Beep beep beep, whack the snooze button! Beep beep beep, whack the snooze button! Two hours later of that, and we got up and raced out the door at 6:30am last Sunday. We were out the night before celebrating at a friends wedding reception and may have been enjoying ourselves a little bit more then the anticipated 3 hours of sleep could have cured. Jen and I headed up North to chase steelhead for two days. Jen was really antsy to get up there and to cure her steelhead fever, which I found really amusing. She had the fever bad!
We got our trout pants on and were in the water by 10:30am. It was warmer then it usually is as was noted by something I normally don’t run into while fishing for steelhead. MOSQUITO'S! Anyway, we headed to a spot we knew to try our luck and within two hours, the Jen-orator had hooked a steelhead. I was one hole down from her chatting with Mother Fieker when we heard yelling through the woods from her direction. We ran up the trail to see what was going on and Jen was in mid fight with her opponent! She worked it perfectly to the net and it was a NICE 26” Buck with all the dark red colors on the cheek and sides. It was awesome! We popped the flask for shot in celebration, and I had a cigar on her behalf, and it was only 12:30p! 
We simmered down and got back to business fishing. Jen had a heck of day, as she had many more takes and battles, (eight in all) but wasn’t able to get them under control and landed. I admit that by early evening I was getting green and agitated as I hadn’t had so much as a head-shake while she was getting all that action. But about 5pm, I had a steelhead strike, I set the hook and it was landed after some serious racing in both directions up and down the river and several acrobatics in the air. I was just along for the ride and had little control over where it wanted to be. It was a 22" bright silver steelie. I was feeling much better after that. We fished a bit longer then went back to the truck just before dark. As for what they were biting on, they were hitting nymphs and eggs pretty much equally. We changed into some dry clothes at the Brule Motel, and then headed over to the "Other Place" bar and grill for supper and cocktails with Mother Fieker.
Sunday was a little different flavor. Jen caught lots of snags, trees, and frustration. She hadn't had single hit to add to her frustration. I missed a couple, and then when fishing one of the tougher spots I know with a lot of snags, I hooked into a Steelhead. And she like going downstream....Alot! Every time I reeled in the line to get it close, she would shoot down river again. I ended up wading after it a good ways until I could get it beached. Another fresh chrome, this one being about 24 inches and heavy.
I really like fighting these guys! We fished a bit more then called it half way through. We had a good weekend and knew we'd be back again in four days with the club thinking the peak of the run is yet to come! If only thier run lasted the whole year! 
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