May 9th I had the pleasure of drifting with Charmayne Carlson on Mother's Day.  Charmayne had never caught a Steelhead and we were on a mission to land one on our drift. 

We hooked a Steelhead with a float while we were drifting. (I call this boon dogging).   I rowed into shore only to discover that the Steelhead had wrapped a clump of roots of the other side just above a bunch of logs.  I walked the boat back up stream and we rowed across to where the line was wrapped and attempted it unhook it.  We couldn't unhook it from the roots but as we drifted down, we could see the float next to the logs with the Steelhead laying peacefully under the logs.

We again beached the driftboat on the other side, ran the driftboat back upstream, rowed back across and anchored the boat next to the logs just below the fish.  Once I secured the boat in the calmer water below the logs, I climbed onto the logs and walked up to the roots to unhook the line.  Once again I could not get the line unwrapped.  I could still see the float and the Steelhead was still calmly laying under the logs.  With my heart pumping and the adrenalin peaking, I was trying to devise and implement aplan to land this Steelhead.  It helped to calming talk to the Steelhead telling her to be cool and we would have her unhooked in a minute.   I hooked the line just above the float with my Hot Shot rod and tied the line onto the clip of the Hot shot.  I removed the Hot Shot, checked the knot and after saying a few prayers, I cut the line that was wrapped in the roots which resulted in the Hot Shot rod tied directly to the float and Steelhead.  After a brief tussle and a few misses with the net we were able to net the Steelhead and row back across to the gravel bar with the Steelhead laying in the soft mess of the Gibbs Catch and Release net.  After a couple of photos, we released the Steelhead but she was happy to swim under my driftboat and laid there for 10 or 15 minutes.   After a few "Holy Cows!", "High Fives" and a few other comments, Charmayne and I shared of few gratifying moments of accomplishment that were mixed with the disbelief that we were able to land this Steelhead.  We hooked 3 Steelhead on the day but this one was "Unforgettable".

Thank You for a Great day of fishing, Charmayne and Happy Mother's Day!

 

 

 

May 9th   James Wright reports, "Hey I caught and released these two steelhead lastnight up river between sawmill and powerlines. The one is a hatchery and the other was a wild. I was floating a pink worm with a Gibbs Float".  Well done James!  Congratulations!