What was your most exciting fish ever?

I have been fortunate enough to fish in many places for many species, but here are some of my favorite moments:

My first trout on a dry fly

My first steelhead.

Landing a sailfish on a fly.

My first and only steelhead on a dry fly

A wide open yellowtial bite on live bait

The first fish my kids caught. Nothing else compares

Don't have one. I get exited every damn time.

My first steelhead. Caught it on a orange/chrome Little Cleo in the tailout below my house. It was a 5 lb. kelt, but I didn't care... it was a righteous steelhead!

But the tops was watching my dad catch his first steelhead last year.

Mike

My first steelhead, and it was 19.8lbs of hatchery winter chrome!!!!

Beautiful January day a few years ago on the Wynoochee... snow on the banks, 29 degrees... clear skies... (can't get any better than that). I was with my Steelhead Sensei (Ron Bob), and had never floated the 'Nooch before.... We launched at the White Bridge about 10am (all of the other boats had already gone downriver) and we were on that stretch of river all by ourselves.... We put the Dr. Death and the McRib out in that first long stretch of the river below the launch on the left.... I was sitting there in the front of the boat, drinking coffee, looking at the scenery, not paying attention, etc.... As I looked to the left I noticed that the left rod was down... not moving... I said to Ron Bob, "dude, you hung that one up already!?"... he said, "NO, FISH!"... I slowly got up and said something like "no f'n way"... when I grabbed the rod, it was all I could do it get it out, I was like "holy S**T!" and the fight was on... the fish kind of set its tail in the center of the river, then headed for a root wad on the right side... I clamped down the thumb to keep it out of there and luckily it didnt come unbuttoned... then the fish came right at me... at first, I thought I had lost it, and Ron Bob screamed at me "NOOOOOOOOOOO!"...as I caught up to the fish, all you could hear was the line screaming upriver... I think that was the coolest sound I had ever heard..... to make a long story short, after a few more runs, I FINALLY got her to the boat... chrome bright 15 1/2 lb hen... Even though I have caught bigger since, that was without a doubt the most fun and exciting fish I have ever caught... in fact, those two days were the best days of fishing I have ever experienced... too bad the Mailbox takeout is closed now, that was a great place to camp.

I handed off a big fish to a buddy (he was in the head and left his rod in the rod holder) his rod was getting bit so I graabed it and set the hook, I immeadiately thought it was a big halibut and told him to get and fight it, I didn't want any part of a halibut on light gear. He starts fighting it and I'm trying to get him to cut it off so we can get back to the "hot" silver bite, after about a half hour of hanging on the bottom it makes a beeline to the surface and jumps, it ended up being a 57lbs. king caught on a steelhead rod with a bantam reel spooled with 150yds of 8 lbs. Maxima, took 5:45 minutes to land the fish.

I had a 42lbs. king follow my cutplug herring to the boat last summer, but didn't bite, I dropped back down about 30' and reeled back up again, still chasing, dropped again and just as the bait dropped out of sight, the fish nailed it, that was pretty cool.

To many to narrow it down to just one or two.Although my 23.5 pound native buck out of the green river on 2/13/04 was one to remember.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

32 lb king on drano lake. hour and a half to bring to the boat.

A buddy and I were fishing the Hoh on a perfect day a couple years back. He carefully backed the kwikies into a nice deep slot and WHAM the left rod buries. I grab it out and start playing the fish. It is a nice 30+ king. My buddy starts to row the boat towards the shore so I can get out and play the fish and WHAM the other rod buries with the twin to the king I am already fighting. I grab the second rod and lean back. Now I have a rod each hand, both of which are conencted to very angry, and large chinook. I was standing in the front of the boat trying to keep those the lines tight while my buddy frantically rows for shore so he can relieve me of one of the rods. Long story short we beached both fish, shared high fives, and drank a celebratory beer before continuing our float. Awesome day.

The ones that get away always excite me the most.

First: A 10" Rainbow. I was 8 years old and it was the first fish I ever caught on a fly that wasn't tipped with a piece of worm.

Second: An 8Lb steelhead I was 12 years old and it was the first Steely on a fly in 4 years of (non-stop) fishing for them.

I hear ya on that one!

Rooster and I drifted the Hoh one fine spring day and I managed to hook a fish that I'll never ever forget.

I pitched a Pink Conehead in to a very small pocket up along some lumber and no sooner had I managed to wind down on the reel to close the release, it hooked something. Thinking I hooked some of the lumber, I gave a good hard yank back.

Needless to say, I was shocked when the lumber yanked back hard and started to make a mad dash out of the pocket.

