Im certain this subject has been used as a topic in the past and Ive prolly contributed to those posts but i dont recon i can remember now so to break up the monotony of all that sucks in life, lets tell our stories of our first steelhead. Long suffering accomplishments, incidentals, accidents and every blooper details are encouraged. Ill start...

I grew up in Carnation/ Duvall area and quite literally tripped over frozen bolders in mid winter tracing my dad footsteps along the banks of the Tolt, Snoqualmie and Skykomish Rivers in search of that mythical silver rocket of a fishy creature we call steelhead (just ask Stonefish). While pops didnt catch too many fish back in the day, he did plant that mystique and legendary lore into my teachable head that sounds down the rarity and importance of every meeting with a steelhead. Back then for me, this certainly wasn't just my father or his companion getting a tug, it was a huge deal for someone on the same river on the same day having an encounter in one shape or form. I was typically happy to be relegated to carry the net whether i was deemed worthy enough to use it or not. To make a long story short i wasnt aloud to make even one cast until i was older. Dad enjoyed his time on the river but wasnt really all that successful. I am appreciative of the seed he planted regardless. Fast forward to somewhere in the late 1980s (trying to remember the exact year) i used to ride my bmx bike to the Sammamish slew at Marymoor Park. My brother and i used to catch crawdads, sculpin, sometimes a trout or two and even a western red painted turtle at one point which we kept in a fish tank for 2 years. All out of the slew which is pretty overwhelmed by a freakin mall now. Anyway, one of my favorite things to do was stand under the Marymoore bridge and cast black, yellow and gold panther martins across and down the riffle below. I landed a ton of nice cutties and rainbow doing this but then one day something grabbed ahold that was all together on another level. I knew i was screwed when it nearly emptied my Cardinal C3 but i slowly worked it back thinking i had the world record rainbow when it dawned on me. Are you even kidding me, this was a real bonafide steelhead! I got to the shore and beat the snot out of it and hung it on my diamond back's handle grip for the ride home. When i finally got to the front door, pops looked around like; "Was there anyone following you Danny?" Huh? Evidently he was worried someone saw me take probably what was one of the last of the wild Bear Creek steelhead but how was i to know? It was my first steelhead and while only 6 or 7 pounds, it didn't matter, Ive been captivated ever since. RIP pops!

Mid 60s, Juanita Creek.

A friend and I were drifting single eggs on 4lb test for 10” trout.

It took a good deal of effort to land, but we didn’t know what it was. Back then “men” hung out at the barber shop, so we took it there, they told us what it was.

Weighed about 6 lbs, it was huge to a couple of young kids.

Mid 80's I moved here from New England. Always used a Mitchell 300 spinning reel for bass, trout, pickerel etc. Older brother and his friends were die-hard fishermen. Back in those days you were an embarrassment if you used a spinning reel. A Cracker.

Fished the Skagit with one of the Johnson brothers as a guide. My brother put me in the back of the boat out of their way, set me up with a bait caster & Sammy Special and told me to cast close to the bank as we Boondoggled the holes. When I wasn't pulling out Birds Nests I was
out fishing them hooking numerous fish. I was hooked.

Just fascinating to remember and hear others stories of where steelhead "used to" live. I know when i visit some remote places, the locals are like; "See that ditch over there?" No joke, there are some very small creeks where these critters still live.

Danny,
Your pops would be very proud of you and what you’ve accomplished in your life.
He and I had some fun trips together as well as some with you tagging along. He was also a hell of a salesperson and boss.

My first came on the Puyallup in 1968 up upstream from Anton’s on a Sammy Special.
52 years ago and I can still see that fish jump.
SF

My grandparents bought a little piece of land on Canyon Creek near Granite Falls in the early 90's so we had somewhere to going camping close to home, I was 12 years old. One day during the summer after working at the property they stopped at our house and my grandpa told me about all these fish that were sitting in a deep hole just downstream. So next time they went up there I went with them. I had an old spinning setup with a few trout spinners and spent all day trying to catch these fish and nothing. I spent the rest of the summer trying to catch them. I would tag along and as soon as we got to their place I grabbed my gear and ran down to the creek crashing through the bushes, to the edge of the creek, scattering the fish everywhere. There must have been 30 of them and I couldn't figure out why they wouldn't bite anything.

