Yes SF, those were fun little rivers to fish. The Dosewallips, Duckabush, Hamma Hamma. Small rivers that flowed directly out of the Olympics and cleared up very fast after rains. The Skokomish was the one that would flood badly. Too much logging up above. Caught steelhead out of there also. An interesting thing about the Hamma Hamma was that it was a very short run river and the property in the lower river was private land owned by a family named Robbins if I remember correctly. They would only allow 8 fishermen/day on the river. If you were going to fish on a Saturday, which my dad and I would do, You had to call Robbins during the week and reserve a spot. You could park in their yard and hike up river. I think the area to fish was only about a mile or mile and a half long and you came to a big waterfall and the hole below was called the "Blue Hole". Difficult area to get into. What a cute little river. The Robbins family charged 50 cents/ day to fish on there.Also used to fish Lilliwaup Creek for sea run cutts. Used to be lots of big cutts in those rivers back in the day. I haven't been up there in years. With so many streams back then with steelhead, we never saw many or any other fishermen. The fishermen were more spread out. Not like nowadays with so few river planted with steelhead or even open now for steelhead.

When I was thirteen years old, we moved here from Iowa. It was January, 1956. The fishing knowledge and equipment we brought with us was suitable for fishing my grandfather's farm pond (carp, bluegills, bullheads) and a slow moving river that bordered our farm (shiners, small catfish). While my parents looked for housing in Seattle, we stayed with an avid fishing family. I heard all about the prized WA fish called the steelhead and couldn't wait to go fishing for one. Unfortunately, there was nothing in our fishing tackle that was suitable for these big trout. I spent the rest of 1956 reading newspaper fishing reports and putting together the equipment I would need to go steelhead fishing.

Winter steelheading opened the first weekend in December. On opening day, my friend's father dropped his son and me off at the Renton Junction bridge on the Green River. We planned to fish until early afternoon, when my father would pick us up. We hiked up from the Renton Junction bridge and found a spot to fish across from a sandstone point that jutted out into the river.

We drift fished without success until noon. My fishing friend decided to take a break for lunch. I told him I would continue fishing in case any fish were swimming by while he had his line out of the water. He had no more than sat down and unwrapped his sandwich, when a large steelhead exploded from the water directly in front of him. It was on my line! The fight lasted about 30 minutes; when I tell you what gear I was using, you'll understand. Everyone fishing on the opposite bank pulled their lines out of the water, and kept them out while this kid was battling his first steelhead. One fisherman did grow impatient; he cast his line directly over mine while the fish was running downstream. All the fishermen on his side started yelling at him. Somehow, he got his line in, without snagging mine. Finally, we got the steelhead on the bank. It was a chrome snowbelly hen weighing ten pounds. As I recall, she was 30 inches in length and gave us a two pound coffee can full of eggs. My dad arrived shortly after the fish was landed. He could not believe we had caught a steelhead. It was the biggest fish anyone in our family had ever caught.

The tackle I was using that day was: a borrowed bamboo salmon trolling rod with a tip diameter barely smaller than my little finger,
my dad's old school levelwind Shakespeare reel with no drag, 10 lb mono, a brass bladed cherry bobber with a treble hook, and way too much 1/4 inch pencil lead. I had to use a lot of lead just to cast this setup across the river. The real miracle of that day was that I didn't lose all of my gear on the bottom of the river in the first hour of fishing...

The sequel: Two weeks later, the same friend and I were fishing the Green River near present day Fort Dent. At noon, he decided to take a lunchbreak. I was tired of casting my bamboo rod/levelwind reel setup by then, so I asked him if I could use his 8 1/2 ft. Shakespeare
Wonder rod/ Mitchell 300 outfit, while he ate. He agreed. Once again, I immediately hooked up. This time it was a mid teener chrome bright steelhead. We got several looks at the fish before it decided to make a big run down river and around a bend. I was forced to bring this fish back upriver against the current. The hook pulled out. Sequels are never as good as the originals!

That Christmas, my parents gave me a 300 Mitchell and a nine foot St. Croix rod of my own. No longer a wannabee, I was officially a steelhead fisherman.

Lifter,
Bart Robbins was the fellows name.
I stopped in there may 10 years ago or so and spoke with him.
Really nice guy. His son lived up there as well.
I do recall putting money in a thing he had set up for fisherman.
If I recall correctly, he was the manager for the timber company that controlled the land on the upper river?
Did you ever take the tram across the river to get up to the upper and lower Blue Holes?
Fun times back then for sure.
SF

Lifter & Cedar, those are priceless stories!!

Thanks for sharing!!

My first was in 82 on the Humptulips. My friend and I were fishing the Humptulips River at the school bus turnaround on the Humptulips Valley Road. We borrowed some tackle from my stepfather and after a lot of trial and error we started catching a cutthroat using Stee lee #2 spoons with a piece of nightcrawler on the hook. We were just getting ready to leave after cleaning out the cutthroat, and just as i was about the retrieve the spoon a good sized summer run hammered it. Somehow I got it in, and my stepfather was quite surprised and impressed with both the steelhead and the cutthroat when he came to pick us up and hour later.

