First Steelhead When and Where

[chumdog]

  [/b] You folks can have your winters (yeah, wild ones too).

Dude, let's swap.  I'll take all your nates and I'll gladly give you all my summers. 

First Steelhead: Green River at Palmer.  December 1978, pink pearl corkie and green yarn.

First fish over 20.  Marchish 1984, Puyallup R. 

[NWRetics]

[/b] You folks can have your winters (yeah, wild ones too).

agreed. Nothing better than 85 degree weather. Some supercharged steelhead doing eight  4-6 foot leaps and cartwheels from hell. Over 12 hours of day light walking miles down a low flow river crossing anywere.... im getting excited just talking about it .....oh and herd one rumor of a mint bright 16# brat at the mouth of the big C a little late for a winter....

[cuttstosteelies]

Don't get me wrong....  I love the big, strong, bulldoggin'  nates.  However, there's something about a squirly, silver-side skamania on a 60 degree morning that jumps completely over ypur partner's head.  True story.  Remember, Kelly? 

[dardevle]

 
Been "buzzed" ever since the first "summer run"......  You folks can have your winters (yeah, wild ones too).

And you can have the "ponds"!

[Andrew]

Have to take a break from my evening and thank Mike for that one. 

My first O. mykiss was from Lake Meridian in '94. I can still remember the smell of rainbow sparkle Powerbait, fresh and strong as the fog lifted off the water that crisp April morning. I baited my size 10 Eagle Claw hook and cast out into the depths. As I felt my slip sinker tumble to the bottom, I became aware that something was different - that something had changed. It was a trout! A trout had taken my bait! It turned out to be a sickly, pale, and in all other ways pathetic 7" stocker rainbow that oozed a bunch of extra Powerbait when I cleaned it.

Still quite a bit better than "the ponds."

-Andrew

[Chum Man]

i had to blow the dust off my dedicated summer run rod on sunday, and ended up hooking a dink of a hen that jumped about a half dozen times before it spit the hook.

already looking forward to sneaking up on that barely visible shadow at 4:30am on a warm june morning...not too much longer now.

[cuttstosteelies]

[/quote]

And you can have the "ponds"!
[/quote]

   I'll take em'....  Wanna throw in any southern rivers while you're at it?

[Chum Man]

you're too late...i already got dibs!

[Skagit Walker]

Wats an O my kiss?

[BigJim]

First Hatchery 2001 Skookumchuck bobber and eggs while sitting on bank for a long time.
First Nate 2010 caught on spoon.
Second Nate next day different spoon.
This last weekend 3 days skunked while my buddy went 3 for 5 with a mixture of nates and brats all hooked on hardware. I will not put another corkie in my boxes for sure, now I have to wait til June for another shot though.

[bugnuts]

Wats an O my kiss?

Onchorynchus mykiss...the genus and species of (supposedly) steelhead.  Fact is, the biologists have it all screwed up...there really Salmo gairdneri. 

As for me, first summer run as far as I know was on the upper Green on a Purple Peril and lead core sinktip in 1986, and the first winter run was on the upper Hoh on a swung marabou beauty that I didn't tie in 1990ish. 

There you have it.

[Slingin Luck]

Man, my memory is so unbelieveably bad; I can't remember which steelhead was my first...

There was the small dark "wild" summerrun? I caught and released on a silver/red vibrax several years ago while fishing for salmon on the Salmon during a hot bite when I hooked 4 or 5 fish in less than 30 minutes from the same hole including my biggest hatchery coho ever.   

Then there was the late winter/spring/early summer? wild hen that I caught on the Sol Duc also a few years ago using a #8 pearl pink spin n glo (white wing) with a pink roe sack filled with loose eggs from discarded coho on the Bogachiel that were sampled for CWT.... most memorable fight of them all.

Then there was the chrome late hatchery winterrun that is tied for the most exciting jig caught fish, which I returned back to the Queets last Sunday of the season several years ago... I still have that jig and am reluctant to use it unless the situation calls for a jig like no other.  I can't remember where I got it, but it's got an orangish head/hackle, sparkly pearl dub body and orange rabbit tail.  Didn't get an opportunity to break it out this year. 

Oh and why I say it's tied for first place as most exciting jig fish?  I was fishing from the deeper side of the river and I saw a huge obstruction of sort not far from the bank in the clearish water.  First cast, float down!  Perfect cast, perfect drift.   

The other steelhead that shared first place was caught on the Salmon with a hot pink beau mac 1/8 marabou jig.  I was fishing from the snaggy side of the river with trees around me and the logjam upstream of me.  There was a log right in the middle of the hole and it had some smaller woody debris hung up on it.  First cast no good, tangled with branch.  Second cast no good, overcorrected.  Third time's the charm!  I visualized the cast and the take in my mind.  Then I cast.  Right on the money!    Float drifts down to the sweet spot.  Oh, oh, oh!  Float down!  Fish on!  Turned out to be a small "wild" one. 

Anyways, for the life of me, I'm embarassed that I can't remember which fish was the first ever steelhead.   
And I haven't really caught a bonafide summerrun yet. 

[sparx]

              June 1983.  Queets . Shister spinner . closed faced zebco 6 ft long combo. apx 8 lbs. of brightest chrome my 10 yr old eyes had seen.  a fat guy  " helped  me " .grabbed my leader ... I never even touched it.... 5 years before my next . I count it as my first .  still think about that one.
 

[winterchrome]

November 2001, Walla Walla river, using a 6.5 yellow eagle claw fishing a size 4 copper vibrax, thought I snagged until the snag started moving around the river.  I was sincerely privileged to tape a 36" wild buck and watch him swim away...have caught loads of fish since, but that remains my biggest steelhead to date.

[Supertrout]

First winter run was caught this year on the Sandy River February 18 2010 Pink corky and a little yarn. Can't stop steelhead fishing. I don't understand how something that doesn't endanger your life can cause so much heart pounding excitement.