Fast forward a couple of years and at age 14 I got a baitcasting setup for Christmas. I practiced in the backyard all week and talked my parents into taking me up there to fish. My parents sat around the fire while I waded across the creek with my dad's old hip boots on and 5" of snow on the ground. I had tried a little bit of everything to catch a steelhead the last 2 years but this day I had on a #4 Blue Fox with chrome blue body and silver blade. Most of my childhood fishing to this point was in the saltwater for salmon and bottomfish so when I felt the grab and set the hook I remember thinking "is this going to be a dogfish"? That was quickly pushed from my mind when a chrome steelhead launched itself out of the water and I screamed "I got one"! My mom came running down the bank first because she thought I had fallen in and was drowning followed quickly by my dad. I proceeded to land and bonk the beautiful 9 pound native hen and bury her in the snow and go right back to fishing. I fished spinners for a couple of years after that and caught quite a few steelhead out the creek before starting fly fishing for steelhead at 16. Almost a year after that I caught my first steelhead on a fly in the same run, about 50 feet downstream. Another beautiful, bright, wild, winter hen that got released this time. I caught a second one a couple weeks later on New Years Day but didn't fish the creek as much after that. I could drive now and the Sauk and Skagit started drawing my attention. My grandparents sold the property in 2003 and without the private access I haven't fished the creek since then. Hopefully there are still some wild steelhead swimming around in there.

Kackers! Is that you?

1972 plunking with my gramps in the Rowell's hole on the lower Puyallup. It was a furniture store just West of Howard's drive in on River Rd. Later, when I started drift fishing, that stretch to the weigh station in low water was hot just after high tide. Caught a lot of fish out of there over the years. Minutes from where I grew up. In 1883-4 season when state wide showed record returns, I caught over 100 steelhead just out of the Puyallup. I was in college at UPS, living at home fishing everyday, limiting out and releasing lots. 10,000+ were harvested that season making the Puyallup top in the state. I think back and wonder why I filled a punchcard +? I was part of the problem, but that's how it was then. Currently never could have guessed I'd see it this bad in my lifetime, where I can't even wet a line there any more. Would love to swing a fly with modern gear in that stretch today.

IIRC, wasn't '83-'84 early stages of wild release on a lot of rivers? Pre-fin clipping, but around there I think was when they started giving out the credit-card fin measuring device. Might have my years wrong...but it was around that era.
I fished the upper Puyallup heavily those winters. I remember days when a lot of fish were dragged up on the beach to be measured. Handling left something to be desired to say the least.

Either way, can't beat yourself up over it. It were what it were.

It's me Danny. I didn't make it up north in time. I would have loved to be on lockdown up there!

Bummer i was wondering about that. Didnt kniw u were on here.

For me it was 1983 fishing the Skookumchuck on April 30th (last day of the season). A fellow was fishing below me when a huge steelhead jumped out in the river. I moved upstream and bottom bounced my corky and eggs. One cast it just stopped, I set the hook and thought it was a log because it didn't move. Then I felt the head shakes! Landed the fish - a 16lb. native which for several years was the biggest steelhead that I caught. The big thing I learned is that I had probably hooked (or touched) several steelhead because I had felt the exact same thing before while bottom bouncing. I have been hooked (no pun intended) ever since.

Copied over from a different post a couple of months ago

***

We moved into the Puget Sound area in the summer of 1977, and that winter my old man and I took up steelhead fishing. He had done it several times in the Klamath River.

The technique of choice there was casting #30 HotShots and retrieving them, so that was his plan around here.

My first day was mid-March, 1978. I was 7 years old. We went out to the Skykomish, and since he wasn't sure if I was going to be up for casting all day, he set me up with a pyramid sinker and a spin-n-glo.

I casted it out about 20 feet, and he turned and walked away to start casting himself...and by the time he got ten feet away I was hooked up. I drug the middlin' size fish right up on the bank in about ten seconds, and while he wrestled with it the line broke and it flopped back in the water. That was my first cast steelhead fishing.

It was also the only fish we hooked that day.

The next day we took our rowboat down what became my #1 steelhead stream for several years...the Sammamish River. We put in at Marymoor Park, and floated down to what used be "60 Acres"...all the soccer fields. We would float along and cast #30 HotShots.

On that, my second day, I hooked another fish casting that HotShot with a 6'6" AbuGarcia spinning rod combo...trout rod and Mitchell 300, with 6# line.

After a remarkably long fight with a hundred lucky turns, the fish was in the net...my first steelhead on my second day of steelhead fishing.

I'll dig up a pic of it some day. It was 40" long and a two tone snow belly.

I was 17 before I caught another one that big, and there were a LOT of steelhead caught in those ten years...and a LOT of them came from the Sammamish River, pre-Herschel days.

When that run ended...man, it just ended.

Was lucky enough to catch fish in the Green, Puyallup, Nisqually, Stilly, Snoqualmie, Sky, all the rest of the Snohomish Tribs, the Sauk and Skagit, even in the Wenatchee (including Nason Creek smile )...before I ever even ventured out to the OP...there wasn't much need for it, Puget Sound was loaded in the 70s and was even better in the 80s.

