Despite the torrential rain that was in the forecast, I headed down to the Skookumchuck on Saturday to see if I could find some willing biters. I was really on the fence about going, given how low the water was, the storm that was coming in, the long drive and the lack of Saturday morning sleep after a long week. Well, fishing won out over all of that and I am definitely glad it did!

I got to the lot by the red gate near sunrise to find that there were only a handful of cars there and that it wasn't even raining yet. Fine by me. I quickly donned my gear and headed to my starting drift. The first offering for the day was an orange glow corky, size 10. No more than probably a dozen casts from starting I had a decent hatchery buck hit my gear and put up a good fight before coming to shore. He was pretty colored up, but still fun to play none the less. After the light came up, I again downsized my presentation to a pearl pink size 12 corky and got two more solid hits before the action turned off. On the first of the two hits, the fish took the corky and charged full speed at the opposite bank, popping off after about 1 or 2 seconds. On the second hit I barely even felt the take and only got a few headshakes before that fish too disappeared. I couldn't quite tell how the first fish looked, but the second one was pretty red.

By now the rain had started coming in, and with the dying action in that hole I decided to move to the fields while it was still relatively early in the morning, hoping to find some more fish that hadn't yet grown stale. Starting out with a 1/16oz nightmare jig I had tied the night before, it wasn't many casts before I saw my float slip under the surface, set the hook, and was introduced to my first native Steelhead! Mid way into the fight I got a look at its tail and wondered if it was a native, and sure enough, after getting it in close enough to tail I saw the adipose marking my first landed native. I was pretty excited! It was a gorgeous hen, probably in the 6# to 7# range would be my guess. I took some quick pics, spent a moment reviving her, and then set her back to her domain.

A few casts later I snagged into something and lost my jig and figured it was a sign that now was a good time to quit. All in all it was a great day. I went 2/2 on fish that were on for more than a split second, got both using different techniques, and landed my first native to boot!

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