Last weekend, my friend known as "cut of the Jib", hooked a beautiful fish on the Cowlitz. It took quite a few runs; in fact, it took about 20 minutes or more to get to the net. Some of you may recall the story about Cut of the Jib's first steelhead from last year on the Hoh, where I took such special care netting it, in fact I did everything wrong, from hitting it in the head a few times with the net, to getting the hooks wrapped in the net before getting the fish in. It was a mess. Well, this time it was a little smoother, and my friends' second steelhead ever, appeared to be a Native.

My question here is, is this a special case on the Cowlitz? I have never heard of a Native being caught on the Cowlitz, and thought it was pretty special. Any comments?

Although it went into the net, it never came out of the water and we released it. I think as we did, the entire world seemed to stop around us. The birds stopped chirping, the river didn't make a sound, no one said a word, and it was a pretty special feeling. It took about 5 minutes to get the fish's strength back up, for a minute it seemed she was in trouble, but all the advise I have read here on the website about releasing fish came in handy, and she sped off into the current, unharmed, strong, a little angry, just momentarily gracing us by stopping in to say hello.