Beautiful sunny day, decided to go against my instincts and join the mob at Reiter to try the float & jig. Walked in late, about 8am, and was greeted by two fisherman coming back out empty handed. Only about three fish taken all morning was the report, for about fifty anglers.

I spent three hours with the float & jig, getting the technique down, but had not a strike. I lost one 1/4 jig to a mid-river hang-up, so switched to 1/8 and shortened my slip above the float. Tried it with and without a prawn tail, but always with some shrimp scent. Not a strike.

When the crowd thinned out around Noon I found a slot with nobody below me for about 250 feet, and switched to side-planing a hotshot. I carefully worked the wiggling plug out and across the river and had one strike, but alas no hookup. A guy above me got a small hen about 12:30 drifting corkie and eggs.

First steelhead trip of year, 0-1. I think I will stick to empty stretches of the Skagit with my float & jig from now on, when I can really let it go downstream without having to worry about other anglers.