Hey congrats on the Umatilla Steelie Desert Drifter...I live in Pendleton myself but have yet to catch a steelhead this year on the Umatilla...hoping to get out this wknd.

Steelhead do eat in freshwater altho it's not all that common this late in the year. I have caught them many times in September and October with grasshoppers and various other insects in their stomachs. I have always maintained that both steelhead and salmon eat our lures because of "instinct". All their lives they have been eating things when they become available to them. Then one day they are sitting their in the river and tumbling down in front of them is a cluster of eggs, a worm, a jig, etc., and they eat it...even if they are on a spawning run and technically "not eating".

Congrats.

RM