Reading posts about first steelhead made me think of the first one that I caught. It was the summer of 1979 and my wife and I were in the Green River Gorge, Mercury Mine hole to be specific. I was fishing for trout at the time and slid a spinner down a little chute into a riffle.
I played tug of war for about 30 minutes before the hog broke me off. I did get to see it and I've been ruined ever since. I thought I was quite a stallion for keeping that fish on as long as I did.

How about your first steelhead?

You never forget the first one.

I was fishing a deep hole in the upper Kalama after fly fishing trout up on Gobar Cr. one summer eons ago. I flipped a 1/4 oz brown Rooster Tail to the far side where I saw trout (must have been smolts) rising. Perched high on a large rock I watched my spinner in the clear water as it swung across the deep pool. As it passed over a huge underwater rock, an immense buck summer steelhead in full rainbow regalia snaked out from behind it and followed the lure right up to my rock. When I dropped the lure it chomped down on it hard and it was game on. The fish was all over that pool and I could watch every move he made. He was magnificent. But just when I was thinking I might have a chance to land him he slid over towards my rock and hung suspended in the water looking directly up at me. We sat there like that for a while until he finally looked up and simply opened his mouth and my spinner came straight back at me. He then calmly cruised back to his lair. My knees were shaking so bad I couldn't get off that rock. When I looked down at the spinner he had completely mashed the light wire treble hook flat. All I could do was laugh knowing that he was never hooked and that he had just played me in a game of "tug of war". From then on I was hooked. Think it was the last time I fished Gobar for trout come to think of it

I learned to fish in Eastern Washington, and never knew there was any other kind of gear than a cane fly rod - I fished bait, spoons, flys, whatever would tie on the end of it, for all kinds of fish but especially trout. I was trout fishing a small stream in the summer when I was all of 7, with a "pennywinkle" fly that my grandpa taught me to tie, when I hooked into what I thought had to be the hog of all trout, 2 feet long and absolutely crazy. I fought that thing for an hour and a half - it would come out of the water and tailwalk down to the end of the pool, it would take me 10 minutes to work it back up, and it would do it all over again - but finally I managed to flip it up on the bank with my tiny trout net. Picked it up and ran all the way home, and when I got there my grandpa told me that wasn't a trout, it was a steelhead, and explained the difference to me. Said it had been years since he had heard of one caught in that little crick. About 7 years later I hooked and lost another one there, also on a flyrod, but by then I had caught several winter steelhead . Nothing like that first one, though

Isn't That funny? I can't remember what the wife wants me to do tomorrow on my day off (something about taking garbage out maybe?) But I still remember My first Steelhead (and My First Deer)
Mine was caught quite by accident while fishing for cuts on the Cowlitz In my dads front yard.
Using a 6' trout rod 4 or 6 pound test and a small spinner. It wasn't a monster 7 or 8 pounds but I landed it .
Kind of bad in a way, Now I've got a sled probably 20 or so rods, tackle etc.....Well I guess that fish gave me a fever, cost lots of money over the years (and partial blame for having more than one marriage)darn those fish (gotta love em)
Ramprat

Caught my first one while cleaning up a backlash. The float was a few feet off shore just sitting there. Float went down, rod bowed, leader broke. I think the fight lasted all of 5 seconds.