The rest of the story happened in slow motion. I'm almost positive time really did slow down, as I can vividly replay this in my head over and over again...all in this painfull slow motion.

Recall that all of 5 seconds have elapsed (maybe), but as the fish raced out of the pocket, she went airborne.

Not just airborne, but we're talking fully out of the water, and completely horizontal kidna airborne.

What I saw that came out of the water took my breath away! For what jumped out of the water was the chromest and BIGGEST hen steelhead I've ever hooked, landed, and probably personally seen with my own two eyes.

I know it was a hen because you could just see a BIG belly full of eggs when it was horizontal.

I know it was big because I landed two (not one mind you) 22lb. summer run *hen* steelheads on the NFL (many years ago) on the same day. I know what a 20+ pound hen looks like. This fish was bigger. Much, much, much bigger.

All in slow motion, mind you, but as the fish was horizontal in the air, with it's belly/side facing me, I saw it shake it's head and toss that barbless hooked Pink ConeHead out of it's mouth! Poink! KA-SPLOOOOSH!

That was it. Rooster rowed over to the side of the river, dropped anchor, sat down, and said

"Parker, had I not seen that fish with my own two eyes, I'd say you were full of shiat when you tell that story."

Never will we know how big it is, and it really doesn't matter. Might not even have been over 20. But, on that day, on that time, two very experienced anglers saw what they perceived to be the "fish of lifetime". I will happily keep it at that.

I get all jittery now just thinking about it.

I was 12 years old fishing on the Snoqualmie. My first fly caught trout, I have caught a ton of fish since and still get those adrenaline rushes, but 22 years later still vividly remember that one like it was yesterday. I got the same feeling this fall when my 8 year old caught his first hog of a silver at Sekiu.

TOMORROW MORNING 11-15 MY FAVORITE STEELHEAD RIVER OPENS AND I AM SO EXCITED I CANT HARDLY STAND IT! I WILL BE THERE BEFORE DAYLIGHT WADERED UP AND READY TO GO. YOU WOULD THINK AT AGE 45 THIS NIGHT BEFORE X-MAS FEELING I HAVE WOULD LESSEN(NOT SO FAR).WHAT I MEAN TO SAY IS I HAVE CAUGHT ALOT OF EXCITING FISH OVER THE YEARS BUT MY NEXT ONE IS ALWAYS THE MOST EXCITING.

My fishing has been full of exciting momments.

Got to love that adrenal rush as I re-bait after a winter steelhead strips my eggs - while I haven't fished eggs in more than a decade the shakes between the bite and the next cast are still fresh with me.

Some memorial fish/situations

Any steelhead on dries - though I can still easily recall an August evening when a steelhead jumped completely clear of the water and took my dry on the way down - I'll never know how I resisted not setting the hook too soon.

Clear water hawg largemouth bass chasing down a buzz bait or slurping a jig-n-pig from the bottom.

Smallmouth bass on poppers

Gator bull trout tracking my streamers in clear water or their shark-like tracking of skated surface flies.

The heart-stopping momment between the abrupt stop/take (is it bottom or fish?) and the first shoulder jarring head shakes of monster chinook on a fly.

The slow motion head to tail rise of large trout taking a small dry fly in clear water where you can watch the whole process of the fish slowly swimming from the depths, opening its mouth, the fly disappearing, and the mouth closing as the fish turns towards the bottom.

Just a handful of examples of why I'm an addicted fisher. It also illustrates why I'm such an eclectic angler (willig to fish for anything that swims)rather than a species specialist.

tight lines
Curt

I'm with the guys who feel that lost fish are the most exciting, not that I'll downplay landed fish. I hooked a big something off Catalina that hit like a bluegill but spooled several hundred yards of 20-lb. test like it wasn't even there.

Then there was a pair of really large steehead on the Klick one September day, one of which I saw, that likely topped 20.

And there was the big halibut that grabbed on to a 25-lb. ling and held on to it for nearly two hours off Dungeness before letting go.

The most exciting fish, though, since the thread is about superltives, was the upper teens steelhead I hooked in a small OP river on a cast Hotshot. Had her up on the beach for a bit and then broke her off when she flipped back in and ran for a stump. I can still see the little puff of moisture when the line broke and curled back toward me. While that fish was the first big steelhead I hooked, the real excitement was the next day when I went back to same pool. Fished it hard with no luck when I decided to climb out on an alder to look down into the pool. Saw that fish with the Hotshot in the corner of its mouth and swimming next to it was a steelhead that dwarfed the one I hooked. That sight inspired a lot of fishing...until the pool filled on the next flood.