Fish on...

Todd

I caught my first steelhead in 1973 on the Elks property on Mill Creek on the south side of Shelton.

I had a big red and white Dardevle spoon on an old Wright McGill yella rod with a Mitchell 300 spinning reel. I'll never forget the sight of that huge tail coming out of the water when I hooked that fish.

Whatever line I had on that rod deserves a gold medal because it went through abuse over the next couple minutes that I'm sure it wasn't designed to. I still have an old Polaroid photo of that fish somewhere around here - me in my Toughskins jeans - you can't really see that our cat gnawed its face off while it was sitting in the bed of the truck while I told my glory story to everyone in the kitchen.

That's the one that started this whole adventure for me. Lucky for me, when I was a kid, both Mill Creek and Goldsborough Creek in Shelton had decent numbers of salmon and a few steelhead in them.

Gawd i love these stories! Goldsborough creek got a make over a few years ago didnt it? I feel i little left out not landing mine on an old mitchell. I had the old cardinal C3 with the large spool and underside inverted drag dial. My dad had a load of those things.

I've been lurking for quite a while. The boat is all ready to go, just waiting for somewhere to go.

Moved to WA in '72. Played with steelhead a lot (research, traps) but it wasn't until a few years later that I angled one. We fished the Cowlitz some, from the bank, with no success for me. Wife and Father-in-law both got nice Springers.

Moved to Sequim for work. All four of the crew fished for steelhead so there was alot of information exchange. Tried the Little Quil, then finally went to the Lyre. Fished upstream towards the power lines with my spinning rod, Mitchell 300 (6lb line) and an orange corkie with yarn. This was in January.

I was drift fishing, bouncing the rig on the bottom when it stopped. Set the hook and the head of a nice male steelie came up, showed itself, and spit the hook. The next week I hiked further up, to a big and at that time well known, log jam. First cast into the pool below it was grabbed by a 6.5 pound hen. Wrestled her to shore, after a few runs around the pool. Hatchery fish; looked nice and smoked up very well.

The Lyre used to be amazing. All four of us would always run into fish. The best being on the last day of the season (Feb 28) one of the guys lost 10 before getting one to hand. That was a perfect place, to my mind. You could walk and wade the length and cover all the water rather easily. With the shortness of the river I really don't see what it is still not a stream for hatchery stocking.

Born and raised in cental California,my granddad would regale me of tales of steelhead from the Russian and Eel,Klamath and Trinity rivers. His home river was the Carmel River. In the 60's there was a 3 fish limit,and we still have a picture of him,mid 1970's ,with a chrome bright river hen from the mouth of the Carmel . That picture always haunted me,and I vowed someday I would catch a fish just like that.

In the 80's we had a drought that nearly wiped out that run of fish,they average 10-12 pounds. It's a special little river,very pretty,extremely brushy. The river was closed for a number of years,and re-opened in 1998. I fished it every chance I could.

In the year 2001 I landed a fish at the mouth on an incoming tide,minutes out of the salt,on a #4 brass blue fox spinner. I have the picture somewhere. You can see the waves crashing in the background,me holding a 9 or so pound dime bright hen,just like fish grandpa had in the 70s. It wasn't my first steelhead,but it was the one I hold dearest to me.

My first steelhead was caught on th Duckabush River on Hood Canal back in the early 60's. I was just a little kid and my dad was wiring a house for some retired family friends on the Canal. The house was located near Jorsted Creek. I would go up with him on the weekends and he would drop me off on the Duckabush just up from 101 and he would go back to work on the house and then come back and pick me up in the early afternoon. I went a few times with nothing but I did hook a couple and not set the hook because I couldn't recognize the bite. One Saturday , I hiked up the river to a small pool and landed and 8 lb. and a 5 lb. for my two fish limit. My first steelhead(s). I hiked back down tho where my dad would pick me up and had to wait for a while. I was the happiest kid ever. When my dad came I had the fish laying on the ground and he saw them as he drove up. I think he was more excited than I was.I have been hooked on steelhead ever since. Enjoyed many trips with my dad as I got older. Great memories. Back in those day almost all the rivers and small streams were planted with steelhead
Used a Shakespeare 2062 NL-2 spinning reel (Still have the reel) with a old 8 ft. Wright McGill "steelie" spinning rod. Eggs and a piece of orange or red yarn. 10 lb line and 8 lb leader. Later we fished with Okie Drifters especially the "nail polish" color. I sure miis those days. Memories forever.

Great story Lifter.
What a great way to spend time as a kid.
Those canal streams where a ton of fun to fish back in the day.
Add in oysters, crabs, clams and geoducks and the canal was a great place to spend time as a kid growing up.
SF