Moved to WA in '72. Played with steelhead a lot (research, traps) but it wasn't until a few years later that I angled one. We fished the Cowlitz some, from the bank, with no success for me. Wife and Father-in-law both got nice Springers.

Moved to Sequim for work. All four of the crew fished for steelhead so there was alot of information exchange. Tried the Little Quil, then finally went to the Lyre. Fished upstream towards the power lines with my spinning rod, Mitchell 300 (6lb line) and an orange corkie with yarn. This was in January.

I was drift fishing, bouncing the rig on the bottom when it stopped. Set the hook and the head of a nice male steelie came up, showed itself, and spit the hook. The next week I hiked further up, to a big and at that time well known, log jam. First cast into the pool below it was grabbed by a 6.5 pound hen. Wrestled her to shore, after a few runs around the pool. Hatchery fish; looked nice and smoked up very well.

The Lyre used to be amazing. All four of us would always run into fish. The best being on the last day of the season (Feb 28) one of the guys lost 10 before getting one to hand. That was a perfect place, to my mind. You could walk and wade the length and cover all the water rather easily. With the shortness of the river I really don't see what it is still not a stream for hatchery stocking.