steeliefreak,

Those are some top notch fish... I want to come out to your neck of the woods... Some really cool stuff.

My most exciting fish was a upper 20's native winter steelhead that I hooked on 6 lb test and a size #4 hook. The river was low and crystal clear, you had to drag the drift boat from run to run and there were 4 boats in the hole I hooked it. We chased the fish up and down the hole 3 times before it finally surfaced and the hook popped out of it's face. I pretty much gave up fishing that day! It was a bummer because it was just out of nets reach. What's even more wild, I still remember the date. It was January 5th 1991. The following day some bigfoot looking dude rowed down and low holed me in the same place and hooked a 21lb winter nate. If I were bigger at that time I would have kicked the guy in the nuts at the ramp, instead we just exchanged a few words at a bit of a distance....


Here's a pic of a 24.5 lb steelhead taken on a Gloomis 1141S with straight 8lb test and a size #2 hook. It was one heck of a battle!


Keith

Well...what immediately comes to mind is my first steelhead on the Hoh. Actuallly was fishing with my good pal Bob Ball in Summer of 1992. (Back in his Rookie year guiding in Forks)It was one of those gorgeous summer days we can only dream about right about now.

This was the first time Bob had ever floated the Hoh as Captain. We put in at Cottonwood and shortly after we pushed off, I was making a cast with a poorly adjusted reel which I promptly birdsnested on my first cast.It straightened out pretty easy, but since the spinner was now almost directly upstream from me, I decided to reel it in really fast so I could make a better cast.

A second later I see clearly (polarized peepers) a silver leviathon going mach 9 not 20 feet in front of me...I knew exactly where he was headed and it was on a beeline for my Blue Fox 100 feet upstream from us. I gripped down hard knowing what was coming. I will never forget the strength and aggressiveness of that fish, She was airborne almost immediately, 3 jordanesqe jumps in a row, the last one right next to Bob, just as he was trying to line us up for a narrow slot we had to shoot through...If I remember right Bobby lost control of the oars momentarily when he realized I had a pissed off fish on already, not 30 seconds into the float...gear was flying everywhere as we tried to manueuver...she had caught us both with our pants down ! I never felt prouder than when I hoisted the 12 lb. hen up for Bob to take my pic! (or was she more like 10 Bob...it's been so long?)What a way to break in the original White Wild Hair on the Hoh!

It was one of those experiences every fisherman should have. Thanks for that day Bob...and for all the other trips we've shared over the years!! Looking forward to many more!

That's a real chromer, Keith. Is that his best side?

Kudo's on photoshoping out the spunk. He looks like he just squirted.

Yeah my brightest steelhead to date! Only caught a couple of them in my life you know... Would you expect anything better from me??

Keith

Nice fish nonetheless.

It still beats that 6 lb rat you superimposed as your .signature pic. I mean, if I stretched out mine it would be well over 10 I mean 40".....

Keith

19 pound steelhead on the green faught it for 20 minutes on my dads 12' noodle rod and 4 pound line.

or 69 pound king on the carbon, with a medium light rod and 10 pound line, faught it for about 40 minutes. biggest fish i have ever caught.