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[Big Steel]

Well, wasn't sure if I should hit the Vedder this morning, having rolled my ankle at work yesterday!!  But got geared up and it didn't feel the bad, so I said what the heck!!
  Hit the river about an hour later, to find Chris in one of his normal spots.      Talked for a bit, Chris said that they hadn't hit anything yet, but I think that he might have missed one while we were having a chat!!   So I decided to limp my way up river to a couple other runs that I thought looked good!!  No one was there yet either, so I was happy to maybe get first crack at it!!  Well, after flogging those runs for a couple of hrs with no success, it was now about 10:30, I packed it up and headed up river to hit a couple other runs that have produced this year.  Oh yeah, one other thing, while I was fishing the first to runs, I was looking across river to where I would normally start, and saw 2 hatchery Steel taken from there!!   Well, I thought to myself, I would have to check those out on the way out!!
  Ok, so I am now up river, there are a few guys around and an Oldtimer.  Oldtimer said that he had gotten 2 a bit earlier, both wild.  I'm thinking great!!  Maybe there will be another on around.  SO I work the run from top to bottom.  No steel, but I did get a beautiful Rainbow about 3-4 lbs!!  Nice little scrapper!!   At that point after seeing nothing else touched, I decided to make my way down river a bit, to a spot that I don't fish that much, but I have heard that there have been a few taken out of there, so after about 5 casts, float down, headshakes and a nice little Steely breaks water with my worm in it's mouth.  A spirited but short battle ensues, with the buck coming to hand.  About 6 lbs and wild, so back in he went!!  Worked there for another have hr or so with nothing else!!
  Now it is about 1:30, so I decided to make my way back to the run I was thinking about earlier on the lower!!  The ankle is holding up ok, not to sore, so off I went!!
  Make it to that run and what do you know, there is no one there, so I rig up some roe and have at it, shortly after, float down, headshakes then gone!!!  Darnit!! Oh well, I thought that I stung that one good, so I just keep working my way down the run.  I notice a fellow come out of no where, must have been paying attention to fishing or something!!   He is working the water I had just covered about 10 min ago, well guess what!!!  I guess I didn't sting that fish good enough, cause he is into it in the exact spot that I just lost one!!   After a nice fight of about 10 min or so, a beautiful doe of about 11-12 lbs slides into my hands for him and it is a hatch!!   Well, needless to say, he is done for the day!!  SO now, a bit miffed at myself that I didn't work that water a bit more, I head back to the top of the run, and work it over with a pink worm!!  Made it to the bottom of the run for the second time with no hits.  Figured that I would give it one more try with a gooey bob and a bit of wool, a medium sized one as the water is a bit cloudy, but good color.
As I make my way down again, I am looking across the other side of the river at a log jam with some decent water in front of it, wondering if I can make it over there, about 90-100 feet!!  Didn't think so, so I just keep working the run right in front of me.
  Now I don't know why I did this, but out of no where I rip a cast over in front of that log jam, and you know what, I was about 3 feet in front of it IN a nice slick.  As I am thinking that I didn't know I could make it all the way over, I get a tap, couldn't see the float all the way over there, but the tap was good enough for me to set the hook!!!  NOTHING. But I was running pretty short, so unless it was a branch under water, thought that it might have been a fish!!  So, I put it over there again, lucky enough to get it in the same spot, start the drift, this time I'm ready, but I still can't really see the float, so I wait for a tap!!  Well, the tap didn't come, but what did was even better, I feel this really aggressive yank, and my Sage doubles over as I am setting the hook.  I saw a decent sized Steely tail come out of the water followed by some thrashing!!  FISH ON!!!  After some power pulls, the fish starts heading up river, hmm, maybe a buck!! Then the thing takes off like a bat out of you know where and heads straight for the log jam on the other side of the river.  I feel that I have no hope in stopping him, so, I click my bail open, hoping that I got a good hookset and remembering that Chris has done this risky maneuver in the past.  Right on it worked, I see my line coming back to the middle of the river, so the game is back on!!  The fish has now taken me about 30-40 feet back up river, about 20 feet off shore.  Still pulling hard and doesn't seem like he is even near done.  Then he makes a quick b-line toward shore, and I guess he didn't like that so he changes direction and screams down river!!  Well, I haven't really been thinking about my ankle the whole time, but as I tear down river after him, I could feel it a bit.  But thankfully, after about 100 feet, he stops and holds water just down from me a bit. This is about 20 min into the fight now, I'm thinking that he has got to be almost done, and after another couple mins, he agrees and comes close enough for me to get a good look.  It is a buck, beautiful chrome with a slight pink strip down the side. It is a Hatchery.  A nice sized one as well.  So, I bring him up as I would like to enter one in the derby.
  Turns out that he put me in 3rd place in the derby at 12.76lbs.  But in a bit of a bonehead move, I bled him first, so I lost a bit of weight!! Missed first place by less then half a lb!!  Ok though, I doubt that weight would hold up anyways!!
  So here are a couple of pics of him.