Keith

The crank handle almost fell off the reel when I was playing the fish in my avatar. That was pretty exciting. We had to scrounge around in the tackle box, get a wrench, and tighten the nut on the crank while the fish was on.

The most exciting and memorable fish remains a Thompson River steelhead that took my fly near the head of a pool on a cold morning that must have been in the low to mid 20s. I'd forgotten my wading staff, and this was before I had stream cleats. The fish was off like a rocket bound for the next pool, a long ways downriver. I jumped, ran, slipped, and darn near cartwheeled my way after that fish over Thompson River rocks that are slicker than deer guts on a doorknob. I nearly regained 180 yards of backing and flyline before I lost that fish over a quarter mile downriver. My lungs were aching from the cold, cold air. Never felt that bad running the 440 in track. That sprint, that steelhead, left me dripping in sweat. No steelhead before or since, no matter how large, has worked me over like that fish. That was exciting.

KJ:

I agree that many of my most memorable fish were those that got away. I vividly remember a Thompson River steelhead the buried my float less than twenty feet from me. I set the hook way too hard and broke him off. As I was telling my friend that I felt it had been a really big one it rocket way out of the water and shook its head with my gear still in its mouth. That was a 20 plus pound fish that I remember better than any I ever landed.

435 pound Swordfish. 4 1/2 hours of the best fight of my life. Got him on a 15 inch live cabilito while he was sleeping on the top of the deep blue Mazatlan water at mid-day. Capt'n said it was the biggest he has seen in 20 years of fishing. Totally just wore me out !

Spud

Some of my most memorable:

the "something" I hooked on a topwater plug in the chop of the raging surf off the tip of Aruba. Have no idea what it was, but even armed with 30 lb. Power Pro, I flat my arse handed to me ... third run finally bent the hooks out as I clamped down with perhaps 10 yards of line left.

Another, same trip. A small cuda, not much of a fight, but after a 150 foot cast, it hit not more than 10 feet in front of me ... launching itself to eye-level and coming down on my spook. What a RUSH!!! It's been a lot of years since I've shook on a fish like that, just about scared Corey have to death too while she was watching.



Around these parts ... probably my first 20 lb. steelie ... came of all places in the riffle below Reiter. Been lots bigger fish since and bigger battles and goofier stuff, but I don't hink my heartrate has ever been that high before or since!

Talk about great memories generated by this thread-- I have two more that came to me after I posted: one was exciting but short lived: I hooked a king off Washaway beach in about 12 feet of water. When I set the hook, it blasted out of there, jumping wave crest to wave crest until the reel jammed and blew, leaving Quantum parts all over the deck. When the reel froze, the fish straightened the hook. It wasn't an extraordinarily big salmon, maybe in the 30s, but what an sight!

The second was a big redfish in Yellow Cotton Bay by Venice. The guy on the front deck spotted this huge red tailing in the shallows and told me to throw a topwater. I pitched a Spook out, started to walk it back when it the bottom fell out of the bay. I set the hook, felt the fish and started reeling like crazy, thinking the fish was running toward the boat. About half way back, the fish is skidding on the surface. It turns out that an 18-inch gafftop catfish hit the topwater. The other fisherman said that red was about 6 feet long from nose to tail. I can still see that big gold tail with a black spot the size of a silver dollar.

I tried to respond to this thread but just kept writing and writing and writing so maybe this will be easier.

My most exciting fish was NOT my first steelhead.

We where in the midst of an Arctic blast. Ice chunks where floating down the Sky and you needed crampons to stand safely on my buddies whaler so we went to Ft. Casey instead, despite the high winds. I was working my hootchie back along a 5 ft. cresting wave when a saw a flash of silver ingulf it. I set the hook, the wave crested brioling over my legs and then receded leaving a 5lb. steelie flopping in the sand behind me! I bonked it and quickly retreated to the fire and the Yukon!

My first salmon I caught on the Kenai River, on my own and without a guide.

We were fishing on our own for the first time and I was the only one on board that knew how to handle the boat in the current.

A nice 50LB King hit my rod and I turned the tiller over to my less experienced buddy. As the boat went down river he was having a difficult time handling the boat in the current. It was a real mess, with me trying to give boat driving lessons while fighting the fish. Good thing we were fishing after all Guides were off the river.

After a long drift I got the fish to the boat and my other buddy netted it. High fives all around. When I went to high five my buddy who took over the boat he immediately passed out and I had to grab him to keep him from going over board. My buddy has a history of heart problems. We layed him in the bottom of the boat and ran back to Riverbend as fast as we could. He regained consciousness on the way back and once on the beach off to the hospital in Soldotna where my buddy spent most of the rest of the trip. Turned out his heart beat became irregular and required adjustments to medication.

