Lately here in the Pacific Northwest chasing steelhead has been a battle with mother nature we've fought sub freezing temperatures where lines freeze, guides on our rods freeze and reels freeze. We've had snow accumulations making traveling almost impossible. And we've had rain, rain, and still more rain causing rivers to blow out and stay out.
Today finally the weather was on our side, the sun came out the river was in perfect shape and most importantly steelhead were on the bite!
We hit 8 fish today, and for angler Tom it wasn't a big deal since he had fished with us earlier in the season and had some great days but for his partner Steve it was a different story as it was his first time on the butte end of a steelhead rod. Steve hit a beautiful wild fish on a diver and bait rod then he missed his next couple chances on a pink worm under a float. We came into a short slot Steve made a well placed cast the float went a few feet and down it went. Steve was on his game, he closed the bale, set the hook and was locked into a CHROME hatchery steelhead. We fought the fish downstream and after a few runs we slid the net under it and it was in the boat. Way to go Steve, not to shabby!
At the end of the day we had hit 8 fish and landed 5, 2 were wild and released, 3 were hatchery fish that ended up in the box. March can offer some fantastic steelhead opportunities, especially when conditions are in your favor!
