This is steelhead weather!


Danny went right to work!




Hook, play release. Danny shows how it’s done




Fishing was so good even the old man got a few.




One of the guys at the lodge told us there are no rainbows in the Situk. Wrong!


The big one that got away. We came on an eagle with a beautiful steelhead in its claws. I would have killed for a shot of it in flight with that fish. But we spooked him and he left his catch. You can see the fishes head in the lower part of the photo if you look close.


Is this bright enough?


Good bye Situk. See ya next year!

Looks like you had a lot better weather than we did! Great pictures and usual! Where "Danny went right to work" looks like where we had some action also.

Looks like a nightmare of a trip. Thanks for sharing!

Great pics. Love the eagle picture. Nice job!

Stunning photos Dave! Looks like a great trip.
Neal

I knew Dave would have the luck with him.
Glad to see you guys hook a few nice ones, I'll bet about 10,000 will come streaming in later this month as the water warms and drops.

I see the Kings are in! www.glacierbearlodge.com
Hope Mr. Vedder gets a shot at those as well!

The first day we got there, all the water was raging. You could see where the holes should be but the slower steelhead friendly water was non existent. We did luck into a few that day somehow but decided we better give the river a few more days to settle down and get out in the bay instead.

The second day we got out, I think the river was in the 700+ level somewhere. Something like twice the day's historical record! Dave said it would be a challenge still as the fish would be scattered. We actually did see fish cruising around the bottom and I began to believe all those fantastic stories could be true. The potential was obvious. We got into double digits that day and only one of those fish was a dark one (you see the dark fall fish everywhere).

The third day was still in the 500+ cfs zone which is double the normal flow but the fishing was great! All the bright fish were laying in the faster water which is where we concentrated. We did notice an obscene amount of fly anglers targeting shallow flat areas, clearly fishing over the spawning beds where dark fish were numerous. I think it really paid off to keep moving and looking for new players. I'm not sure how you could'nt keep some sort of a planned schedule as the drift is 14 miles long. You saw lots of campsites along the river and all I could think about was freezing nightime temperatures and hungry fresh out of hibernation brown bears. No thanks! Another double digit day was had and it was time to leave just in time to get spoiled! I can't even imagine what it would have been like in normal flows.

Thanks again to Rick, Pete, Eddie, Cody and the crew at GBL! Special thanks again to Dave Vedder for perservering through my sick state!

PS- The Redington boots worked great Rick!

Great pics.

It looks like you made the most of the trip after some adverse conditions. I really like the chainsaw in the driftboat(1st pic) too.

Was this a GBL package trip? How many days?

Thanks for sharing.

Epic....

I am glad you all had a good time. We are nothing without fishermen like yourselves.
We truely appreciate your support. I hope you next trip will reward you with perfect water as the numbers of Steelhead in that river is amazing!!!
I wish I could afford to send all of you up there!!
Thanks again to all.
GBL

Those are some awesome pics, if I can get mine they will not be the same quality. Having some pic & camera issues or I would have something up. I saw the river pretty much exploded after we left, must have been dificult to land the fish.

Nice.I'm gonna try and make it an annual trip.Good luck,
SZ

I agree, especially would like my wife to experience the action. Meadow is generally quite the trooper but I have spoiled her rotten on other destinations were the fishing is productive. If there was ever a place to bring your fair weather girlfriend or wife that will only fish when it is good, I cannot think of a better destination than GBL. The groceries she will get to bring home from the salt chuck is reason enough!

I do want to go back as well. Silvers do sound fun also. I want to fish with Robbo first though. My parents are on their 2nd trip this summer with him.

.

Sick with envy!

I wanna go back up and hit the salt for butt's and kings in August.I may have to bag out on our annual 16 year running Bouy-10 trip to make it happen though....kinda tough call.Good luck,
SZ