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Tim Hyvonen
2015-04-28 02:22:06

Half day steelhead guide trip


Saturday April 25, I ran a half day with three guys looking to advance their steelheading skills in the rivers. Two were using fly rods and one opted to a spinning rod. The fly rods were no problem but I was a little concerned about the one using the spinning rod seeing it takes a special talent NOT to find every rock and stick on the bottom of the river. Once on the gravel I wanted to fish I noticed quickly something was missing... The Steelhead. With it being colder the night before I figured they pushed off the beds and into slightly deeper sections of the river. I got the two guys fly fishing set up and had them work two faster deeper runs, then I took the spinning rod guy and set him up with my 13Fishing Omen Black and a pink rooster tail and showed him how to properly present the spinner in deeper slack pools. On my third cast I felt a hard thump and once I set the hook I handed off the rod and said "here you go start reeling" my client still in disbelief did a great job fighting and landing a quality 5lb chrome female. After getting him set back up I went to one of the guys using a fly rod and a strike indicatior to show him how to properly mend his line and no sooner then I got done explaining on when to set the hook, the strike indicator shot under and the fish got off to quickly to see if it was a sucker or steelhead. After about 30mins I took the spining rod client and posted him just above one of my favorite float rod spots and as I was walking back to talk to the second fly fisherman I heard the spinning rod client yell "I got one!" Once back down to him I noticed something was different about the fish he was fighting. Sure enough once he got it closer I could see he had a huge sucker hooked in the back. After releasing it and setting him back up it only took a few more minutes for him to hook into a steelhead but lost it shortly after hooking up. As another 10mins went by I could see he was hooked on bottom and after getting him out of that snag I took a few casts showing him the different angles to work and I told him "just remember that rock I got you out of, because if I were a steelhead I'd be sitting close to it." Just like clock work as I finished saying that I felt another thump, set the hook and handed it off with a spunky steelhead at the other end. With the two fly fisherman still needing to hook up we ventured down river to another gravel spot that I knew I could get them into a few fish. Once we got down to the rivers edge I instantly saw a female steelhead dropping eggs with two bucks sparring behind her. I swapped out the egg patterns to a larger streamer and showed the two clients how to swing into the bucks. It didn't take long before one of the bucks crushed that streamer and took my client for a 50yrd run down river. While he was fighting that one I looked up and saw the second fly fisherman hooked into the female and all I could think was DOUBLE HEADER!! Once that excitement ended the spinning rod client missed another steelhead but then hooked into the largest one of the day being a 7-8lb chrome bullet. Honestly I would be more then happy I didn't run another steelhead trip this spring to end on this high note.
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