This is re-post from the past...I had reeled-in a bunch of assorted sammon's and steelhead's since I was a young kid hangin' with the old man since I was 3yo on, as he always had me with him wherever he went.

1st winter run I drift fished up myself was in January 1984, so I was 12. It was actually a kelt summer run right below Snoqualmie Falls above the "Big Rock" on the restaurant side. 3rd cast with a #10 50/50 lettuce/tomato spin-n-glo. Snakey little spawned hen that I let go. We went to the OP on Presidents Day weekend right after that, drifting the HOH and Sol Duc and I caught several fresh winter fish. Being in the front of the drift boat, and getting 1st water sure does help. In hind site, I'm sure dad wanted it that way. I really got jacked up about drift fishing that winter, as we made several more trips to the Peninsula, as well as fishing the Sky and the Snohomish until they closed, with a couple of egg runs up the Methow.

1st summer run I drift fished up myself was June 3 or 4 of 1984. It was a high water year with LOTS of fish in early that year. It's only 90 miles from Wenatchee to Zeke's Drive-In, so we/I have been making that drive countless times for an afternoon of fishing. We were on the Hatchery side of the Sky, and had driven in from the Skyland Ranch horse rental. Several of you guys know the location, as there are no secret spots up there. I'd been losing fish in the fastwater the day before, but I finally landed a dime bright 6-7# fish on #14 orange scale spin-n-glo the next day. After I shook the skunk off, I went on a pretty good tear that summer (helps when there's lots of fish!)

Dad backed it up with a Chrome - 36" hatchery fish that had a sunrise Birdy Drifter leader broke off in it's jaw and over 100' of blue Stren mainline trailing it! That big summer just came right in, hardly any fight to it! We surmised that not much time had passed between the 2 hook-ups, plus it had to run a decent set of long rapids to get where we were at. I volunteered to clean the fish, as I was so JACKED about these chrome slime rockets. So pops saunters out to what little beach there was and with the next cast proceeds to hook and land the twin to my cookie cutter! We could stay or go...so I kept fishing for about 15mins, but I really wanted to get back to town and show off the fish. Pretty neat experience!