I met Jeremy in Maine a month or so ago while fly fishing for sea run brown trout. This has been my game for a few years and Jeremy was new to the sea run game. He was asking me a bunch of questions about the where’s, what’s and when’s and I was a little reluctant to give up the ghost. However, after talking with Jeremy for a little bit I could sense he was as passionate as me about the Sea Run Game and that he had some information that I was interested in. He kept mentioning steelhead this and steelhead that, which definitely had me interested. So we devised a plan. I would show Jeremy some of my sea run brown trout drifts and methods and he would do the same for me with steelhead. So, Jeremy showed me a few fly patterns and I managed to tie 250 steelhead flies. Then the time came. I left work at 11pm, got home, grabbed my gear and hit the road. I drove straight through and met Jeremy in steelhead country. I was shaking with anticipation and could not wait to fish. I was baptized within the first 10 minutes. Not with a hook up, but with a freezing cold dunk in the Salmon River. I shook it off, but didn’t dry off, and realized it was time to go to work. We covered and fished a ton of water, but the hook-ups were few and far between. My dreams of giant chrome were slowly melting with the snow on the bank. All I had to show for my efforts was a little 10 inch rainbow trout and sucker. I was beginning to feel like I was the sucker. I had tried all of the egg patterns that Jeremy recommended, but had not tried the one egg pattern that works best for me in Maine. I tied on my trusty white and pink egg pattern and threw it out into the run. My first drift produced nothing and I was I little dismayed that I had tried all my patterns and had no luck. My second was perfect. My setup landed exactly where I wanted it to and the drift was perfectly positioned on the tricky little seam. My indicator went under and I thought it was another sucker, but I saw the fish roll and I knew it was something special. Everything seemed surreal and went by so fast and I could not believe it when Jeremy tailed my first steelhead of my life. I removed my fly, we snapped a quick picture and released the fish. I might have been a long way from home, but I was certainly not a long way from chrome.
Fine story searunb! Trading trips and sharing info sometimes leads us to adventures way above our dreams…where some lifetime friendships are made and our own experience is elevated.
the fliesandfins dream in reality.
marshalld
Nice steel SRB!!! it is a tough game out there in the freezing cold but it will reward you if put in your time. Glad you got to play with one good luck on the rest of your trip.
Way to throw the tried and true at them. At times, the game is all about confidence. What a beauty.
Nice chromer! Seems like it all paid off so far. When you finally land a hot chromer it makes all the hard work worth while. Nice work srb
Searun
Nice fish. Welcome to the club. Your life will never be the same.
Nice fish Bill..It was nice to meet you on the Mousam a couple saturdays’ ago.
The metalhead game is all it’s cracked up to be, huh! Nice job.
Maybe we’ll get together and make a trip this winter.
Tight lines,
James
Well the trip is now over and I’m back to work… sigh…….. I now find it very hard to think of anything but giant chrome. I can’t say enough about Jeremy helping me with the game. He is a true mad man on the river, very wise with steely smarts. I can tell you this I will never ever forget my first chromer no matter how long I live. Jeremy bro you rule…………. THANK YOU SO MUCH….SRB
Great fish …Look forward to more picks..
I guess catching all those “Jumbo” linesides helped..Sounds like a trip you should invite your father on !!! Again, one more element for your life, continue this addictive exploration. Tip Up !!