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Alberta Clipper Steelhead Video Hi Speed Only

The only thing you can count on when going steelheading is that nothing is for certain. If they say the weather will be nice get ready for a blizzard. If they say the flow is gonna be great something will change. This theory is magnified in the winter months. Lake effect snow and arctic temperatures are part of the Steelhead game. Warm means anything above 10 degrees. So, Joey and I make the drive from Maine. We arrive late at night, check into the hotel and watch the weather channel. The weather man says, “An Alberta clipper will be moving through…” I looked at Joey and said, “I don’t know what that means, but it sounds cold.” It was. Morning found us on our favorite run. We drifted our flies through good water and plucked the ice from our guides every 5th cast. We got 14 fish that first day. All small fish, 14-20 inches. We were not complaining, but where were the big dogs? The next morning we started at our favorite runs. Joey went downstream and I went up. First cast. The indicator is drifting slowly through a tailout. It stops. I set the hook and a monster bright chrome steelhead shows itself. I can’t believe it and I start screaming to Joey. “Joey get up here I got a nice one on!” Joey comes running up river and we land and released the fish. I was so happy. This was a great fish for me and one that I will always remember. We went to another spot. We picked up some nice fish. Joey hooked and landed a beautifully colored steelhead. The weather was crazy. One minute the sun would be out and the next minute it would be blizzard conditions. We fly fished through all of it and our second day came to an end. Pete arrives in town and he has steelhead on the brain. He can’t wait for the next day. Rick comes down from Syracuse and meets us in the morning. We are all laughing, smiling and joking on our way to the river. Life was good and then it got terrible. We showed up to the honey hole and it was a slush puppy. So much slush was pouring through the river, it was impossible to fly fish. So we bounced around to various runs

in search of steelhead. Nothing. We treked and fly fished miles of river, but just could not find the fish. Joey, Rick and I fished for awhile and Pete ended up somewhere else. Then Rick headed home and Joey and I fished the river hard and covered several miles. We employed stealthy tactics and probed every run, hole and pocked water within our reach. We basically fished while walking downstream. We ended up getting a few Brown Trout. We went out to eat, bowled a few strings and laughed about the days adventures. Today was our last day. Joey and I fly fished with Pete for a few hours and hit some small fish. We only fished till 9am and then headed back to Maine. We left Pete on the river and, of course, it was a magnificent day. The sun was shining and the temperature was relatively warm. I will let Pete finish the story. Believe me, he has an amazing steelhead story to tell. So, we had another great steelhead trip and like all steelhead trips, it went by too fast. It was nice to meet Rick and fly fish with good friends. I will be dreaming of this chrome steelhead for many years to come.