So hours later I finally was able to clean and filet that fish.

My buddy who went to the hospital is a vintage Korean War fighter pilot, tougher then nails. Since that trip he has had two cardiac arrests and a defribulator implanted in his chest. He still goes on living and is going up with me to Sooke this weekend to fish.

Mine was a 15# summer run from the Sky. What made it so memorable was that while playing it I fell and cut my chin on a rock Required 18 stiches and I still have a scar 20 years later! However I did land the fish!

SA

I just realized why i spend so much freakin time on the rivers: MOMENTS... When the day comes when a guy cant get it on anymore, all he has left are those moments. My best:

1. First steelhead on the Sky when it was stil open in March.
2. Camping and fishing with Dad on a small Eastern WA trout stream
3. Watching my Buddy hang on as the biggest summer run i have ever seen tailwalked through the tailout of Proctor Creek
4. The "Big One" coming to the surface and seeing a tail the size of a dust pan disapear back into the depths

Perhaps fishing is all about putting in the time for the next "exciting fish" to come along...

My biggest winter run....24 1/2 lbs. from a small, intimate coastal river.

I had had a good day already landing a couple smaller fish. The water was low and clear and as I often do in these conditions, I had armed myself with my trusty 1141, 8lb. mainline, 6lb. leaders and small egg clusters.....basically summer-run gear. On this particular stretch of river(about a 2 mile hike) there is one hole that reads "perfect" but I had only landed the occassional fish out of it in previous years.

On the far side of the hole was a bedrock ledge which came up to within a couple inches of the surface. I was having difficulty with proper presentation from the other side due to low water so I waded upriver, crossed and stood on top of the rock ledge, well-concealed but able to drift the bait literally at my feet.

First cast.....a little "thump", hookset, and the slow motion headshake of a big fish. Being committed to light line tactics I can only describe the battle as trying to pull in a piece of plywood with a noodle. I was just along for the ride, praying the beast wouldn't snap my fragile leader. I put the maximum pressure years of summer run fishing told me the 6lb. leader could handle. The fish only took me down 2 holes aparently tired from moving the night before. It was landed and it was mine! My first honest 20+ after 15 years of coming close.

That was a decade ago. Ironically, I have landed four 20lb. range fish since then......all from the same river. But that first one was special. A perfect winter morning, no footprints on the bank. mist rising off the water, a few biters around and the fish of a lifetime waiting to meet my aquaintance.

I have a beautiful fiberglass reproduction hanging on the wall to remind me of that special day.

1st. 150lb 7ft Striped Marlin in Mazatlan, Mexico. The reel was broken, and my knuckles kept hitting the drag knob at every crank rotation. There was blood all over and the fish wasn't even in the boat yet. Didn't hurt until we were back at the dock and the beer wore off...

Honorable Mention. Between Manchester fuel depot and Bainbridge Island my brother and I were tired of trolling so we decided to drift herring with no weights, no flashers. Before we knew it there was 8lb silver jumping on the other side of the boat, my brothers line slack, then instantly wamb!!!!!!! we were using 8lb test and trout rods. The next two fish were bright Chum, 11-15 pounds. The best part was watching your slack line then it would slowly start to got tight, until you jerked, FISH ON!!!!!!!!! Haven't been able to re-create that situation in 4 years...

Crap, I forgot this one....My grandma has a small creek near her home. The creek was only about 7 feet wide. The four boy cousins, I think we were all between the ages of 7 and 10 at the time. We would fish there everyday in the summer. One day we hooked what was huge to us, a 14 inch cutthroat. We hooked it like twice but couldn't get it on shore ...So we had my little brother run back to the house and get the BB gun...When he got back we threw out the line again, we hooked it, and it was like a miracle, right as it came off, I shot it with the BB gun. One of the cousins picked it up down from the hole. We still talk about it...ask BOTA he knows

Any fish, as long as I can CORK Bill Folmar to get to it first!! That guy goes off when you low hole em...very exciting.......

Oh man....so many cool memories. A 23 lb nate with Robbo....a 21 lb nate with Hairball.....a week later. First marlin, a maniac that jumped so much we quit counting at 40....but all of them pale to my best bud's first day out with me on the Sky several years ago. Not one fish, but the best day ever. Standing on one rock, never moving for 4 hours, he hooked 4 silvers, landing one, hooked two steelies, landing none (he had one whipped, on it's side in the shallows, then he let out a Ted Nugent war cry, dropped his rod and tried to grab it by pouncing on it like a lion on a warthog) and the other spit the hook at his feet. It got away and he was standing there waist deep, searching for the fish like a character from a Daffy Duck cartoon. This was one month after he was diagnosed with Leukemia. We've had many great trips since and he has his ups and downs with his chemo, but that day was the most memorable of all.

