#3 on my list is Solitude. I know that it can get crowded on weekends, but mid-week, when it's cold like today there are few people on the rivers.
#2 is the fish themselves. They are sure fun. No other fish can raise my pulse like a chrome brite metalhead can.
Last but not least,
#1 reason to love winter Steelheading; the high water has washed away all that damn trash from Salmon season!
I spend a good part of my life enjoying many activities out of doors and there is no other group of people that litters as much as fisherpeople. Why is that? What can we do to change it? I have picked up my share and others share too, and chastised people for leaving without picking up. OK I am stepping off my soapbox.

Some people care, some don't. A lot of the one's who don't care about litter also gotta have the biggest fish. It's all about greed and disrespect and the problem's not just among salmon fishermen. That said, the litter won't pick itself up. If we, the respectful fishermen, don't pick up trash on the river, who will? When I pick up a piece of garbage on the river, I thank God for the respect for others and for the natural world that I've been taught.

No 1 reason for me is:
I have to patch the holes in my wader. I usually ignore them during summer months.

Number 3: A February/March/April native will show any...ANY...summer run in Western Washington a thing or two, or ten, about how to ruin gear and leave a weak-kneed simpering child on the bank of the river...

Number 2: After accepting number 1, it's a much bigger challenge to be successful in the winter...after all the fish I've caught in my life, the quality of a bad_@ss winter run is worth four or five good summer runs. BTW, I appreciate a bad-ass summer run as much as anyone, but it's just not the same...

Number 3: Now, #'s 1 & 2 have made the winter runs tougher to catch, and made the appreciation of them bigger. Here's the other good reason; I can get out of bed at 6am and be at the river before light, fish until dark, and be home by 6pm. To do that in the summer (which I do way too much) you have to get up at 3:30 am, and if you're as hardcore as me, you don't get home until 10 pm. Winter time makes for much shorter days!!

Outside of the top three reasons, there's really only one that matters...

If you are on one of many streams in Western Washington from Feb. 1 until closing, whether that be Feb. 28 or April 30, or anywhere in between, youre next cast could be a 30 pounder.

That's right...THIRTY POUNDS...or at least twenty...sorry, ain't gonna happen for any Western Washington summer runs...

Fish on...

Todd.

My favorite reason to winter steelhead fish is that I'm outa the house doing something I actually love to do and love the environment I'm doing it in (I try to stay away from the Blue Creek type of scenario and save the shoulder to shoulder show for tavern barstools)...now if I could just win that lotto...

Same for me with many of those reasons above. But another one for me is the great amount of varying holding water typical during the winter run steelhead season.

Todd, very well said.. The hair raised on the back of my neck reading your post... I'd love to tie into a 30+ but reality is I'll never see one. I've seen steelhead in the upper 20's but 30's now that's freaky... As for the summer/winter debate, well I'd prefer a 15lb summer over a 15lb winter nate any day...
Keith

I love to see a winter steelie leap those pink sides flashing.
I love that it gives me something to look forward to during those cold short winter days.

There is just something about the pain you go through in the winter that makes it feel more rewarding despite the fact that a wild winter fish is pure exhilaration. As for the 15 lb summer and the 15 wild winter, how can you really pick one over the other. Either one, that is about as good as it gets.

Because there aren't as many chores to do in the winter so the guilt is less. lol.

From my experience a summer run will rip the lips off a winter run when tied together.

Touch a summer run and they are immediately out of the water, you touch a winter run and you might not see them for days.....which do you prefer...acrobatics and speed or shear power?