My fishing buddy and I set out to do a 3 river fishing day ( fish the skagit,cascade, and stilly) and after looking at the water levels decided to hit Fortson on the swede haven side first. The water was high and fast, but when we got there people were catching fish. I ended up fishing the tailout and started my day floating a small pink jig, my second cast and I got a hard strike on the lure but no hookup. After that strike I got no other hits on anything pink, I even tried drifting a pink and white yarn ball for awhile. Then I noticed that everyone was using something in either a dark pink/red color or orange. So I changed over to a orange egg bead with a small orange/red corky. First cast and I feel the line go heavy and set the hook, after a 20 min fight I beach a 10lbs summer buck. This is the first steelhead I have ever caught in the 10+ years I have been trying to catch one, so I keep it and we take abunch of photos. After we get done celebrating I got back to fishing again and on the second cast I felt the line just stop so I set the hook and am hooked into a smaller brighter fish, jumps a few times and then takes off down the tailout rapids. I wait him out as he slowly makes his way back up through the rapids and back into the pool and then beach him. Amazing day, went from never catching a steelhead to catching 2 in about 30 min.
My buddy never caught any but he was just glad that we finally got me a steelhead.

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