Whip asked myself, The Legend and Patrick to help him out with a group of eight people guiding for 2 days on the Salmon. I was happy to help.  I was also siked to see 3 switches and 1 spey rod in the mix. The rest were indicator guys.  The day started out as usual, awkward introductions and a dance of “Who’s fishing with who…” and once that was figured out, I took Billy and Tom, 2 brothers. The four of us decided that Douglaston Salmon Run might be the place to find some hungry but spunky drop back steelhead and not have to rake reds to hook up. It’s a 2 mile pay to play (30 clams) but it’s some of the best looking water on the river, especially at the water levels currently flowing out of the dam. I took my two to the top, planning to work the entire run to the bottom. In the first pool, Billy hit paydirt. When I saw the fish, I knew it was a brown and a good one I looked back at him and barked the usual “side pressure…back up….pump the rod….reel down.” instructions and we had the fish close….I took one step towards it and he turned and bolted to the middle and broke off. I looked at the line finding a clean break…fhew…no knot pig tail…and walked up and shook his hand and gave him the standard “Sometimes there’s nothing you can do” speech and sometimes there isn’t….ten minutes later he sets the hook and his rod bounces once and cracks. The fish pops off and I ask him if his rod just broke, sure enough it had a vertical crack below the male end ferrulle. I took the hike back to meet with Whip.  One of his guys had an extra stick so we were back in the game…That was the only action we had for a while longer and I tried to keep their spirits up by talking about the river, showing them a few flies, showing them the holding lies and different pools and where they might find fish in the future at different water levels and times of year. I hiked them all the way to the bottom of the run only having a few headshakes…or maybe funky bottom hook-ups to show for it until I got to the meadow…the meadow was a huge dissapointment because when I turned the corner by the clay hole, I could see 20 guys…4 of them were with us and Patrick and Kieth told me the fishing had been slow for them too. I also talked to 3 guys I knew that were swinging flies and they told me that they had 8 hook-ups the day before in there. I looked at Billy and Tom and suggested we go down to lower and that maybe some of the fish that were in the meadow the day before could have been pushed out by the crowd and had hung out in the braids below…Tom told me that this would have to be the last spot of the day and that the two of them had to leave by 2pm. I agreed that it would be and was getting quite worried about the outcome of the day…My only saving grace was that nobody we talked to was lighting them up. It took about six casts in the hole and Tom finally set the hook on a small but screaming steelhead. The fish put on quite a show!

 

After the pic and release, Billy watched his indicator drop, he cracked back and this fish exploded out of the tail of the run…I saw chrome flash towards the undercut but this time Billy was not to be denied. He played the fish nicely and it jumped once.

When it came into the shallows, I could see the distinct markings of a brown trout but the colors of a steelhead. This was the most chrome brown I have ever seen and it must have just come out of the lake within the hour. We were only 2 pools up from the estruary.

It was so tricked out and pimped in it’s chrominess

Billy and Tom had to bug out so we laughed all the way back to the parking lot and they bid their goodbys.

We had company on the way back

Where’s Waldo?

I dropped them off and headed back down to the river to meet up with the others and help where I was needed. Just then, Dave called to announce a pod of hot fish. By the time I showed up, Patrick and Kieth hade their 2 each in the water and the action that was hot in the first drifts had slowed. I asked Kieth who hadn’t caught a fish yet and he pointed out Sal. Another Financial Guy from Long Island. I walked up, Introduced myself and told him to follow me. I could tell he wasn’t sure about the crossing I picked, and didn’t really believe that fish existed anywhere in the world but he dutifully followed me across the current and into the next pocket. I noticed a fish in the pocket flashed once but we couldn’t get him to eat anything. We inched our way up into the slate steps that make up the head of the hole and got to the top step. I pointed the drift out as a resting spot for steelhead on the move and that their probably was something there at the moment. Sal fished it just as I asked him to and as we creaped his indicator deeper and deeper towards the seam it sunk and jumped 5 feet to the left, Set! Sal cranked back and the bottom flashed and flashed and flashed. The fish rolled up and down in and out of the leader for a second and bolted downstream. I raised my hands in victory and gave out a woop alerting Sal’s buds that he had connected with lightning hot steel. They all watched as Sal stumbled down river 100 yards or so and we landed the fish in the slack eddy perfectly. I cradled the Hen and estimated it at 34, 35 inches, 8lbs easy, maybe 10, but it was hard to tell after the spawn and I could tell that it would have been an easy 12-15 in the fall. She was obviously quickly gaining strength, weight, and color on the way back to the lake…

Sal took a picture of me holding her so we knew we’d have one, and after careful instructions about how to hold a steelhead, he quickly lost the handle as she sensed the unsure grip and kicked off…He didn’t mind though, it was his personal best steelhead as far as size goes and had it all in his head for future viewing. Hopefully, I’ll get a copy of that picture. This was his second time on the water for steelhead and little did he or I know he would be expertly snap T-ing 85 feet of compact skagit head off his newly acquired Z-axis 11 foot 7 switch the next morning.

The group decided to get an early dinner and hit the river for an evening bite so we hit the bar.

The evening was rather uneventful, we tried a few spots but even though there were steelhead porpoising around, we couldn’t buy another hook-up on the swing or indicator. After dark we headed back to Patrick’s place to strategize and tie some extra flies for Sunday.

Day 2 to come.