Trudging through the newly fallen snow we arrived at the river with anticipation of hooking the days first steel. Jason and Uncle Dan fish the lower part of the river while Jeremy Keith and I moved up stream. I was the first to make a drift. Tick, tick boom. Fish on. A small steelie was brought to hand and the stink was immediately off. We spread out amongst the run and started introducing our egg patters to what lay beneath. “Fish on” Keith was fighting a big fish and all eyes were on him. Nice colorful steel made its presence and Keith was on the board. Jeremy found some quicker water and before keith got his line in the water Jeremy Had a fresh chromer on. The fish brought him down to a nearby island where we landed it and took some photos. After making a few more drifts we headed way up river to check out some new runs. With the cooler temps we found that the fish have been holding in shallower, slower moving water. We found what we were looking for.

I made a short cast close to my feet and watched my indicator like a hawk. It slowly moved into striking distance and down it went. I lifted my rod tip and fish on. He gave a big tail slap and we were battling down steam. We landed the beauty after a lengthy encounter. Hooting and hollering were in order after this beast was landed. This was the best steelhead I have ever caught. I was on top of the world. We fished our way back to Jason and Dan and headed to a different river. It didn’t take Keith long to dial back in. After no more than a dozen drifts Keith had a beautiful steelhead on. Keith rumbled up and down the river before bringing him up on the icy shore. What a Day! A total of 11 fish were hooked and 6 were landed. Tomorrow we will have more artillery Whippa and Krane just showed up so there are 7 of us on the hunt for big steel. Stay tuned to see what tomorrow brings.