TR Olympic Steelhead

My son Andy called me from one of our favorite rivers Tuesday and said
he's caught 5 fish and I needed to get out there and fish. Naturally I
packed up and left early the next morning. I found him across the
river at about 11:00 with a 8 pound hatchery fish hanging off the back
of his boat. While I got ready he walked upstream out of sight and
then called me on my cell phone telling me to get the camera and then
he hung up.

I knew he had a big one on, so I grabbed the camera, closed the car,
and ran up the road, through the woods, and down to the river just as
he came in view. He still had the fish on, and was about a hundred
yards below the spot where he's hooked the fish. I got ready to shoot,
and watched the fun on the opposite bank. It wasn't too bright out,
and he was 40 yards away, but with my 200mm lens and a 1/40 second
exposure I managed one picture that's passable which is now posted on
abpf. It was a chrome bright 16 pound, 36 inch native which he
released after the pictures. We went on tocatch a total of 8
steelhead, 1 dolly, and a dozen whitefish that day. My fish were
smaller, about 25 inches, one of which is posted on abpf.

We slept at the Dew Drop Inn in Forks and fished again the next day. I
had three fish attack my dink float, and Andy had two try it, but I
couldn't coax a rise to a dry. Back to the egg patterns, and we each
had 4 fish on. I landed two and Andy landed one. One that Andy fought
for quite a while on a #6 hook was clearly larger than his fish from
the day before. I figure it was in the 20 pound class. Andy will stick
with larger hooks now. We also caught Dollies, whitefish, and one SRC.

Another couple nice days on the river followed by a fine dinner at
Klalock Lodge.

Chas
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Chas Wade wrote in news:zLqQb.109844
$5V2.508359@attbi_s53:

I
had three fish attack my dink float, and Andy had two try it, but I
couldn't coax a rise to a dry.

dink float? Unethical!! ;-)

Serious question: if you could get one of these behemoths to rise to a
dry would it be tied on a size 6 or larger hooks?

Good stuff Chas!!


Steve

(Greg Pavlov) wrote:
Damn, I was in Seattle last week, thought of making
reservations to stay into the weekend & run out to
the peninsula, but didn't do it. So I'm back in 8
degree weather reading about 15 - 20 lb steelhead...

Next time send me an Email.

Chas
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Stephen Welsh wrote:
Chas Wade wrote in news:zLqQb.109844
$5V2.508359@attbi_s53:

I
had three fish attack my dink float, and Andy had two try it, but I
couldn't coax a rise to a dry.

dink float? Unethical!! ;-)

Must be something about the name Steve...


Serious question: if you could get one of these behemoths to rise to a
dry would it be tied on a size 6 or larger hooks?

#6 is the smallest hook I'll use on Steelhead. I tie dries on #4 to
2/0. One of these days I'm going to snell a hook onto the leader next
to the float and hook one of these big fools.

I caught 2 more in the same area today, a 26 inch hatchery fish that's
in the refrigerator now, and a larger fish that got away after about 5
minutes.

Chas
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Chas Wade wrote in news:J5oRb.158841
$I06.1611999@attbi_s01:

#6 is the smallest hook I'll use on Steelhead. I tie dries on #4 to
2/0. One of these days I'm going to snell a hook onto the leader next
to the float and hook one of these big fools.



Thanks Chaz.

Steve (Wondering how many deer end up in a 2/0 Bomber ;-)