Mine is a 13lb. coho at Ft Casey. Been fishing the bobber and herring since early in the morning. It had been a pretty good day with maybe 8-10 fish caught and released. Took a short break to relax and went back to fishing. I was just standing there mesmerized by the water and the clear blue sky. My bobber had floated in toward shore and I was freespooling and then thumbing to spin the herring. The current was flowing to my left and my bobber was about 20ft. below me about 5ft. off the beach directly in front of a fishing buddie. So as I'm intently studying Pt. Townsend in the distance I feel line being pulled from under my thumb, as I pull back on the rod and turn towards my bobber there is the fishing buddy, eyes as big as saucers turning toward me yelling "FISH". That coho took the herring 5ft. in front of him. That fish was a little pissed off.

Head and shoulders above any other encounters for me was a lost steelhead hooked just upstream from the highway bridge on the Calawah (days long before the ramp). That fish jumped 13 times in a span of a minute and a half (wild guess)and at no time did I ever feel like I was in control of the fish. It was upstream, then downstream, then running full throttle at me, then away, then repeat for the duration of the battle. Some of the leaps were cartwheels, chrome flashing in the sun. The 13th jump was the magic number. I watched as my pearl pink came loose and plopped in the water half way between me and the fish.

I catch a lot of fish, and the adrenaline rush complete with shaking hands seldom happens any more, but that day.......just stood in awe, trembling.

Believe it or not, a kokanee. Not the beer, but fish. Several years ago I was fishing Lake Chelan uplake, not another boat in sight and fishing was fantastic. Big kokes and I was one short of a limit. Suddenly, fish on! The fish was about 15 inches and broke water time after time with my Ford Fender flasher with it. Then it would make a run, circle the boat, jump again. I finally netted it, admired it, and let it go. Went home content. Awesome fish.

Quite a few come to mind but this one stands out.
Flyfishing the run just below the RR tracks upstream of Lewis Street on the Sky. I'd been out quite a few trips with the fly rod and not so much as a grab. Standing at the very head of the run and letting my polar shrimp swing all the way in to shore when it stops in about a foot of water just off shore. I'm thinking I'm attached to another rock so I don't set the hook when all of a sudden this mid 20's chromer takes flight. This thing starts cartwheeling it's way towards the other side and downstream with the current. There was absolutely nothing I could do but hold on as it just kept jumping and running. Well, it was already to the other side and downstream quite a ways when it stops jumping and just heads for the ocean. 50 yards into my backing the fly pulls out and I'm standing there with the shakes. I had just been taken out behind the ol' woodshed and beaten.


This was the first monster I'd hooked on the bug rod and still sits in my mind like it just happened.

April 15th, tax day, 2001. Got out of the hospital from knee surgury, wife picked me up at hospital, she brought my pole rigged for steelhead off the beach and a folding chair. I begged her to take me to Lagoon Point on the way home from the hospital to make a few casts for 15 minutes. I walked down the beach on my crutches, she carried my pole and chair. First cast, yes indeed, a huge steelhead! I got it in, took pictures, packed up our stuff, went home to recouperated. I don't know the weight, but I, and everyone who saw it said it was 17 to 20lbs. Pretty big for Lagoon Point.

I would have to agree on the ones that got away are the most exciting. I just love to wonder how big some of the fish are that hand me my arse. I had one today that dropped my float and when I set the hook it shot at me, did a 360 degree swirl, jumped about 4 feet in the air and left me with half of my leader. The fish was dime bright and by the looks of it was in the high teens, a brute for my neck of the woods. Not to mention I snapped my favorite float rod today on the hookset of another hot fish. :rolleyes:

This brown that I landed on holloween of 03 was a very memorable fish as well. I had the fish grab my roe bag 3 times in 3 casts before I got the hook into him good. I had 5lb flourocarbon leader and a size 14 hook. The fish was over 20lbs for sure and had the most beautiful spots of any brown that I have seen to this day, it was a pretty sweet site to watch that one swim away.

