Charr,

Darren, Wes and I fished the Sol Duc last weekend, had a great time but only had a single take-down early Sun. while pulling plugs.

It was my first trip in a DB and every minute was awesome. Driving rain, wind and even some sun followed us down the river but it was worth every effort.

Had the opportunity to meet a two great new fishing partners and the chance at a nice fish...Wes and Darren were truly a pleasure to fish with, and I learned much about steelhead from them both...and they might have learned a good joke (or 2) from me.

Talked to the wdfw fish-checker fellow yesterday at the take-out and he told me there was indeed a 30 lb. fish taken last week.

Seems hot and cold, as Sat. am we saw a boat (ahead of us, of course!) hook-up on 5 fish before 9 am...we got bupkis. Yesterday when we were loading the boat the fish checker said we were boat 7 that he had checked (4 were run by guides) and had seen one 9 lb. hen, and no one else had any success.

Water is beautiful..crystal with unlimited visibility. We worked hard but came up empty handed...but that ain't to say I won't go back at the first opportunity!

Mike