Final Winter Steelhead trip of 2018

With springer fever starting to really kick in, deciding to float for steelhead or troll for salmon was tough.  Either way, I just had to get my wife on the water.

If you read the title of this post, it is pretty obvious the decision I made.

My buddy Pablo did a little recon and thought our best chance for hooking up would be on the Sandy River.  We launched from Revenue Bridge and floated to Dodge Park.  Even if we end up not catching anything, this stretch of the river is really nice to float on a pontoon.  The weather was mild.  Overcast and about 40 degrees.  Rain was not forecast till later in the day.

Unfortunately, this stretch of the river does not allow you to fish from the boat so we had to stop along the way in some strategic locations.  We were trying a number of techniques from bobber and bead to spinner to drift fishing.

On about our third or fourth stop, I had switched up to just casting a spinner.  A Blue Fox #5.  This spot was mostly some slow moving water with a couple boulders bubbling in the middle.  I threw four casts and in this one spot, I felt a little something that did not quite feel like the bottom but it was not a solid take down either.  On that fifth cast, the spinner went through the same spot and BANG!!!! I hook up.  It has been a few weeks since my last fix so I wanted to make this one last a little.  I did not reel in too fast and let him take a few runs.  One or two aerials added to the thrill.  We could see early that it was a native and had some color.  It was time to bring it to shore and release it.  Got a couple pics and gently let him swim away only for him to run into a rock and give us one last aerial.  On to the next hole.

Our next stop was along this property that the owner is not exactly hospitable.  We were careful to stay in the water where we could.  A couple of lab puppies came down to the water to ask us to play.  One black lab and one yellow.  I love dogs and had to give them a couple of rubs.  My wife was in the water trying to fish and they kept pawing her back.  Pet me!  Pet me!

We continued down river.

My buddy Alex switched over to drifting a corky.  Probably the smallest corky I have seen.  No way is that going to work.  He worked the hole and got his hook up.  Shows what I know.  🙂  After a few runs and some acrobatics, the fish was brought to shore.  Another native that posed for some pics and was let go.  Alex took a short break and gave the same setup another go in the same hole.  First cast, hooked up again.  DAMN!!!  This one gave a good fight as well.  This one was a hatchery and going to the table.

We continued to work the hole till we decided that Alex got the only two fish there on that day.  Unfortunately, not much more action the rest of the day.  Fished through a couple rain showers and gave it all we had, but no luck.

It was another great day with great friends.  Thank you Pablo.