Took a person trip to the Sol Duc river, Lady, my pops and I fished for early kings and winter steel. We fished several of our favorite holes, and the water was up a little bit. The weather was spectacular and Lady, my Flat Coat Lab mix fishing partner, had some swims.

The one hole had my line start swimming upstream, I set the hook hard and it just kept going. Never got a chance to see it, couldn't stop it and he broke off. Switched up to heavier gear and respooled with fifteen pound, but no more takers.

Went upstream to fish for some Snider Creek fish, and threw everything in the book at them. Started with yarn balls, drifted, under a float, threw jigs, Dick Nite, pink worms... Nada!

I knew there were fish in the hole, but nothing would get 'em active. They were hunkered down. Threw spoons, Little Cleo, BC Steel, Humpy Special, worked the stretch of river to death.

I was tired, beat and ready to go home, so I pulled out my size 6 Vibrax as a last resort. I told Lady and My dad, "I'm going to make three more casts, and then we're going home," as I'm lobbing out my spinner. It hits the water and I feel the blade spin, once, twice and then WHAM!!!!!! Freight train take screams drag off my line and tail head shakes downstream.

So the fish mad dogs me, hugs the bottom and barely even feels the tension that my 15 pound leader is putting on him. I play it for four or five minutes while I'm trying to instruct my father on using my new video camera, and he finally gets it turned on.

I play the fish for another six minutes, I know because there is a timer on the camera, and man, that fish could pull. Sweet, sweet, sweet wild winter steelhead. This is what it's all about. Adrenaline to the ears, I'm speachless and shouting at the same time. We saw the fish finally and it was a monster, like a big chinook only with bright spawning steelhead colors. My father is complaining that the underwater shots are hard to tell if he's getting a good view of the fish, but turns out that we did get beautiful pictures of the fish.

Ran out of memory card, I'm going to buy a bigger card ASAP, but check out these stills from the video. That Vibrax is HUGE! It's 2 1/4 inches long, compare that to the fish's overall length.

This fish was 55 inches long, with 19.5 inches girth. Weight calculator at Piscatorial says 26.9, weight calculator at FlyFishingResearch says 28. No doubt this fish was a beauty.

After that my dad throws his spinner out, again, first cast BANG fish on, this one was smaller, about ten, but due to faulty hookset became a long distance release. Remember to hammer home that hookset! Hit it hard, and if you don't think it took, hit it hard again. Just don't put slack in the line. It's better to lose a fish right away then to play it out and then shake the hook.

After that my arm is aching, and it's time to go. I would have to say that with my winter steelhead season coming to a close, this made the year perfectly.

Nate Treat Fishing
Official WashingtonLakes.com Sponsor

"Specializing in Fishing Instruction and Shore Guiding on Washington's Rivers."
NateTreatFishing.com

---