There's something about this freakishly low and warm water that's making the steels chase metal. This past month has been pretty productive for hatchery fish, even during the downriver closure. Today we fished spinners around Reiter. My friend hooked a 25-ish inch steelhead that really knew how to fight, conserving its energy for a couple brutal jumps. When we brought it in we found out why; it was native. Even after keeping it submerged for the unhooking it took a couple good minutes in fast, flowing water to fully revive due to the water temp. (To anyone concerned, yes the fish's gills are in the water in the picture.) The water is so warm now I'm not sure it's even worth fishing the Sky anymore for the sake of these rare things. However, what has been making it worth the trip lately are the hatchery fish, and today I landed what probably was my biggest Sky steelhead yet. After it bit it took off like a freight train and I had to actually run, chasing it downriver. It had to have been at least 8 pounds/28 inches. With steelie meat still in my freezer I saw no reason to kill it and let it go to hopefully enhance future Reiter runs.

-To anyone thinking about hitting the Sky, PLEASE, PLEASE keep native fish submerged and in flowing water. Trout can so easily suffocate from exhaustion in warm water. And btw I'm sick of seeing filleted upriver king carcasses. WDFW needs to crack down. Poachers are everywhere up there.

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