Managed to make the late morning show at Reiter today. Didn't want to wake up for dawn, so I slept in, left about 6:45 dunno when I got there, I've got to set the clock in my rig.

The water has dropped about a foot since I was last out, but the river can't make up it's mind with all the snow melt and crazy weather. Fished a couple of my favorite spots, the score today was 1/1 fish, so I guess we are tied up now.

Got this beauty drifting a corky amidst a bunch of bobber folks. I knew if I could go a couple of casts without snagging on the darn christmas trees I'd do alright, and what happens? The first 3 casts I make in a row without getting snagged and I've got a little tug.

He acted like a baby at first, barely pulling until he saw daylight. Then it was quite a lot of fun on my 6-10 9' GL# Loomis steelhead series. I love this rod like I love bacon. Which is quite a bunch.

Lost another fish at the tail out as it ran upstream into the darn christmas tree. Ran some braid and a hook through it and pulled out a couple spools worth of 20 lbs line, a bunch of lighter line and a myriad of 3 to 5/0 hooks. Who fishes with 5/0 hooks for steelhead? I did score two nice shiny vibrax spinner though that will do well on the coho this fall. A tip for all you would be steelheaders out there: Most of the reels that you're fishing only have 10 to 12 pounds of drag on them. This means that you're just fine using 8 pound test leader with 10 pound main. Skykomish hatchery steel rarely get bigger than 15 pounds, you won't be losing any fish. I never fish anything over 12 pound Maxima, even for kings! Thank you in advance for not leaving yards of braid on the bottom.

The fish landed was a whopping 32" and 14.75 pounds. I've got it vacuum packed and marinating for tonights feast.