiter we go. I'm sure many of you know exactly where I was. As you drive east on hwy 2 past the pullout to Reiter the road goes from 3 lanes back to 2. You look to your left and there's a HUGE boulder just upstream from where the river turns into "rapids." Peach corky, white yarn and cast right in behind this big rock. Tap, tap, tug. Fish on. 2 minutes later a 6# winter fish is on the bank. Not quite the fight I was expecting but at that point I was hooked for life.

As we're about to walk out this old guy with a fishing rod congratulates me and asks what I'm using. Show him my gear and he says "you caught it on that?" I still remember looking at his old yellow rod strung up with monofilament as thick as my anchor rope while he told me he'd been fishing steelhead for 25 years and never even hooked one.

First one ever was in 1975 on the Navarro river in northern California. I was at Boy Scout summer camp, tossing Roostertails to trout when I hooked and landed it. It was probably around 6 or 7 lbs... but at the time I thought it was freakin' Moby Dick! I caught another one the next spring, again on a Boy Scout campout to the Eel river.

10 years went by before I caught my next one on the Kasilof river in AK.

Been fishing for them regularly in WA since 1987.

Tolt again, must have been back in 1988?? Think it was November, nailed a skanky summer-run on a green/silver spoon. Man, I was one happy cracker!!

I had my spanking new Lami G-1000 #1310 baitcaster & Ambassauder 5500c, still have that rod.

C/22

Goldsborough Creek, 12th street hole early-mid seventies.

I bet you're right...nightcrawler was always a good steelhead bait in that little stream...and the fish weren't always all that little, either! The bonus of the nightcrawler technique was the occasional monster cutthroat, too.

It was only a four mile bike ride for me to be at Marymoor Park, so you better believe I fished there a lot! I also caught a few in Issaquah Creek back when you could...tough spot to hook a fish, and even tougher to land one once you did, but it was a good place to learn to fish small streams, that's for sure.

Fish on...

Todd

Green River, main street hole, plunking the winter of 1981. 6 lb. hatchery buck. I was 7. Took me 5 years and numerous lost fish before I landed my 2nd. A gorgeous mid-teens hen on Xmas day 1986, drift fishing below the golf course on the Green. Orange spin 'n glow. (funny how you remember that stuff?).

For me it was 1976, Elocohoman river in SW Wash. I had fished all day without a bite, so I thought. My uncle was standing next to me and was watching my rod as I drifted and said, YOU GOT A BITE he grabed my rod above the cork and set the hook and it was fish on. 10 # buck my first. The next day I went all by myself below the forks in mainstem of the Toutle river and caught a 16# hen and a buck of 15# drifting a pink # 12 spin -glo. I walked back to the Harry Morgan campground with my limit and woke my uncle up and showed him my catch. He asked me if I felt them bite and I replied yes, he said you will never have any problem catching Steelhead from now on and he was right.

December 1979, Barrier Dam, Cowlitz, spent summer run and I was happy as hell with it. I look at that photo today with 30 years under my belt and have to laugh. What a punk.

85' Sky, plunked, 16lbr. Didn't catch squat for nearly a year after that until I learned to drift fish. Didn't even find Reiter until 88'.

My first steelhead was back in the 80's,I was in my early teens. I was fishing off a pier in Central California for perch when I looked down and saw a big steelhead swimming in and out of the pilings and toward the beach. I tied on a green prism krocodile and ran after him. Slammed my spoon right in front of me,about 12 pounds of buck,in the salt.

My first river steelhead I got out of a tidal lagoon in a small stream on a blue fox brass spinner. Dime bright fish. I can never hook enough of those slimy bastards now.

Mine was caught in the ninth grade and would prove to be memorable for all the wrong reasons. It was caught with a flame corky and chartreuse yarn on Alaska's Ninilchik River over a Memorial Day weekend opener for spring kings. I was so excited to finally land one of these prized gamefish. My first instinct was"Quick, let's get it back in the water." because I was under the mistaken impression that only kings could be retained.

A buddy said "Why? It's legal to keep." After confirming with others on the bank that it really was legal, I grabbed a rock and whacked it solidly across the top of its head. It was a remarkably bright hen measuring 38", but skinny as a snake."So what," I thought to myself, "it looks like a fresh one afterall."

When I cut it open, its meat was nearly white and paper thin along the ribs and belly. After one taste, I threw the rest of the fish away because it wasn't fit to eat.

Lessons learned as I look back:

1) Never kill a down-runner, no matter how bright it looks, even if it's legal to kill it.

2) What a waste of a marvellous wild hen steelhead that had just completed her life's mission and then just mending up for another run out to sea where she could have fattened up for a repeat spawn the next year.

3) That fish in its prime would have weighed 20 pounds or more! Definitely an exceptional fish for that little creek... and I just wasted its chances to pass on those genes on a repeat run.

Definitely one of my darkest and unforgettable moments of enlightenment in my evolution as an angler.

Clay banks hole on the Hoh river. Summer of 2000. Tied up an egg sucking leach. first time I had every tried it. I was very skeptical. 3rd cast brough a nice 12 lb native up. Snapped a nice pic and sent her on her way. The guy I fished with framed the pic and attached the egg sucking leech I caught it with. I look at that pic everyday.

N Fork Stilly on a bug rod may of 1995 or 96. Had been fishing for these bastards for 6 years and finally everything came together. I guarentee you this, I was the happiest mother fu#$er on the face of the earth that day. It was an almost spawned out boot wild buck of about 12/13 pounds and to this day it is still the most special steelhead that I have ever caught. I have caught many that were bigger, many that were way brighter, come to think of it, I don't know that I have caught one that was darker, but I have never caught one that made my knee's shake like that one or shoot adreniline through my whole body. Hundreds of steelhead later, you can still find me out there any chance I can looking for the one that will do to me what that first one did. Come on 20 lb'er!

Tim

December 1956 on the Toutle along the Tower road. I was with Larry Worrell and Bobby Loomis, Gary's older brother. Got him on a brass and orange striped shoehorn. It was about 11 a.m. The weather was cloudy, no rain. About 45 degrees. I was using a Wright-Mcgill rod and a Mitchell spinning reel. I remember that but I have trouble remembering what I did yesterday.
















got him

1989 reiter ponds with the old man, a week or so before i was 6y/o. hooked up with a 10lb dark buck at the cotton wood. peach corkie/red yarn

+ 1
Ain't that the truth! Funny how you can remember fish you've caught but easily forget other things. Must be our priorities as fisherman.