My most exciting fish turned out to be my first introduction to steelhead.
Fishing the summer gin clear upper Kalama for trout with light trout gear many, many years ago, I watched dumbfounded as a monster summer run came from the far side of a deep pool to smash my little 1/8 rooster tail right at my feet. After battling all over the pool with this beast, it finally just stopped and hung in the pool for a while refusing to budge. While I was wondering what to do next, he finally proceeded to move right towards me. Staring up at me on the big rock I was standing he then opened his big white mouth and spit my spinner right back at me. Stunned I could only watch as he cruised indignantly back to his hiding spot. When I looked down at the rooster tail, I was astonished that he had not straightened, but FLATTENED the treble hooks I had been using. My legs were quaking so bad I couldn’t get down from that rock for quite a while. Even today I don’t think of that fish as the one that got away, but the one that hooked me. Been chasing him ever since too.

Other fish that have also been as exciting to me in their own special way:

A. Hooking my Dad up with a big 25# king in front of his house on his 72nd birthday, which was the first and only salmon he's ever caught. Epic battle, touch and go all the way. He couldn't wipe the grin off his face then and he still gleams about it today.

B. Being with my son as he released his first 30# native king. The brute hit 20 feet off the boat as he reeled in to check his bait. Great battle, gorgeous fish, but what I will always remember was my son looking up at me and asking if we really had to release it. When I told him that was his call, he held the fish in the water for awhile and then slowly released it in total awe. I didn’t just get to watch a magnificent fish be caught, I got to see my son grow up that day.

C. Mooching with my mother-in-law early one August Sunday morning. Catching big 3 kings within 1/2 hr, on 3 herring and getting back in with plenty of time to get to church with the rest of the clan to praise the Lord for his bounty and goodness to us.

Wanting to share that same first experience I had with my steelhead, I have endeavored to get many novices into their first steelhead as possible. This is not always an easy task, but it has always been a rewarding experience. Two of my most memorable:

a. After losing 12 straight ( that’s right, 12! ) steelhead in two days, it was down to the wire for a very, very dejected young man who was just dying to catch his first steelhead. As darkness descended on the last day, the pole went down one last time and before the fish even realized it was hooked, I was luckily able to net him as he passed beside the boat. All the way home you should have heard this kid talk about how hard that fish fought and seen his face when he presented it to his friends and family. Priceless. Another one hooked.

b. Last, but certainly not least, was with my wife when she caught her first steelhead. For this I take no credit because she is a natural and is probably the luckiest and best steelheadesses I have ever known. Ticks me off. Time after time she schools me. She always wonders what my lame excuse is for coming home fishless. But whether she accepts my excuse or not, it really wasn’t until her first one that she came to truly understand my passion and excitement for this sport.

Mooch,I think shes flipping you off! c/22

Chrome,

She can flip me off anytime she wants. I usually have it coming anyway.

But that day she didn't really have to. I had just lost 7 fish (some Chum) down around impassable bend all on my own, when she stepped in and showed me how it's suppose to be done.
I think the grin says it all.

Yep, schooled again..

Off of the West Coast of Vancouver Island August 1990 fishing with 3 friends . We would go up 3 or 4 times in late July early Aug every year and usually hit the kings pretty hard. the run was late and all we hit where cookie cutter coho. We trolled the rocks ran out 5 miles it did not matter all we could muster where coho. The friends where bored and ate and drank too much and fell a sleep on the boat. So I could fish where I wanted. I decided to go into a cove and scrape the sandy bottom with the downrigger ball using a little Puget sound black mouth technique. I rigged up a sandlance colored hootchie behind a grren glow flasher. the rigger was se t to hit the bottom of the sany cove.The ball bounces a couple of times and my rod goes off peeling line like I have the bottom. I grab the rod and noticed that the line was headed out to sea and the boat was pointed North to the far shore of the cove. I set the hook and line screamed off of the reel. One of my friends wakes up at the sound and asks what I have, I tell him big king. He says no way it's a shark. All the wile line is still pouring off of the reel. At about 150 yards the fish stops and gives a couple of signature big King head shakes. I know what I have now is a King for sure. He holds his ground on me just short of a big kelp bed between the cove and the open ocean. He turns and runs for the boat. I am reeling the knuckle buster as fast as I can reel to stay in contact with the fish. He stops under the bott. I work on him for a while and he is down there thumping from side to side real heavy. If you have ever caught a big king you know what I am talking about. I gain a little on him and he comes up towards the boat. In typical king fashion when he gets near the surface he takes another dive towards the bottom. He stops and thumps from side to side holding his ground. He then runs towards the ocean again peeling off more line. I let him do what he wants but put a little more tension on the drag. The other two friends are awake now. They are betting its a shark and laughing a yuking it up. I catch 90% of the fish when we go fishing so they are always hoping the fish is small or I lose it or threatening to knock it off with the net. The king make another fast run under the boat and stops. He is less active but still putting up a good fight. It's been 20 minutes since I hooked him. I really put the presure on him and he comes towards the surface. He make on last dive for the bottom and then softens up a bit. I get him toards the surface and he head shakes furiously about 20 feet down. He then comes all the way to the top. All four of us are looking over the side and see a big flash of sliver abotu 20' down. Two guys start high fivin thinking it is a shark. the other friend keeps watching as I bring it to the surface. He grabs the net and then looks back at me and says" the nets too small" that stops the high fiving and the yuking from the other two and they lookover the side. The fish is giving a little fight and swimming around the surface. Another guy grabs the other net and all of us are calmly discussing the netting strategy. The fish is way to big for the full size slamon net. We decide to get as much of the fish in the first net as possible. The second net would be used for the tail section of the fish as they hauled it over the side. We decide to go for it and the fish flys over the side and two guysgo down with the fish flopping on the deck. There he was 74lbs of BC King. We had to go to the commercial fish scale in Tofino to get him weighed.

