If I caught a 30 pound steelie, and no one was around to see me, this is what I'd be doing...

Haha.. I'm so glad you have found such good use for that one Vince... Right on! I couldn't agree more with ya... I wanted to damn near hump the 24# that I caught when I was 15! lol... Best part about it was that it was a CLIPPED summer run from the elwah.. Tasted great! lol... didn't even remotely have the money to mount it, tho I regret it now...

Wow guys, nice pics ya'll got there, i don't have any monster pics cause i'm still searchin, but i'll share a nice brat pic from this early Brat season!!!

well, if only i can get it to work!!!

Dave casts his replica's from skin-mounted steelhead he has done. The year I caught mine a commercial fisherman in BC netted the fish he cast mine from and brought it to dave to do a skin mount. Here's the cool part. The fish was netted near the inlet of the Skeena, so odds are pretty good that it natal stream was close to or the same place I caught mine. The replica itself is 1-inch shorter and 1/2-inch larger in girth than the fish I landed: About as close as you can come as replicas go.

Bob: Is the spot you are talking about 1/2 mile above camp the big broad tailout pool? I love that spot, especially right before dark. Last year I was fishing the top corner of that above the big rock bend at twilight when I saw a big buck that moved into the tailout roll. I moved downstream, made one presentation and WHAM, fish on. Tem minutes later I slid my second twenty-pounder for the trip onto the gravel. BC rocks.

Would a 42x24 be easy to duplicate? If its a little smaller it would be ok, but having to explain to people that the rep is bigger than the actual fish would be kinda wierd...
Stam, I noticed the Mortac Stilly #2's in the last pics. I havent had much success with the cerise colored one, but the hammered brass has been killer. Ever try putting a black stripe down the middle of those? Ive got tons of those spoons in red, cerise, pink, chartruese, and of coarse silver and brass. Havent had much success with the "colored" ones

You guys had better hope to hell that Foss Tug doesn't get a hold of this thread... They'll sell off their boats and try and harness the power of these underwater freight trains

Beautiful fish all of you...

I've got a nice native from the Oregon coast. It measured 38.5"long and 17.5" round. We guessed it at about 18lbs. It was one of the nicest chrome female steelies I've caught.
Her is another angle of the fish.

That's a pretty lady you have there, Kev.

Nice fish Kevin.. I can't wait for Jan-March.. Going to be another fun one!!

Keith

Nice fice. Not to be smart, but do you fish with the gloves on or?

Yes, I always fish with gloves.

kevin, do you mind if I ask why? I'm thinking of doing the same, and its because I suffer after a weekend fishing trip for at least 2 weeks. All the skin on my fingers tips peels off and I get deep cracks in the skin by my fingernails. Its worse when I fish eggs, but even a weekend of throwing spinners.. hands in and out of the water and handling & cleaning fish will do it. Never happens when I fish the salt, must be that cold river water.....? C/22

I wear gloves for almost everything I do. I got into the habbit a while ago. I like clean hands after a day of fishing. When I didn't wear them, my hands smelled like fish for a few days.

I've recently got into the swing of gloves too. I see no advantage to gloves other than clean and normal looking hands at the end of the day! I'm done with the cracks in the fingers and pain!!'

Keith

Here's a nice one I caught almost 3 years ago on the Bogie. What a beauty, though it didn't fight nearly as much as some smaller fish I have caught.He was 20lbs 4oz. Fish was caught Jan 21,2003


Here's another shot of the same fish.

No appologies needed on that bad boy!
A BIG TIME thank you to all you guys for posting the great pics!
Salmonella