Your odds improve big time when you fish with TRBO and do what he says

Still lookin for my first 20# after 20 years of steelheading, and I'm cautiously optimistic that it will happen someday

22x38

queets 2005, 3 years steelheading


later that year i caught a 18-19lb satsop hatchery fish.

S_F, I'm in he same boat. Been close a few times but no 20. Honesty think I had my 20 on fishing the Skagit back in 04, was pulling plugs w/ ISO & was on the GOOD side on this run. About 7-8 ' off a huge logjam in BIG fish water, my right seat rod just hammers down....& stays down for a while, then like a king starts pulling line off & headshaking & this all is going down in February. Fish digs right to move toward the jam & I'm cranking side pressure away from it, ISO is rowing like mad for the opposite gravel bar.......


Long story short, the powerpro digs into itself locks up the reel, then the rod bends to the cork & the mono leader cracks off like a .22.......


It was without doubt the biggest steelhead I've been attached to, & I would have loved to get a grip & grin.

Who knows 2010 might be our year, hang in there bro.


c/22

I live in eastern Wa. a twenty pound fish is just a dream over here. But on the other hand this year I have had four 20+ fish days and one 30 fish day and a couple dozen trips in the teens. (in my boat with a couple of buddies)
Fishing from shore is just as good you have to sort thru the unmarked fish to get a limit of four but that is not much of a problem. They run small mostly in the 6lb range but there are enough 10 to 12 pounders to make it interesting. Biggest this year so far 14lbs. Methow pulling plugs or drifting jigs. Maybe some day a 20lber will make its way over here and ill get lucky but Im not holding my breath. P.S. dont get me wrong I have also been skunked a few times when the weather gets cold or the river rises too much. I fish an average of three to four times a week. I believe you got to get skunked every once in a while to appreciate the good days.

Got me thinking on the systems where I've pulled out 20+'ers. Kind fun to recall......

Quinault
Skykomish
Hoh
Calawah
Queets
Kispiox
Walla Walla
NF Lewis

For some reason, a Sol Duc 20+'er is also eluding me......

I fished an honest 20 years before I got my first 20 and biggest in 96'....24.5 lbs. Taken on summer run tackle that day as the water was extremely low and clear(late Feb.) Had a beautiful repro done of it.

After 96' I hit a streak for about 5 years where I landed 4-5 more right around the 20 mark.....all from one of three rivers on the WA coast and bank fishing. Sadly, it has tailed off quite a bit in recent years due to lack of fish and increased commercial pressure.

Someone once told me that there has been a huge growth spurt in the number of 20lbrs. caught since C&R practices have been put into place.

This thread brings back many fun thoughts. The fish lost probably are just as fun as the fish landed. A day in this state in the late 70's where a friend and I had five or six take downs on plugs that we couldn't even get the rods out of the rod holder. We never saw one of the fish. At the boat launch there were six steelies kept (1970's) and three were over 20.

The largest fish I have hooked and seen was in WA this decade, side drifting, it was pushing 30lbs. There was a funeral service going on at that hour for a friend. Instead of going to the funeral I went fishing dedicating my thoughts to the deceased. The water was clear, the fish circled the boat many times, the view was unbelievable. The whole time fighting the fish I was thinking about my deceased friend and how much he would like to have watched that fish.

Another great story was by an acquaintance who catches many fish, he was fishing from the bank, hooks a large fish and got spooled. He had no spare line so he drove to town, respooled and returned to the same hole. He starting fishing and he hooked his old line, tightening up he felt the fish. He tied the line back to his gear and got respooled.

I have landed 5 over 20lbs since 1972, two were on the fly (it really is no different then gear), two on a spoon (both in one memorable morning when other similar size fish got away) and one on a rag. Caught on same rivers mentioned above. Had twice that many landed by people fishing with me.

How many out there have had multiple 20lber in a day? Even for the whole boat?

I've seen my share of fish over and around 20. There are far more 20 plus fish caught now than there were when every single one of em was bonked on the head and actually weighed....
It really doesn't matter. When you encounter one like in the photo up above.... Ice chrome, perfect, huge... You know you were near a very special critter. I fish for those encounters!

