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Washington Steelhead Video

I have been reading about Native Steelhead in the Pacific Northwest for some time. I would scroll the web scanning sites and pictures of giant, bright fish, in beautiful settings. Upon returning from a Steelhead trip in November it was difficult to pick up a 5 wt and start casting to the same trout I had been fishing for all summer. Instead I booked a flight to Seattle, WA. The Steelhead itch slowly passed and I was casting to the local trout again, trying to dial into the winter fishing. Fast forward to March and I found myself making the 3 hour drive from Seattle to Forks in search of the fish I have only seen in the hands of other anglers. The glacial rivers were accented by the bright green forests that line their banks and the mountains seemed to come right out of the ocean. Everything that I had read about was now unfolding right in front of me. It was interesting to learn about the gauntlet that these fish have to run through in order to spawn. If they make it past the sea lions, whales and adult salmon, they then might run into nets that are strung across the river by local tribes (which can vary day to day) . From there they are hunted by Bald Eagles and Anglers. This can make it extremely difficult to even find a fish and then you have to put your drift on its nose and hope you get a take. But, when all the variables come together and you get manageable river flows and some cooperating fish the fishing can be great. Instead of trying to figure out the local fishery we fished for two days with two of the hardest working guides I have ever met, Jeff Brazda and Dan “Rooster” Leavens. Day one was a bit slow only hooking 2 fish that both came unbuttoned but the float was remarkable. The raft floated along the

Aqua Blue Hoh River through a dense moss covered rainforest. Giant logs and log jams lined the river bank showing us how high the river can get when flows reach 100,000 cfs. Since you are only looking for a few fish here and there the guides are constantly communicating via cell phone and helping each other how ever they can, and the word on the Hoh was that no one was hooking up. The next day Rooster showed us some different water and 50 yards from the boat launch I was into my first Pacific Steelhead. We landed the chrome hen that was estimated around 12lbs and watched it swim into the sunrise. The bite was good on the Bogachiel River all day; we hooked eight and landed six, with our best being around 18lbs. I am now back in the Mountains with the same dilemma I had in November, how much is a flight to Alaska?