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

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!!!

My neighbor who was a distant relative dammed up this little creek and he had a couple of dozen steelhead in his pond. Used to watch them but never fished as they were his pets.

I used to fish Dogfish bay and creek for sea run cutts when I was 12. I went over to a friends to fish the creek at this nice hole up past Valley nursery where the creek forks off Bond Road. It was early March 1974. I had seen steelhead in the river before. I caught a 14 in cutt on a bobber and worm using my Wright & McGill fiberglass spinner rod and Daiwa reel. Then I had a strike and set the hook. After a good fight he broke off. Then I see my line in the water and pull the fish up. Measured up to 18 1/2 inches so technically a jack. I have a digital copy of the picture. My dad took me over to Quilcene and the Dosewallips to fish as I was hooked. I used to fish Grover's creek on our property for trout and once we saw a pair of spawning steelhead behind the chicken coop.

Didn't fish again until I was in my late 20s. My father in law used to give us steelhead and soon I was fishing with him in Oregon on the Siletz usually the day after a holiday. I took some time off work in the summer during the week back around 94. We fished this hole called the lower point and he caught the first one. He told me where to cast and let drift through two boulders and bam fish on. We did the yellow jacket hole which is deep but had some riffles further up. We each got one and limited out. Had to use barbless hooks that season. Yellow Jacket had this boulder and driftwood so you could get to the riffle. Flood of 1998 changed the Yellow Jacket.

Summer of 78,cable hole on the Sky,Reiter side. Had been fishing steelhead for a year after seeing a good friend hook and lose a mid teener in the Sammamish slough.Couldn't believe there were fish that big in there since I had only fished for trout before that. Anyhow, had not gotten a bite the first summer and winter I fished but was determined to get one.Fishing with a good friend and his wife I finally hooked one on a sammy special,had it played out and was looking for a spot to land it as that side is mostly big rocks when my buddy trying to help grabs my line and starts to pull it up the rocks,fish flops and snaps my line. Damn, wasn't to happy about that but kept fishing only now I knew what a bite felt like and hooked up again 15 minutes later.Played it out and walked it up to a flatter spot, buddy asked if I wanted his help and I told him to keep his hands off my line and just flip it up the bank which worked out fine. Been hooked ever since. To bad the Sky is hardly worth fishing anymore,it still has it's times though.

Fishing for me was a move to save myself from self destruction and a bad addiction. I found myself at Chubby and Tubby on Rainier ave. years ago staring at a Browning All in One pre packaged fly fishing kit for a 5 wt. I bought it, drove to the Tolt River and found a rock, read the directions, made a cast, and proceeded to SLAY smolts left and right, I’m sure I hooked a 100 before I left that day....I saved myself! Not along afterwards I heard about steelhead and tried to catch them from then on, not wanting to waste any more gas on trout...they had to be 10# or nothing! Soooo after a few years, a winter hen at IRS on my hand tied fly, that was my first steelhead landed! ...after too many hooked and lost after I went full on BASSMASTERS and proceeded to loose fish after fish not knowing how to just let the fish take it! My first summer kicked my first winters ass! That was caught at the Dorman Rd run below Big Eddy, that fish almost spooled me and I caught it all on video I watch it from time to time if open the lap top ...that reel is scream in’ ! Since then I’ve really enjoyed just being “a part of it”and not the lucky guy who always lands fish, I actually really enjoy the photography aspect and getting a nice shot, I unfortunately don’t have the most talented friend around when I do catch one lol. Cheers Playa’s