  Turned out to be a great day on the river, 2 Steel and a beauty Rainbow!!

[Floater]

Nice fish thanks for telling me you were going out today i sat at home doing nothing. But other than that right on! and to everyone who is wondering yes big steel did get that reel out of a cereal box.

[cohokid]

ncie fish what a hog, heading out saturday 

[Xgolfman]

damn nice fish...i was on the river today but didn't get up there till 10 30ish...i think i must have a huge black cloud over me as i saw a lot of people and went up river where i could have enough room to back cast..i worked that place hard for 4 hours..up and down (allison pool)...and didn't see or see anyone hit anything...i'm thinking the fly might be one big waste of chances but i can't stand not trying it...wish i would have seen you, i pulled two brand new and rigged up pink worms out of the river and would have given um to you...as it was met a nice kid who works at Mike and Youngs and gave one to him and left the other for another group of guys fishing there...i love allison but i don't think any damn steelies are hiding in there

[allwaysfishin]

decided to hit the river today, got a late start and didn't arrive at the lower till about 12:00. stopped in at peach on the south side and hit a spot that i've taken 1 from already this year. My tried and true blade passes through the spot 6 or 7 times and no strikes. Geesh, the water is nice today, at least 2 ft vis though still a touch fast. I re rig with a prawn and shorten up my float, casting into the slot and side stepping with each cast to cover the spot fully. On the third cast, float down.... up... then down again !! I strike..... and miss.. this fish gave me two chances to set the hook!!!! I feverishly reel up my line and sure enough, my well wrapped prawn is just shredded. I rig up again as fast as i can, choosing a larger nearly 2 inch long fat boiled tigerprawn. I cast upstream from the spot the fish hit, and as the drift comes into the zone, I begin side stepping slowly down stream to extend the drift. As the float paaes the spot..... down she goes accompanied by a silver flash, reflexes buried the hook home and the fight was on. The fish put up a good but short battle and upon bringing her to the shallows, I discovered it was a wild doe, maybe 6 or 7 lbs and gently released her back to the flow. I started again at the top of the run and ran everything i had through the good holding water and nothin. As I drove away, and rounded the next bend.... who's truck do i see.... Big Steel's, I thought about stopping in but.... my favorite spot was calling me.   . I arrived at the area where the majority of my steelhead have come from, water was fast, but visibility was great. I started checking out the little slips and pockets on the edges of the frothing fast water. Mr Prawn was of course my first treat of choice to feed to a willing steelhead. 2nd cast through one of the pockets and float down, hook set, nice fish in the air.... it was super cool to see that fish erupt off the hookset. A short fight and the fish came rest behind a large boulder , out of the current. I bellied it and realized it was a gorgeous lighter coloured dolly about 6/7 lbs. This was the only fish i managed to attempt a picture of, but it really didn't turn out too well as i took it while the fish was under water. I then strung up a new prawn and started castin and blasting up river through the pocket water, on my way to check out a run that was a good trek up river and far from the road. I arrived to find it had changed somewhat from weeks ago but was looking very good in the current conditions.
   I started off with my favorite blade , and i'm glad i did, on the 5 th or 6th cast, my float rockets under and headshakes are felt as soon as the rod snaps back. My 3106 bucks in my hand and line is peeling off my reel. This fish is bigger than the others and is staying in the fast deep slot heading into the opposite bank of roots and rip rap. I was sure i was going to bust off even with a 10lbs leader. Then this fish bolts up river and does an arc through the head of the run and to my side of the river. A good 5 minutes or so pass and soon i have a very nice 15 /16lbs wild buck in the shallows. I tried the camera again but with minimal thrashing, my hook dislodged and this beauty fish slipt back to the flow.
  I rolled one in the prison and fished ranger as well but saw or heard of nothing else.
All in all probably one of my most enjoyable days on the river this year, the steelhead gods where smiling for us today eh Dave?
Nice fish by the way!!
Will be on the river tomorrow afternoon, friday and well... prolly saturday too hehe    

