Sounds insane. Congrats on the fish and thanks for the report.

Nice fish. I find it funny that you say even guys drifting picked up limits. We picked up limits drifting long before starring at a bobber was the norm for steelhead fishing. you should try it, there is something about actually feeling the bite that you cant get with a bobber. Remember however, if you are fly fishing it's an indicator, not a bobber.

@Predator: Word.

Ditto that predator

Where exactly were you fishing? I tried near the prison in monroe this morning and couldnt catch anything, didn't even see anyone get one. I've never fished for steelhead before, still pretty new to Washington, would love to get some pointers!

@Predator that my bad. I totally agree with you, and just worded that weird. I grew up drift fishing, and its only been in the last 3 years ive started float fishing. I think what i meant to say was that the fishing was so hot, it didnt seem to matter how you fished or what you used!
@ken Ive got to be careful. Ive been attacked for naming holes and giving away spots. Although I dont agree with the guys that get mad at me for it, ive got a new philosophy this year. In stead of giving you an exact location, ive given some very helpful hints in my report that will help you find the location. Part of the fun for me is doing the detective work and feeling accomplished when you finally find that drift or hole you have been looking for. Here is another hint for where I was yesterday. It is absolutely no secret spot, (although guys hate it when I type in Reiter Ponds in my reports) like ive given away the location to a lost treasure...

Well, I clearly targeted the wrong species on the wrong river.
I went trout fishing on the Yak. Ohhh well!

What a day it was. One to remember I hooked into a total of 5 fish lost one right at my feet. Brought one home and got a new steelheader his first steelhead on his first outing. He is hooked

thanks for the reply Snoop, hope that i will be able to find a good spot and figure out how to catch a steelhead!

nice report, snoop! still a relative newbie to steelheads (although I did catch two in my first season last year!), and very tempted to try the sky for summer run steelies. is it combat fishing everyday, anytime of the day, from now till the end of the run? is it better during the morning/afternoon/evening?

btw, always good to read reports where someone says something about "great group of guys". combat fishing can be such a bad experience. nice to read about friendly fishermen!

I don't know man, there's something about watching my float get buried and feeling those head shakes when I set the hook. I do enjoy feeling that subtle bite on drift gear but what about when that chrome summer run slams your spoon and goes ape. I guess everyone has their preference but I get a lot of satisfaction from watching my float disappear time and time again. Plus reiter is a boulder field, snags, tying up new gear, dull hooks from bouncing off the rocks....I'll stick with my floats and obscenely long rods. Lol. Great post, I was up there too for the opener, never seen it like that. A lot had to do with the rivers up north being closed, a lot of those guys were from the Mount Vernon area. Killer day though.

Oh yeah, one more thing. When there is that many people fishing it's really easy to see where all the floats are, not so easy to find your gear underwater, every tangle I had was with someone throwing gear.

Good to put a face to a name. We chatted at big eddy just after you cleaned your fish. I was checking out other areas of the river after I got my 2. Definitely have to agree that although it was packed it was a great time and a lot of good guys out.