June 21st 2014

     Prepared for the Saturday morning regatta we were on the water this morning before daylight, this would give us at least a half mile of river to ourselves before the Saturday crowd showed up.
     I fished today with brothers Buzz and Jerry, this was a Christmas gift from their sister Joice who has fished with us several times over the last 6 months. An hour into the trip while pulling divers and bait Buzz's rod buried. ...FISH ON! Buzz grabbed the rod from the rod holder to be latched into his first steelhead, but I didn't last long. A fresh summer run steelhead is a wild fish that is sometimes out of the water more than it's in, our fish made a hard charge at the boat, put some slack in the line and came off......DAMN BARBLESS HOOKS!
     Jerry's rod would be the next to get bit, another crazy fish that ran, jumped, wrapped around a rock and broke the leader all before the rod was out of the rod holder.
     Another hour later Buzz's rod buried again, Buzz grabbed the rod only to find nothing there.
     Steelhead, especially summer steelhead are a crazy fish. For someone who's not fished steelhead before it's hard to explain to them that this is not a fish where you set the hook and then just lead them to the net, on the Columbia River and all its tributaries barbless hooks are mandatory, KEEP THE LINE TIGHT, OR LOSE THE FISH!
     For a fish that is often called the fish of a thousand casts, hooking 3 on their first venture in steelhead fishing isn't bad, but going home having been beat is frustrating. Buzz and Jerry will be back, they are fisherman, and that's what we fisherman do.