Anyone ever have a day like this?

My normal fishing parter waited till Friday afternoon to tell me he had made other plans for Saturday when I thought he was going out with me in a new (to me) boat I haven't rowed yet. Unable to find anyone who wants to man the boat rods, I decided to bank it on my own.

Slept in, took care of some business, and got to the first hole at the crack of noon. It was looking pretty. Water had come up a bit and there was a nice long slot of emerald running down through the boulders. Back to the truck to get into the neoprene and line up. Walking down to the hole I see a couple guys who I swear weren't there five minutes ago.

I drove up to another spot that looked promising and waded on out. Forth cast - NEST. While I'm poking around at my reel I look up to see I've walked right in below a flyguy. Not really in his drift but close enough. I move down some more and make another couple casts when I get another nest. This one is a beauty. Luckily the truck is nearby and I brought my spinning rig for this situation.

Back to the truck and then a good stretch above the flyguy. After a few drifts it's apparent I've had this line on the spining setup for way to long. It looks like an extended slinky on every cast. Damn.

I spent a couple hours working the run to no avail while every other passing boat says they got one. Not red hot but I couldn't help thinking it would have been a decent day to get the boat out.

Back to the truck to head home. On the way I decided to make one last stop at a hole that has never produced a fish for me but keeps me coming back because it looks too good and there's never anyone there. By this time my stomach is telling me a package of powdered doughnuts and a cup of coffee isn't enough to make it through a day. Feeling tired, distracted and hungry I was going through the motions and on my fourth cast the float went under in a hurry - like it does when my jighead slams a rock. A quick jerk and I look up at the rod tip to see it diving. It's not a rock. Holy cow.

If you've seen many of my posts here you know that I haven't caught all that many steelhead. Fewer than I can count on my two hands. Every time I get a hookup something comes over me and the best way to describe it is going apeshit.

And what I hooked into today had me really off my rocker. I was already standing in water about to my thighs and I almost fell right in when I realized I had a good one. It was a spooky fight with the fish doubling the rod over, taking off drag and generally bullying me around this clay-bank hole but never breaking the surface.

I got things under control and was reeling down on what I thought was a BIG buck. By now I was standing in water about calf deep when I gave one last pull and saw the biggest flash of chrome about five yards out that I've ever seen while steelheading. Mint. Then ZING. If I hadn't ducked, the float, jighead and pink worm would have been stuck in my face. Gone. I let out a howl that set the dogs up the road barking. That hog had straightened the hook.

What a great day steelheading! I love this place!

Bruce

(Sorry to go on so long. I've been talking to myself the whole ride home.)

Just about every time I go fishing, except I don't hook into a hunk. Nice going and way to hang in there.

I feel for you, Bruce. That sounds like one of my days steelheading. I remember hiking in neoprene waders for 90 minutes double time up a deep woods path in Alaska one frosty April morning, not knowing exactly where we were going to hit the river but deciding to beat a path as far upstream as possible. Buddy Slick and I really did ourselves proud, double-timing it at 5 mph (jogging part of the way, no less). I must have sweated a quart into each boot by the time we turned right and hit the river. The sun was just up when we realized we had stumbled on one of the best holes on the river -- a hole so good we call it the 'Steelhead Hole'. And who should be there but two guys, one of whom had a fish on? (They'd strapped a 10 horse outboard onto the back of a dingy and motored upstream at o'dark thirty. Cheaters!)

Those two guys pounded that hole while we worked upstream and down, waiting for them to leave. Fat chance. When they finally left they claimed they'd had 15 hook-ups (we saw 4-5). The weather got progressively colder, and as we cooled off from our marathon hike we started shivering due to all the sweat trapped underneath our waterproofs. Being the idiots we are, we persisted in fishing 12 of the worst hours I've ever had on a steelhead stream. A cold rain began to fall, then became sleet followed by rain followed by blowing hail (our favorite).

You name it, we did it all in the name of trying to hook up: wade over the top of our waders, climb vertical banks to get to inaccessible holes, and take shortcuts through Devíl's club plantations. Every drift rig known to man was slung up, across and quartering downstream. Man were we tired.

By the end of the day we had worked our way downstream to the 'Hanging Hole' (aptly named, the way we felt) where we were about the 50th people to fish it judging by all the boats that had passed us by that point.

In terms of fish landed, I was the leader in the clubhouse with a 20" foul-hooked sea run dolly. Slick had had a hook-up and lost it about 8 hours ago (which felt like two lifetimes). Just about the last cast before breaking down our rods and trudging back to the car, Slick hooksa nice 7-8lb bright fish. He fights it like a pro with lots of Lefty Kreh side pressure and maximum toque. (I'm so discouraged that I'm actually rooting for him to land this one, too!). Slick has this puppy whipped and is down to 10 feet of line off his rod and getting ready for the release when the hook pulls. Just one of those days. Sounds like you had one as well.

On another topic, it also sounds like you made a couple of avoidable mistakes on your outing: using old line, having weak hooks on your jig, and, most importantly, running out of powdered sugar do-nuts. I spend a lot of time in preparing for trips so as to not mess up on the water. Yet everyone gets lazy. This morning I was fishing in the local saltwater pond, using a popping cork (a saltwater popper that I've taken the hooks off), and a live prawn hanging 12" off the back split eye. I pulled this rig pre-tied out of my fishing vest from the last trip 2-3 weekends back.

The barra were busting mullet on top. First cast WHAM! Fish on! Fish off! Huh? A curly cue at the end of the dropper line told me that the old knot I'd tied had come untied (this happens in heavy fluorocarbon a lot: it's real springy and slick). I tie on a new Gammi and make another cast. Fish on!! A big one, too! Fish off!! [Bleeeeep!], g*dd*amn!! (and much worse). Reel in to find the entire dropper is gone: the SECOND three-week old knot has untied itself from the other end of the fluorocarbon (where it attaches to the screw eye on the popper). Tie up a new dropper, calling myself some uncomplimentary names all the while. All deserved, too.

After 30+ years fishing I can't believe I still do stuff that dumb. (Three casts later, BLAM! A big barra hits the hookless popper and knocks it out of the water. I had to laugh. I later got 12 and 14lb'ers on a dink float and a livey, so the morning wasn't a total write-off. I wish steelhead were so forgiving.)

Snagly,
I have been to a "Steelhead Hole"...it was on the Olympic Peninsula...on a river that starts with a "D".....same river????

Me and My partner were there today, by the time he got his [Bleeeeep!] together it was 9:30, were in the water by 10:30 or so. Of course we were doing a drift that a friend of ours told us about, supposedly his buddies did it and hooked 11 and landed 6, made since to me since it is all private ground around there. Since we were putting in later, we decided to cut the drift in 1/2. we found a place to dump the Brand new thor-boat over the bank and away we went. we decided to boondog it since we have never fished that section before and learn the water, I hooked one about 1/2 hour into the float and lost it. Then an hour or so later I got one hatchery hen about 8lbs, chrome ass brite too. then things went downhill from there, we kept floating along but could not ever hear any traffic and werent seeing to many houses, so at 4:30 I said we should probably quit fishing and push it. at about 4:40 we found a big log jam blocking the entire river. We got over that by 5:00 and started rowing like a big dog. At 7:30 made it to the take out in one piece but with some frayed nerves after having to go through some hairy [Bleeeeep!] in the dark. As for our buddy and his friends they are [Bleeeeep!] liars and cant even tell a good fish story. They should at least know the legth of the drift they lied about and as for the log jam, it has been there for sometime, I am taking my chainsaw next time. But it was nice water just need to divide it in 1/2 again. Superfly