My favorite is a lot like Addicted's. I had a brutal foot surgery in December '96 right before the big snow and ice storm that swamped the Edmonds docks. After 8 weeks of pain, miserable weather, no driving, no fishing, crutches, etc., etc., I finally got my hard cast off at the end of February and headed straight for the river. Just needed to get out of the city and go somewhere...anywhere! Still in a walking cast, I drove myself to the Snoqualmie near Carnation for a little plunkin' since I still couldn't put on waders and walk around. Lo and behold, this poor little 6 lb. hen grabbed my gear. Being on a high bank with no net and no one else around, I had to play her in one hand while I took my walking cast off with the other, then step into knee deep water so I could tail her. Nothing like a steelie for therapy.

Fishing the Situk river about 10 years ago. We were with a guide, and backing down a slot pulling plugs. Just as the plugs pass under an overhanging bush, two matched steelhead came rocketing side by side straight up clear out of the water, one arcing left, the other arcing right. It looked like a chrome geyser. The one going left (mine) went right into the branches and left the plug there, the other one was landed. Completely unforgettable.

My favorite catch...a 52Lb King hooked on the Humtulip while fishing with Hairball and Kid Sauk.
If I recall correctly Dave, you fished with Jim the day before and wrote about your trip in the STS.

Cigar

Lost fish seem to be pretty exiting, especially for us rookies... last year on the upper Snoho... hooked up with a sweet silver using a number 4 blue fox spinner in dark green... we were in a 12 ft aluminum boat.. this was the fish of the day, had to be 12 to 14 lbs if not more, and as i was fighting this beast, it was all I could do to keep it from snagging up on the motor. As my buddy reached for the net, my line got caught in the cleat at the corner of the the stern and was snapped off. It was an absolutely beautiful chrome silver, and one I will never forget...What a rush!!!

It was 25 years ago, off the caves at sekiu. Took my kids 7,10&13 with me for the first time. Last day of the trip & decided to fish the evening bite. One hour before dark, the rod buried into the water. I managed to get it out of the rod holder & handed it to my oldest son. After about 20 minutes he asked me to please take over:) Played the fish for another 15 minutes before it was time to net it.Pole in left hand & net in other I asked my son to put boat in neutral & I tried to bring it to the net.She took off again,this time for Canada and we gave chase. Asked oldest to put motor in neutral for another attempt at netting. Try as I might I couldn't get her to the net.After the third attempt,the VERY large salmon came unbuttoned and swam gracefully away. My kids were awstruct at its size and I was crushed.I went back to take over at the motor and sat down on the styrofoam cooler still half full of Brine and 8 dozen beutiful herring.As I sat at the bottom of the boat amongst all those herring floating around me and the most beutiful sunset I've ever witnessed, my kids ROARED with laughter and all I could do was join them. PS. Found out later, that every time I asked my son to put the kicker into neutral, he was putting it into reverse.We still laugh about it 25 yrs later!

Let's see this brute! Post a pic of the fish or your mount! You *did get it mounted, didn't you????

Uh....

How big do those brown trout get over in your neck of the woods???

Wholly Crap - that Toad is a TOAD! I'd trade that for a 20 pound steelhead *any* day.

Nice damn fish, dude.

No you wouldn't. They fight like carp, or crap, either way, you get my meaning.

Parker,

No mount. Not into it. I have some glossy 35mm's I should get them scanned.

Those browns can get pretty big, I think that the state record for MI is 34lbs but anything over 15 is usually considered a nice trophy fish. The browns surely do not fight like any steelhead of its size, they like to bulldog it out more and staydown rather than torque and do aerials. Here is another pig that I pulled out of the surf this past May on my centrepin rig while fishing for summerrun steel. This one was 21 lbs and was shy of the indiana state record by 2 lbs.