[BigFisher]

Thats a Nice one. Saw both of you today on the river Big Steel and Chris G. also 2 people with fish on. hmm, i dont think iv used the ankle excuss to get on the river yet.

[Big Steel]

Chris saw me BigFisher, it was no excuse!!! But as I said, no ankle is going to keep me off the river!!!
    Tom, sounds like you had a good day as well!!  Great job on the fish!!

[cohokid]

boys boys slow down with the fish, i havent even got one this year, and iv ben out 2 times com on,  save the fish for the young guns eh

[DionJL]

TroutSlayer was out. but he got skunked as per usual. lmao

[Trout Slayer]

0 for 3 this year now. The rivers got a curse on me. Fished with lots of good rods today, saw 1 fish taken. As long as they got skunked I was happy. Nice fish.

[Addicted To Steel]

Congratulations BS and Allwaysfishin. That fish is a beaut!! Maybe I'll see you guys on the flow tomorrow.

I wrote this big post about my little daughter Jaiden hooking a steelhead today on some local flow, but I don't know if I wasn't logged on, or I timed out or what, but after the spell check, it told me that I had to log on to post?? I thought I was? I lost my whole write up! I don't think I'll write the whole story again. I am getting tired of the computer right now. Oh well.

Tight lines!

[Steelhawk]

An awesome day to remember:

I hit the Vedder with BwiBwi & Scale.  We arrived around 9 at a mid river pool.  I took the tail out while my partners too the top. Perfect steelhead water today.  After a while with no actions, they moved up stream.  I looked across the river & saw this slow flow that may require a strong cast to reach. So put on a heaver lead on my rubber snubber and the Silex smoothly delivered it way across to the slow flow.  The big pink worm did the dance about 4 feet down. The float dipped, and I set the hook. Wham, a silver bullet was on the run. It jumped a few times.  I could tell it was about 10 lb chrome beauty but not sure hatch or wild.  I yelled to my partners who were already way up stream of me.  They saw the actions and was heading down to help. Anyway, the long hook set was obviously not strong enough, as the hook popped after the steel starting to shake and rolled.  That is the beginning of a glorious steelhead day for me.

With my partners heading upstream, I decided to hit a long stretch of sliding waters downstream.  I took off the big pink worm and put on a size 3 BC orange gooey bob.  I worked all the slow edges and pocket water until I reached the bottom of the sliding waters.  There the river flattens out but it has a few rocks forming pocket water.  Expecting a good steelie lie, I moved to exactly 90 degree to it (so I can get the fish in the jaws & not the lip).  First cast the float went down. A good prepared hook set followed and a good size fish started to run madly all over, jumping and cartwheeling along the way.  The Silex center pin is perfect for to control these strong pulls from the fish.  It was a strong fish, bigger than the first one hooked above.  After a long while, I slipped the beauty up a little sandy patch by the shore underneath a large tree.  A nice 12-13 lb wild doe.  I just have my cell-phone upgraded 2 days ago with camera ability, so I tooked two quick shots while the fish lying in the water.

