Hey guys & gals-

Just wanted to hear everybodys best steelie catch from this year. Thought it would be fun to see who's got the big one so far.

My personal best this year to date was a 36" native hen on the upper reaches of the Bogey on the 23rd of March. Absolutely picture perfect fish, nickel brite, fat and full of spunk. I figured the fish to be 16-17lbs. Caught it on a homemade rag.

Drop a note lets hear about your best fish, and when & where you caught it.

practice c&r------Fishaday------

[This message has been edited by fishaday (edited 04-11-2000).]

[This message has been edited by fishaday (edited 04-11-2000).]

Nice one!!! Mine was a 22.5lb rocket of a buck on the nooch.What a kick!

Mine was a 18-19 lb wild hen on the lower Sol duc. Chrome and full of fight. She was released to do her thing. She fell victim to a experimental rag-hoochie, I have been trying. I guess it was the best, because it was the first fish landed on a new drift set-up design, a design I thought up in the wee hours of the night when there is nothing much else to do.--mike

Fishaday ... better check your regs a little more closely The Upper Bogey is a no bait / no scent area.

Bob- I knew it was no bait but didn't know it was no scent. Thanks for the reminder.

practice c&r-----fishaday-----

I don't really have a best catch of the year but I can tell you about the time when my brother cought his first steelhead ever. It was at stevens creek which dumps right into the Humptulips. It was on Christmas morning we had only been fishing for an hour when he hooked and landed a 32 inch hatchery steelhead which weighed around twelve pounds then an hour after that he landed a 33 inch hatchery steelhead that looked like it weighed around fourteen pounds and to top it all off I landed a 26 inch steelhead that looked like it weighed about six pounds. What a great Christmas present.

Can't say I caught any fish over 15 pounds this season but did have a great day on one of the puget sound rivers, hooking 14 summer runs and landing 13 to 12 pounds floating a jig. Had the whole place to myself!

40.5 inches on the Hoh two Saturdays ago!Id post a pic if I could. He was and still is a screamen demon!!!

Biggest for me came last weekend while fishing for Springers. 34" 13 1/2lb Summer brat. Sure was fun, and tasted good too. Man summer runs are oily when they're mint bright.

15-16# fish from the Quinalt--the best part was I got three fish that day that were that big! Landed 24 fish in 1 day! Great day for my Dad, Bro and me....oh yea Robbin too!

Im not going to tell you about the big one(19#), I got the most from an 8lb hen nate on the snoqualmie. The fish hit the plug and was immeadatly out of the water. When I say out I mean 3-4 feet in the air. This is just the start, the fish continued this across the tailout and into the next hole. All total the fish was airborn 13 times, went through on hole and wrapped around one log. I have caught hundreds of steelhead but never on like this, one of my most memorable nates. Like all nates it felt great to get a picture and release it.

Boy, further proof that the Puget Sound fish were preeeetty small this season. Released a 14 lb buck a couple of weekends ago on the Sky, so what.

Gotta go back to last fall for the best story: On the Sky, I hit a 16.5 lb hatchery summer run buck in the tailout of Reiter and landed him in the next hole down (Cable Hole). For those of you not familiar with this area, there's a fair amount of white water separating the two holes, even in September. To top it off the fish hit a size 8 olive whooly worm tied to a six pound leader. I swear the fish was hooked in the corner of the mouth in the only place where it wouldn't have pulled out, raked leader over teeth, or bent the hook straight.

I was so tired, I took the horse trail back to Reiter.



[This message has been edited by obsessed (edited 04-12-2000).]

Sorry, I can't resist showing off this beautiful 40 inch buck caught on the Skykomish last Saturday! Hell, I'm still grinnin'!
http://staff.washington.edu/parker/pictureoftheweek.html

Parker

My best fish(ing) of the year was yesterday. I hooked into five chromers landing 3. The largest was around 12#'s. I had the whole river to myself. Gotta love those spring Natives.

Two trophies so far this season. A surprise twenty plusser on the Hump in January and another on the Queets in March. Still haven't given up yet! Hope it rains good tonight.

Best steelhead ever on the Hoh on Saturday April 8. 39" long and a bruiser! big 'ol native buck. It was great!!! My hands were shaking so bad when I got my first look at him that I thought I was gonna lose my pole. It felt good to watch him take off after he and I both smiled for the camera.
And a big thanks to my brother for being there to help and share the moment with me.

Fish hard or go home!

Sorry to bust the bubble, but my good fishin' buddy & I got a 28-30 this year. I was on the oars and it was my rod. He happened to be sitting up front and put me on a fish early on. Its lenght 42.5 & girth 23.5. Got the pic! I've seen, held, and landed twenties. This fish dwarft most of them. Hohwaian saw the pic. and I know he wont tell anyone anything! Hit a plug on a river that starts with S. Bob knows it too.

Maybe not the biggest on the board, but it was my first. A 10 lb native buck on the Satsop last month. No pic, I was trying to be extra careful and lost it at my feet. Oh well, it swam off strong and the pic is in my head forever.

WOW! sounds like the fishing wasn't to bad this year.

Crayfin- absolutly awesome! 24 fish, man that would be a day to remember. I think I might have to book a trip on the Quinalt next year.

Hohwaiian- a pair of fish over twenty this season alone, not to many people do that every year.

Parker- Nice fish! they don't get much better than that. Great pic!

Bk40- post the picture! we gotta see it, what a toad!!

These are some great fish! I guess the size doesn't really matter it's just the fun and the memories that keep us all coming back for more.

practice c&r----fishaday-----

Well, My biggest two fish of the year, (one was last sunday) were decent sized... Got one fish that was about 17, and lost another one about 15 that day on christmas eve, and then on the hoh, I landed one around 20, and another about 14... Quite a good day in my book... Lost another one in the sol duc yesterday that was around 15.

I've had a decent year... only two of the 15+ fish I've landed this year were under 10 lbs.. Darn good year... And it's the first year I totally gave up on bait and yarn... HINT HINT... Caught all of them on the same exact thing =)