Puyallup River 1961:
This was about my 3rd or 4th time fishing for Steelhead with my Dad and Grandpa. We were plunking along with abut 20-30 other plunkers in about a 2 block stretch of the Puyallup River from Clarks Creek Bridge downriver, I still remember all of the fire pits and guys sitting around them BS'N and laughing while waiting to hear there fishing rod bell go off. I started getting board and I mean really board of sitting and waiting for a Steelhead to find my eggs and Spin-n-Glo when there were tons of other rods below me catching fish after fish, including my Dad and Grandpa, so I started to think (no it didn’t hurt) of some way I could do something a little different than the rest of the fisherman. I started digging through my Dads tackle box and found an Okie Drifter (pink if my memory is correct) and some pencil lead and proceeded to tie up what I now know as a drift rig. I was behind my Dad and was hiding my work in progress. After it was all tied up I walked out to the river bank and tossed it out about 20’ with my Mitchell 300 spinning reel, no sooner had it hit the water and my Dad and Grandpa were yelling what the hell are you doing your going to tangle up with everybody, reel it in and fish like the rest of us! So I slowly started reeling in my gear and I felt a bite like a trout would bite in a lake, so I set the hook and in an instant this silver bullet was flying out of the water doing cart wheels and I started yelling at my Dad to help me. He came over and coached me but would not touch my rod, I remember him saying “you will never forget your 1st steelhead you catch on your own”, and boy was he right! Well by the time I got the fish to shore we were down river about 50’ or so and one of the old timers got up and grabbed his net and landed my fish; I was all smiles and proudly carried my fish back to show off to Grandpa! My dad immediately started cleaning the fish to remove the eggs, he took the larger of the 2 skeins, handed it to me and said “bring these down to the nice man that netted your fish” so I did and shook his hand and said thanks for netting my fish. I kept wondering why my dad had me do this ( like I knew what to do with the eggs) when I got back to my Dad I asked him why I had to give the man the eggs and he simply said “it’s the right thing to do sharing the skein of eggs with the man for netting my fish.” My Dad was right you never do forget that 1st Steelhead you catch!, I hear my son telling guys all the time about his 1st Steelhead and I smile every time I hear him say it!