Everyone who has chased steelhead knows that they don’t come easy. If you haven’t targeted them just imagine fishing in the coldest conditions to a fish that doesn’t need to eat and is migrating upstream with two things on it’s mind; survival and reproduction. Feeding is merely a habit that they sometimes can’t ignore and thus, once in a while they will take our flies as they drift by. These fish enter the rivers in small schools and eventually spread themselves out throughout the river within days. So knowing where they are is another tough thing to pin-point. We generally know the type of water to find them, but never really know if they’re there. When you start to add all this up you can see the deck of cards is stacked against you. Factor in a couple kids and a full time job and your chances at seeing one of these chrome jewels starts looking like trying to find sasquatch once a week. Of course some of my friends who have traveled further and put in more time than I found fish here and there as a result of there persistence. To make this long story a little shorter lets just say they I have put in a good amount of time on different tributaries these last couple years. The last chrome steelhead I caught was the summer of 2013 on the St. Joe. Since then they have eluded me. Until yesterday, when I finally broke the curse with a beautiful 8-10 lb hen that made 3 big jumps and a long run that almost got to my backing. This was THE fish that I had been waiting for. I’ve landed some very nice lake run browns and one small male steelhead in the last 2 fall/spring runs, but there is nothing else in fresh water with the strength and power of a fresh run adult steelhead. Right about the time my curse began I bought a Spey Co. Switch reel, and for 2 years now I’ve been waiting for a fish to put that click drag to work. Yesterday, I finally heard that baby sing.
Smallies were biting too. 4 between Andrew and I while swinging leech and hair wing flies.