I was also there when the friend I was fishing with got his first steelhead underneath the railroad bridge on the Satsop a year later. He was using a half a night crawler and a pink shrimp scented marshmallow.

Agreed both awesome!

Thanks, snit and cobble cruiser. I've enjoyed reading these fish tales, too. I'm sure there are some pictures of my first steelhead around here somewhere. At the time, my parents were into 35mm slide photography, and many pictures of my early fish are likely buried in the boxes of old slide projector magazines I inherited.

SF, Thank yuo for the info. I never actually got up far enough to fish the Blue Holes. So ,I never rode the tram. I was kind of small and young at the time so I never it up that far. Only heard about those holes from other fishermen. We didn't fish it too many times. I fished the Duckabush and the Skok more often. We lived in Tacoma but My dad grew up in Aberdeen. So, after my dad finished wiring the house on the Canal, we fished either in Grays Harbor or locally in the Puyallup and Nisqually. Those two rivers were excellent back in the day. Nisqually was really good all through March and April. Puyallup was really good earlier in the season. And good also in March for native fish. I caught lots of nice natives in the Carbon in March. Living in Tacoma, we could catch all the steel head we wanted staying local and fishing those two rivers. We would fish Grays harbor for something different. Humptulips was our favorite then. The memories and the stories of steelhead caught and big fish lost could fill up a book. Sadly, those days are gone.
The Puyallup and the Nisqually have been closed for a long time but the bios I have talked to say that the native steelhead runs in those rivers have been recovering which is nice to hear.

March 31, 1996 below Jim's Rock on the Sky. 7 lb native buck released. Clown spin n glo with a little dab of red yarn. I got into the steelhead game at around 14yrs old. I had fished months without sign of a fish and I will forever remember the day that fish came up and boiled on the surface. My Dad and I took on steelhead fishing completely DIY and after reading hundreds of articles about this fish of 1000 casts and challenging high, emerald green rivers, for the elusive winter run it was one of life's greatest accomplishments for a kid who didn't have a clue what he was doing. Growing up trout fishing rivers helped as far as recognizing water a fish may hold or pass through. Good memories.....

Bent-

My largest steelhead "captured" in the state of washington was just a couple years later in the same spot....well down at what we used to call the trailer hole which was the rip rap below and across from jims rock. Mid to high 20s with a snow white belly and black topped buck. Truly a once in a lifetime steelhead. Hooked a bigger one about 10 years ago in front of Jody's old place where the two channels come together above thunderbird. So many incredible memories from the Sky, my home river.

I'm not sure what year it was, but I remember fishing that stretch and a driftboat was pulling plugs(I think) at the trailer hole and hooked a monster that took them down to Taylor to land. Was there a couple guys fishing on the bank at the time? I'm sure we have crossed paths, you look familiar, might have chatted on the ' Chuck and another S River. I live 400 miles from the Sky, but still consider it my fav, lots of good memories

We were pulling plugs from a black Willie boat and took a very long time to land. Took us way down too.

Fished the Sky and Sultan River alot. Fished the Chuck a good amount too. Always ran into the same guys and knew the locals, maybe not always by name but face. Likely ran into you.

June 1973 the Toutle, my Dads favorite river, at the mouth of the Green. I had acquired an ABU 5000, bought a Fenwick blank at Shoffs in Kent and built a nice rod. I remember the anticipation, we were there before first light. It was still dark I had a pearl blue corky with pink yarn dabbed with anise we had made at home. It was still dark when I hooked an 11lb summer run. I don’t remember anything about the fight, I do remember it was the biggest of our NW Steelheaders group. Many memories of the toutle after that a few are; salmon fishing on the green was mostly a fly fishing only floss fest. There was an excellent run of summers in there but most had passed the salmon water by Sept. at 12 years old my cousin and I ventured up river we saw two guys walking out with limits of steelhead. I was jacked, first spot that looked good to me was an old growth log with water running deep along side it. I told my cousin I was going to hook one there. We were using 2’ of lead core line with maybe 36” of 20lb leader with a big black fly with lead tied into it. Needles to say it sank immediately. First cast I hooked into a 9 lber I kept the screws to him and he swam up river at light speed beaching himself on the riffle above me. Maybe 8 seconds for my first steelhead on a fly, kind of. Not real sporting but at that point it was all about results. Another good one was winter run, no fisherman as there was not much of a winter run up high. My dad was on the railroad trestle above talking to me. I had cut a couple yellow yarn like dingle ball looking things off a blanket someone has knitted, basically a 1975 version of a yarnie. While talking to my Dad who had caught nothing I hook up and land it like a pro, Dad was super impressed. Many more pre and post eruption memories of steelhead on the Toule and Green, premier steelhead waters that will be with me till I’m gone.

