I've had a similar experience on the Snoqualmie. Was fishing one of my favorite holes with a buddy. We were casting floats and jigs out to this seam that was about 20 feet out. We're watching our floats when about a 15 pound steelie swims by within the length of our rods with its fins at or just below the surface. Both of us shorted our floats and made cast after cast upstream, but never got it to hit.