As per my usual opinion regarding "rules" when fishing for steelhead...it depends.

It depends on what plugs you are fishing with, what the water you are in looks like, what the hit looks like, who is in the front of the boat, etc., etc., etc.,...

I think that the initial hard pulls by the rower is key to getting the process going...at the very least stopping the boat from moving downstream, and at best moving the boat up the river a few feet.

The experience of the dudes on the rods is a factor...if they know what they are doing, then I trust them to get the rods out of the rodholders without slacking up the lines and losing the fish...I also trust them to know when to NOT grab the rod if the fish has not yet turned with the plug in its mouth.

Some hits are just grabs...the rod pulses, but doesn't really bury...this is when the guy rowing the boat has the most important job, i.e., rowing his ass off and getting a tight line on the fish, causing it to turn downstream with the plug in its mouth, virtually hooking itself.

Others just take the plug, turn, and are boot-scoot-booty'n for the lower river within about half a second...I don't think you could miss that fish if you tried to screw it up; they're hooked and peeling line before you can yell "right rod!!".

My favorite? When you're in moderately fast current, and the fish is so aggressive in its hit that as it charges up and grabs the plug, its momentum carries it upstream of where the plug initially was, and the rod snaps straight up on slack line...then the fish turns and goes, and when the fish takes up the slack it has created, it's moving about 30mph downstream when the line goes tight, and damn near tears the rodholder and all right off the side of the boat.

Kid Sauk and I had one do that at the Ranch a few years ago, and it peeled a bunch of line and swam right into a log jam and busted the line off, taking Dr. Death with him...all in about three seconds.

No one even reached for the rod...by the time reactions caught up with the violent visual, the fish and plug were already gone!

One of the most exciting fish I never hooked, got to see, or even feel on the line.

Of course, the pain of losing the plug and the fish was softened by the fact that we had four other takedowns and landed three fish, including the one in my avatar, within twenty minutes of each other, and all were hooked in a spot in front of a log jam no bigger than the bed of a pickup truck!

Yeah, the Ranch can be a good spot to fish every once in a while.

Fish on...

Todd