This is re-post from the past...I had reeled-in a bunch of assorted sammon's and steelhead's since I was a young kid hangin' with the old man since I was 3yo on, as he always had me with him wherever he went.

1st winter run I drift fished up myself was in January 1984, so I was 12. It was actually a kelt summer run right below Snoqualmie Falls above the "Big Rock" on the restaurant side. 3rd cast with a #10 50/50 lettuce/tomato spin-n-glo. Snakey little spawned hen that I let go. We went to the OP on Presidents Day weekend right after that, drifting the HOH and Sol Duc and I caught several fresh winter fish. Being in the front of the drift boat, and getting 1st water sure does help. In hind site, I'm sure dad wanted it that way. I really got jacked up about drift fishing that winter, as we made several more trips to the Peninsula, as well as fishing the Sky and the Snohomish until they closed, with a couple of egg runs up the Methow.

1st summer run I drift fished up myself was June 3 or 4 of 1984. It was a high water year with LOTS of fish in early that year. It's only 90 miles from Wenatchee to Zeke's Drive-In, so we/I have been making that drive countless times for an afternoon of fishing. We were on the Hatchery side of the Sky, and had driven in from the Skyland Ranch horse rental. Several of you guys know the location, as there are no secret spots up there. I'd been losing fish in the fastwater the day before, but I finally landed a dime bright 6-7# fish on #14 orange scale spin-n-glo the next day. After I shook the skunk off, I went on a pretty good tear that summer (helps when there's lots of fish!)

Dad backed it up with a Chrome - 36" hatchery fish that had a sunrise Birdy Drifter leader broke off in it's jaw and over 100' of blue Stren mainline trailing it! That big summer just came right in, hardly any fight to it! We surmised that not much time had passed between the 2 hook-ups, plus it had to run a decent set of long rapids to get where we were at. I volunteered to clean the fish, as I was so JACKED about these chrome slime rockets. So pops saunters out to what little beach there was and with the next cast proceeds to hook and land the twin to my cookie cutter! We could stay or go...so I kept fishing for about 15mins, but I really wanted to get back to town and show off the fish. Pretty neat experience!

This so made me smile! Great stories Slab, Damn, I gotta get back to work.

Fished for steelhead for many years beginning in 1968, including several trips to the Toutle at Harry Morgan park and other of the legendary locations, but never seemed to land anything in spite of several hook-ups. So I kind of gave up on it for several years. Then while I was on summer break while in the Fisheries progrm at UW in July of 1980 I decided to give it another chance and drove my yellow AMC Pacer up to the mouth of the Tolt to see of anyone was catching anything. Mid-afternoon, the water had been pounded all day. It was extremely crowded, people lining both sides of the river. So I walked down right in the middle of everyone and tossed out a pink pearl corkie behind a inch of pencil lead in a couple feet of water right at the mouth of the Tolt so I could see it just making sure it was fishing right. First [Bleeeeep!] cast... I saw a white spot in the water appear right below my corkie. I didn’t know what it was, but I soon understood that it was the open mouth of a nice summer run taking my corkie. There were a couple guys fishing within 10 feet of that fish. Fish on. I didn’t fight it much, just tightened the drag and drug it up on the beach in between a bunch of other fellow nimrods, , hit it on the head with a rock, and walked it back to the car. Probably 10 minutes after I got there I was driving back home. Everyone else there was as dumbfounded as I was.

I fished all three religiously, think I talked to you at Osprey on that S River. Man, the years fly by....

First winter was Jan. 2, 1996 on the Raging right above where I-90 crosses it. I was drift fishing a black/red aerofly. Line stopped mid-drift so I set the hook and was surprised to hook and land a little 5 pound hatchery buck.

First summer was a year or two later on the little Green. My cousin spotted it holding under a big log that jutted out over the river. I crawled out a bit and dropped my corkie and sandshrimp straight down in front of it. Sure enough that fish darted forward and hammered it. That one was a nice 10 pound two-tone chromer. I can still see it eating that shrimp.

That same cousin and I used to love to fish the Sultan, Raging, Tolt, and rest of Snohomish system. We would mainly stick to the tribs. I've lurked this board for years, but these stories got me excited enough to join in. I still fish the Sky for summers, but haven't bothered for winters for several years now.

Awesome! I can picture that Sky spot in my mind and play the story out. Spent many dark morning walks down that path.

The falls rock is another good one. We used to swing casted tad pollies thru the tailout of the sno falls hole. Man it was great to get crushed. Sure miss that summer run in there.

Thanks BFD! We all called the Sky spot "high water hole". Fished best when the water was right at the bushes.

It was amazing how many SR's could stack up below the Falls in the summer. Getting off "TBR" with a hot fish on was just asking for a broken ankle or dislocated knee, especially if you were globallin'! Never did the plug thing, I'm sure I'd of cracked them off...rod down..set hook tooooooo haaarrdd POW!!!