Two Octobers ago I went over to a conference in Spokane. Ducked out early on the last day and followed Hwy 2 west to the Methow, because I'd heard steelhead were being caught. Not really very confident because I'd never fished there before, I was swinging a green-butt skunk at the low end of a likely-looking pool and my fly stopped. There she was. Beauty smallish native steelhead hen. I released it and blissed out in the car all the way over Washington Pass and back to Bellingham feeling lucky.

Back in the mid 80's fished the Skagit a bunch. One day while boondogging around Concrete, I hooked a Steelhead on a #14 chrome wing bobber and eggs. The fish fought for about 20 minutes before we ever saw it and when we did, it was amazing. Somewhere around the 30lb mark (6 fish reported that week from 25 to 30lb)
My net was not big enough and the guy on the net knocked it off, all I remember is watching the fish swim slowly off and then sitting on the bow of my sled as it went around in circles drifting down the river while I sat there in shock. Looking back, I am glad it came off as back then I would have thumped it and mounted it.

21+ Summer-Run on a fly. Also myself and a friend landed 25+ steelies in one day!! (in Wa, with nobody else around except a warden, who happneed to bushwack his way to enjoy the show!(he was a good guy)) I seriously doubt that will ever happen to me again!! Same day 4 steelies in four casts (with a bug rod!!) 21, 17, 12 & 6lbs. I can die happy now having had that experience!!

That's a pig, Greg. Nice fish.

float and jig,missed a nice fish.walked upriver 16-17 pound nate,kept walking landed a 7-8 pound nate that jumped 9 times.walked back down to the hole where i missed a nice fish.changed over to a spinner hit a huge nate,do not remember the rest,except how my open hand did not cover the side of its head and my other hand was covered by belly fat,really big hen,my first twenty pounder.3 fish all nates in under 2 hours on feb 26 2004 on the red river.

In 1960 or 1961 when I was 12 years old. We went up to the Washougal River and I ran into my cousin. He said that steelhead were in and that I was guaranteed to catch one. I had never caught one before. About my third or fourth cast with a spoon, the fish was on. It came out of the water and walked on it's tail. It shook it's head, and stripped line off of the reel run after run. I finally got it up to the bank, but had no where to land it due to the depth of the water. I decided to lift it out of the water even though my cousin said NO! He was right. The line snapped and the fish swam slowly away with the spoon still in it's mouth. I'm 56 years old now, have been hooked on fishing ever since. I will carry the image of this beautiful, huge fish in my mind until the day I die.

Good thread - it got this lurker to post...

About three years ago, I had developed my salmon fishing problem. I had got a boat, set it up for fishing, and figured out Puget Sound coho. Chinook kicked my butt though, and I had only caught a few little ones.

One August morning, I set out from West Seattle to fish Elliott Bay with my fishin buddy Tom. After an hour or so of trolling, my rod buries and I felt that unmistakable power of a BIG fish. I told Tom to get all the gear and downriggers out of the water because I didn't want to lose this fish. I was so incredibly excited that a relatively short fight seemed like hours. My heart was beating overtime, my knees were weak, and I couldn't stop saying, "this is a BIG fish!!"

Tom is ready with the net as I ease the fish closer to the boat. Finally I can see the beast, and it is even bigger than I thought. The fish was easily thirty pounds, and I can still picture the beautiful green back and black markings as this magnificent creature slid along side the boat.

I had coached Tom on netting the fish, so he scooped the net under the fish's head and started to lift. The fish didn't fit all the way in the net, but it was nose in, and about two thirds of it was in... I still remember Tom saying, "your net isn't big enough." I watched in slow motion as Tom lowered the net to get a better angle or something, and before I could stop him, the fish thrashed exactly twice. The first thrash got the fish out of the net, and the second thrash brought the leader against the downrigger cable. The fish lingered for a moment with my green/glow Coyote spoon perfectly hooked in the corner of his mouth, then he flicked his tail and glided out of sight into the depths.

I am sure everybody in Seattle heard my curse echo off the skyscrapers.

We had much discussion on what it meant to get the downriggers out of the water, and how to lock the fish in the net by raising the handle, but we never had another chance to use those techniques.

Until the following summer. When again I got a huge fish on. This time, the downriggers came all the way out of the water. Tom wouldn't touch the net, though - too much pressure. Our friend Pedro grabbed the net, and proceeded to try to net the fish tail first. After some emphatic coaching, he slipped the net under the fish and hoisted a 25 pound king into the boat. This still is my biggest salmon to date.

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.