Steelies

[adam.WI]

Tried my hand at steelhead fishing again this past weekend. This was my second time going after them, the first was last weekend when the fish demoralized me by out smarting me and giving me one bite in the middle of the night and spit the hook about as quick  as he took it.
This time, I won. My buddy, Steve, and I got to the river late afternoon on Sun. We put the kayaks in and were on our way to the island that I determined would be a good spot the week prior. We started out drifting with corkies and about 2 dozen cast in to the day, FISH ON!!! (my line, not his) I was using a light leader do to the fact that the water was clear so I was really babying her. She had a pretty good fight in her but in the end I was victorious. Landed her, with out a net, cause that was back home  
So back to fishing, another half hour or so goes by and FISH ON (again mine, not his) I fought this little feller for a min or so until he made a huge run, a run that was able to snap my main line instead of my leader so I decided that the advice about always retie after a fish was just. Live and learn.  A couple hours later as it is getting dark,  FISH ON (mine, not his) This turned out to be a pretty good sized fish, as I see him scream down the river, get about 50 yards from me and turn around on a dime and shoot out of the water. I was fearful of slack in the line, but no the current held my line nicely behind him and kept tension for me as I caught up. It was the second jump, which had no slack in the line that he came off
So as I said before it is beginning to get dark, the smart angler would come off the water, set up camp and go to bed for the morning fishing, that,s not us. We cross the river walk the half mile to the truck and go to the store for some necessities, beer and cheeseits. When we get back to the river we have a beer or two along the walk, by the way a case gets heavy after awhile. We set every thing down when we get back to the kayaks and rig up with glowing corkies. Get in the boats and go back across, only took three beers a piece for safety reasons, the river is quick through there. We fished for about three hour with only one fish on(mine again), this was in fact a little guy, maybe 15"-18" When he got hooked he shot straight out of the water and again, he decided that it didn't taste good so he would let it go. So its 1:30am and we cross the river, start a little fire and finish off whats left of the cheeseits and beer. Bed time came about 3:30 and I slept well in my sleeping bag to say the least.
Morning came and we didn't know it until a couple nice gentleman came to wake us up by fishing in between where we were sleeping , not a big deal because we were going across anyways. So it's 6:00am and we're back at it. I don't know if it was still being drunk or lazy but I decided that my glowing corky would be just fine for now. 4 cast in FISH ON!!! (yes again it was mine, is this getting old. Well Steve sure thought it was) This was a decent fish I could see, a little bigger than the one that I landed but not the biggest fish in the river either. Steve walked over to get the net, the net we bought when we went for beer in case you were wondering, and I brought the fish up in to the shallows. Now steve was relatively new to the outdoor activities when I met him but he did grow up fishing so this next part came as a surprise. I got him out in front of me just a bit and said I will try to bring it up to you, so he stood there and when the fish got close did a quick little move to attempt to scoop up the fish tail first.   Luckily the fish was not lost and I politely said what in the world are you doing, and explained the finer things of netting fish. So we tried again and were far more successful. So after photos, Steve confirms that we are still using the same things. We weren't I had my glow one on, but said I was going back to the one I had last night because when I took the hook out of the fishes mouth I lost the corky. So we continued the fishing adventures. About ten min later, Steve and I realized we were really hammered and miserable, but we continued on. Right about the time I was giving up because I felt so miserable, and Steve was already on shore drinking water, you guessed it, FISH ON!!! Steve yelled some thing from shore that started with an F and didn't seem really happy, could be certain what he said. The details of this one was blurry but some how, the fish swam away and I hung my head in sorrow, a few cast later the exact same thing happened except Steve was right next to me and this time I heard what he said, it wasn't very nice.
In the end we walked our kayaks up river out of the rapids, got in them and went back to the truck with two fish, my fish as I made sure Steve didn't forget.
I had a great day in the outdoors with a great friend and even caught some fish. The pictures are of the fish landed in order







 

[whacker1]

What river - didn't catch that part if it was there?

[bowhunterforever]

Sounds like it was an awsome fishing adventure! What river?

[adam.WI]

That's borderline confidential, but since I'm new, maybe it will open some info up for me.
It's the Cowlitz

[bowtech721]

Thats awsome... I really want to learn how to fish them... ive grown up with a dad thats obsessed with saltwater so ive never gotten into it but i would really like to... congrats

[MuleySniper]

Nice job! You'll be hooked on those ironheads for life now.
MS

[shorthair-on-point]

good work!

[BigGoonTuna]

i saw you guys bust one off...i was standing up in the bushes above that little slough on the other side.  think you or your buddy paddled across and back to pick up some gear when i was there.

[ducks55]

Nice looking fish.

[beave]

sounds like you had a blast.    Nice looking fish

[huntnphool]

Awesome fish, I should be down there this month at some point.

[A4effort]

Good work and Nice pics! Thats a good day on the river, right there!

[klickriverchromer]

That's borderline confidential, but since I'm new, maybe it will open some info up for me.
It's the Cowlitz

Confidential    ooh thats good.

[BigGoonTuna]

i really miss the days of being able to wade over there in normal flows.

i guess even more so, i miss back when that damned side channel was 10 feet wide and there was actual good water to fish along the claybanks.