At this point I thougth my day is pretty good.  Then I spotted another submerged rock about 50 ft below where I hooked the last fish.  I made my cast to that rock, not thinking another fish would sit so close to the other fish just released.  Wham, another downing of the float.  But this time, I was not ready, and the hook set was poor.  It is a smaller fish judging by its weight & the strength of the pull.  It made a jump and the hook came off.  Not paying attention caused me the chance of landing the 3rd fish of the day.  After that, I called my partners and they came down to the pool where we started.  Good thing BwiBwi hooked into a steelie too on his first trip, but the fish broke off from his pink worm. But to hook a steelie on a rookie trip is quite an achievement. I showed them the picture of the wild doe I landed too so they get pumped up to go for our hatchery of the day.

After that we ate our lunch, and decided to try another spot up river.  When we got there, I made a bad mistake - I did not request to have one of my partners to fish with me, as they went upstream, and I went downstream, exactly like the last time.  Tried a series of pocket water without a take.  But all this time, I knew where I wanted to head to.  It is a spot between two sections of very fast water.  There a few boulders blocked the current, forming nice riffles.  At this time the sun broke through the cloud and we actually had a sunny day. What a good omen!  I made a few casts close in in the calmer water w/o action. With the bright sun, I decided to cast out to the faster riffles flow as steelies like to hide in riffle flow under sunshine. No taker at the begining of the drift, and I got lazy with a pair of tired aging legs. Against my normal practice, I left the float with the #3 gooey bob drift way down, and then incredibily, fish #4 took the offering.  A instinctive hook set and the battle was on. Wow, this is a monster, by the weight and the pull. It was making strong long run and my Silex screamed with the clicker on.  It jumped & made strong shakes and was heading towards the faster water below.  I eased off the tension in the time so the monster would turn upstream again, and I gingerly reeled my line in until the fish is back to calmer water.  It took forever until the fish was close in.  It was a hatch buck. A giant definitely 16-18lb range.  The fish was played out, but I could not pull him up a beach as there was none around. Where were my partners when I needed them? Gosh!   There was a gap among rocks that I could try to drag him through to a pocket and tried to land him there.  As I was now pulling hard to lift the steel into the gap, I made another rookie mistake - I forgot to check how solid the hook was in the mouth.  I guess I thought after this long battle, it must be firmly in the jaws.  Well, the hook popped as I exerted strong pressure on the line to pull the fish into the gap.  It must be hooked in the upper lip due to the long downstream drift by a lazy tired fisherman. Gooey bob was notorious for this on long downstream drift.  I watched helplessly as the tired monster made for his freedom. But in a way, I thanked him for giving me a battle to remember.  My left arm was limping after that.

Well, in any way, I cannot be unhappy. Luck has turned my way. I just happened to have a memorable day in the Vedder.  Meat has to wait for another time.  I am still trying to figure out the Motorolla 551 cell phone to see how I can download the picture of fish #2.  Ok, here it is:

[stryker 07]

Bigsteel........searun has offered a large amount of cash to "twist your other leg"  to keep you off the river for a while!!!!

[chris gadsden]

Nice reports guys, well written and well done. Very nice steelhead you retained Big Steel. I am glad you fellows got to write the journals today and got some first class action. I got nothing other than the take when Big Steel was visiting. Fished for about about 4 hours in the morning and back out for an hour just before dark but did not connect.

Heard of a few taken including the Master's group who had beached 3 by lunch including one for the brood capture program. Nice of course to see Big Steel, Pappy and a few guests of the forum as well out on the flow. Talked to Joe as well and he has had a good year with about 18 to the beach so far.

Tomorrow is another day and I think I will be seeing the ML drennan going down as I have all day to fish.

Talking about the Maple Leaf Drennan that is why BS did so well today as he picked a little magic from it by just being near it and looking at it this morning.

[Sterling C]

Good reports guys. Keep up the good work.

Big Steel, I think I reccognize that gravel