Getting My Steelhead Fix 2

Last week was a tough one in my driftboat. We had 9 steelhead hooked up in two days on one of the Southwest Washington rivrers (not counting the other "chances") and landed exactly "0" of them…nada, zilch, zippo! I lost two myself, one of which straightened out a hook on light tackle and the second one was a mid-teens wild buck that tossed the 1/8 ounce jig that he chomped in low and clear water. The small hook just didn't have enough of a hold on the wild buck and "kapoo-ee", out came the hook. The rest, well, they just weren't meant to be!

Scott Sypher and I set out to redeem ourselves yesterday on the same river and were met with freezing cold conditions first thing in the morning. Frozen rod guides, frozen anchor rope, frozen deck, and frozen fish were what greeted us first thing in the morning as we picked our way down the river. With conditions like this we knew the fish wouldn't get active until later in the day.

To our surprise Scott's first fish happened early in the morning and slurped up a size 10 pink Corky and a piece of prawn driftfished on a long flat. After it was hooked it didn't do much, just rolling around and shaking it's head. We played with the hatchery buck at the side of the boat for a while, trying to get some funny video content for our friend Richard who had hooked a sucker in the same spot last week and declared it a "steelhead". After ten minutes of horsing around with the fish at the side of the boat Scott went to lift the fish to the net and "kapooo-ee", there's goes the hook. No biggy!

The cold water kept the bite off until mid-day when sure enough my float goes down as it drifts next to a downed tree and a wild steelhead bolts from the darkness with my peach jig in its mouth. Cold water made the fight less than spectacular and we put the fish in my catch and release net in short order, snapped a few pics and video, and off she went back into the river to do her thang.

After drifting thru a few more prime runs chucking jigs under a float I decided to slide the plugs into the very top of a deep run that had a bunch of downed timber strewn along the left side of it. In low and gin clear water steelhead, especially big steelhead, will usually hunker down right in the very head of the hole next to timber just like this. If you don't mind the extra work on the oars these areas can pay off nicely.

The water was really fast and I had to pump like crazy on the oars to get the plugs in along the timber, but right when the left plug hit the deepest part of the hole next to the lumber the rod slammed down and bent to the cork. Hammertime baby!

Sypher pulled the surging rod from the Fish On holder and the fish smoked downstream and right under another log that was laying cross-current below us. "He's under the log, he's under the log," Scott barked as the fish got enough of a wrap on the timber with the line to tear the hook loose. We were both disappointed, but gave it the "oh, well" shoulder shrug and moved on. Win some, lose some and it was awesome just to experience that vicious takedown in heavy current.

After thoroughly fishing a few holes that normally hold fish with nothing I slid the driftboat into the last drift of the day before the takeout and Scott went to work scouring it with the drift gear. One thing about hardcore steelhead fisherman is that they never give up and Scott's that kind of guy. On the very last cast of the day into the very last pocket of the day his drift rod gives the tell tale "whomp, whomp" of a fish chewing on his prawn and he lays into a nice, chrome 9 pound hatchery hen that puts up a good fight before hitting the net. A great way to end another great day on the river!  

A photo of the 10 pound wild hen that I hit on the jig.

Underwater photo of the same fish just prior to release. Notice the seal bite on her belly…ouch!

Sypher's last minute hatchery brat at the end of the day.

Capt. Rob Endsley

www.princeofwalessportfishing.com