Let me start off by saying what a cold cold day fishing. 24*f and freezing guides.

On my way to the river at 6am got my tackle bag nice and neat, all my rods ready to fish, and my eggs cured and ready to fish. Met with my coworker and another friend and put in at 730am, immediately heard a big splash and looked over again and saw another fish jump. I had it set in my head that today was going to be a good day. We started throwing spoons and a jig under a float right off a seam for about 5-10 minutes and decided to start floating down river. i kept throwing my spoon to hopefully get a lethargic steelhead to hit but no luck, after a few casts i decide to throw it by a log jam. Got my target set and went to go pitch the spoon and i get a rats net (baitcaster) shortly after hearing my friend say "ouch". Turns out i hook my friend with a rvrfshr spoon in the back of the head. After playing doctor for about 5 minutes was able to get it out.

Fast forward to actual fishing, side drifted eggs while my friend was using sand shrimp. I was getting use to my new IMX and was really amazed on how sensitive it was, felt every little rock on the river. Beat up a couples spots and nothing to show. After a striking out i picked up my centerpin with a 1/16th nightmare jig and a trailer bead. i saw a nice seam and progressively moved down stream, finally at the end of the seam bobber goes down! i set the hook to only find out i caught a trophy stick fish. Released my catch after measuring roughly 30". shortly after we started pulling plugs 30 minutes go by with no action. At this point i am feeling a little discouraged. Pulled the plugs up and went back to side drifting.

Floated down and saw some other anglers plunking they said they havent seen any action either. Two other boats floated past us and heard that they had one on but broke off at the boat. We got out and stretched our legs and i went back to casting my centerpin while my friend threw a spoon. 30 minutes go by and no action a few more casts and Im doubting we will get any fish. Switch back to plugs but changed colors hoping that would entice something to bite, but yet again nothing. We floated and asked how the group of guys were doing spey casting and heard all of them say "nothing"

After almost going through all my eggs we only had a couple left, decided to give it one last chance. We threw behind log jams, seams, riffles, and deep slots. I saw something that caught my eye in the water, it was a dead coho buck steadily tumbling down. At this point we all faced defeat, put all the gear away, and drank the rest of our beer.

I can say i had a good time hanging out with my friends and freezing my butt off. it would just be nice to have something pull on our lines. I try to take one thing away every time i go out and fish to make myself a better fisherman, one thing i took away from todays trip was i should of went to med school and became a surgeon.

steelhead you win today but not next time.

---