Congrats Papa! Now you know the thrill of a steelie slamming a fly and making your fly reel scream. Maybe no one was there at the moment to share it with you, but one of the nice things about this BB is sharing it here with your peer fishermen. I was alone when I hooked my first steelhead on a fly. It was long ago on the Washougal River. It was on a 10' sink tip line with a size 6 double hook royal coachman fly. I had been practicing everything I learned from reading Trey Combs "Steelhead Flyfishing and Flys" book for a few weeks, without success. On this day a deep swing in May brought a strong skamania summer steelie strike, and it took off on a long reel sreaming run into the flyline backing line. Then it stopped and jumped downriver and the hook came out. Exilerated, stunned, and pained; all in about 30 seconds. That fish gave me the thrill and confidence to go on to some good success at it. But like you, I had no one there to share that with. (Just like Kid Sauk when he experiences the passions of the flesh. - sorry about that one, I'm still going thru my 12 step program of questionable joke avoidance training.)