Last July I was on my annual fishing trip. I fished from Sat till Wed. I got two nice fish over the weekend. On Monday morning I passed this local fisherman (he wears hunter orange so he's kind of spooky) walking out of my favorite hole and he said there were some fish. So I set my stuff down on top of the rock, forgetting to put my bait rag on. First cast - boom this steelhead starts jumping and goes down river. Usually I fish this spot from underneath where I have better control. I was going to grab my rag because I use it to grab the tail wrist. My line was stuck over a boulder, so I ran down the rocks and the fish was still on. I tried to land it by grabbing my line ( a big no no) and pulling him on the rocks and snap, the first steelhead I lost. I re-rigged and first cast - fish on - snap. I should've trimmed some line off because it was worn from hanging on the rocks.

Two days later I go fish whitewater at this riffle pool where my mentor said he had a bite and he showed me how to fish it by casting upstream, reeling in fast, so it wouldn't get hung up, and letting it drop over the break, count to three, and reel it in. First cast with my sandshrimp and I feel a tug, pulled back, I see this bent dorsal fin come out of the water. My hook came off because I had tied a bad knot with a twist. So I sharpened a hook, retied a nice knot, and put some yarn and another sandshrimp. This time I hooked him,he tried to go downstream and I held him in the small pool. I landed him on some rocks and snap, he slithers back in the water. I jump in and grab him with my rag, throw him in between the rocks and pounce on him. No stick around so I grabbed a rock and smash I missed his head, hit a rock, and broke my hand by my knuckle on my pinky. I finally bonked him. My knuckle is swelling so I put it in the ice cold water and downed a little bottle of Yukon Jack to relieve the pain.