I first tried steelhead fishing in 1968, but I can't say that I was even close to fishing effectively those first couple years. Just as I was getting the hang of drift fishing, I switched to fly fishing, maybe to make sure I didn't catch too many steelhead altho it really helped my trout fishing. I think my largest steelhead was 14 or 16 pounds until April 30, 1982 when I landed a mint bright hen of 15 pounds on the Sauk, followed by a second pass through the pool, and right where I'd had a light hit on my first pass, he hit again, this time resulting in a solid hookup. A few minutes later I worked the buck into shallow water and felt a level of excitement akin to, oh, I don't know, maybe losing my virginity. I backed upstream even though it meant yielding line to reach for my camera that was in a backpack in my canoe. Grabbed the camera and worked the fish in closer and slid him into the shallows. I have two copies of the photo, one in my office and one at home. Not quite as bright as the hen from the same pool, but the brightest large buck steelhead I've ever caught. He taped out at 23 pounds.

I caught one just a bit over 20 the next year on the Skagit, almost as bright as the Sauk fish. I was fishing with a friend and have a photo of that fish somewhere. One of those two years I also caught a big male steelhead that was in the low 20s while fishing early summer runs on the NF Stilly. It was a big dark fish, clearly a spawner, so I never counted it since kelts don't count in the school of steelheading I attended.

Although I fished a lot through the rest of the 80s, I caught no large steelhead, save for a few high teen fish on the Skagit. I think it was 1996 when I caught my largest steelhead ever, a brute showing a fair amount of red cheek and stripe, but still a green pre-spawn fish, that taped out at 26 pounds. And I didn't even have a camera with me that day. And no sizeable steelhead since then, other than a darkish buck around 18 on the coast a couple seasons ago.

Big fish or not, I really ought to fish more.

Sg

Been lucky enough in my short steelhead career to be a part of 2 big steelhead. One was 3 years ago in June on the skagit. Big downriver buck bit eggs while free drifting for springers. Taped out at 41 or 42" didn't get an actual girth measurement on it. I got to hook and land this one.

2nd fish was March 14th last year on the skagit that my buddy hooked free drifting. Absolute chromer that taped out at just under 22lbs. Jumped almost a dozen times, and a few were eye height to me.

1st year fishing for them i got one with a guide that was 44x22.5 ... although i duno if that counts cause it was with a guide. but i was 14 y/o

I've come to believe the same thing. If you really, really want a giant, there are places you can be at certain times to highly increase your odds.

Here is my list of 20# rivers...
Krispy
Bulkely
Skagit
Solduc
hoh
Thompson
nutsack
Bogey
Skeena

I got one that was very high teens on the Lyre... May have gone 20, but never weighed it or took measurements.
Neal

All through the mid 60'd to the mid 70's we (3 of us) would catch 3 or 4 over 20 every year on the Humptulips, Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Cowlitz, Satsop or Skagit etc. We were drift boating back then.
Here is the smallest of 4 from 1976, just found this picture looking for family christmas pictures. It was a picture in Fishing and Hunting news in January 1977 as this one was caught on December 21st. I remember it as it was our christmas dinner that year!

Forgot I had hair at one time!! Funny how fishermen are, I remember this picture because my buddy told the liers gazett that I caught it at Fall City when really I caught it a mile down river from the mouth or the Tolt!



I remember my grandfather walking into the hole below the 101 bridge on the Hump and in about 10 casts hooking 5 Steelhead on eggs and yarn and the smallest was 18lb. 3 fish limit back then and he had 2 over 20lbs. with the biggest just a bit under 26lbs.
I am still looking for those pictures, will post when I find them.

ive managed three over 20lbs .. my first came in 1982 plunking a small river it weighed 24lbs and a female to boot..wish i had it mounted but the old bitch i was with then said no cost to much..then i got two in one season one 20 and one 21lbs..Ive had a couple others on that i could see were in that weight range but never banked them..

Dang GBL that is an old photo, my first thought in seeing it was that the Shroud of Turin is in better shape

my biggest is 19.75lbs, spawned out summer run native on the upper green. so i guess i havent quite reached the 20lb mark.

Sue caught her 5th Steelhead, 4 months into her steelheading career on our 1st ever trip w/ Bob (Thanks again). 22.5 .
I've steelheaded 30 +/- yrs and have only landed 1 20+ about 3 seasons ago on the Sky but not wanting to do any additional harm to the fish it was un-intentionaly released w/ only video no stills...(Long Story)

09 #s on 20lbrs
hooked 12 landed 6 last year on the mainstem of beaver crik
hooked 20 landed 15 on the north fork of beaver crik