Not a LAKE it's a SECRET RIVER...

Today I had the pleasure of fishing with guide Ryan Hung of Reel Priorities. Like many of you I’ve enjoyed his positive, informative, and teaching fishing reports he has posted on WashingtonLakes. He definitely knows his steelhead fishing techniques and locations.

Our destination was a “local” river (if you can call driving a few hours local). At his request, the river shall remain a secret. That said, our adventure will be coming soon in a video to a YouTube near you.

We couldn’t have asked for a better day to fish – overcast, which kept the temps a very comfortable mid to upper 40s, and no rain, until the very end of the day as we headed home. The water itself was in pristine condition with four foot visibility.

Ryan rigged me up with one of his homemade jigs in a color he said “the steelhead having been killing this one”. His first cast, hit and a miss. My third cast, missed a head shake. Let the fish rest a couple minutes and… Float Down! First fish of the day and it isn’t even full light yet. My first fish was a feisty 3-4 pound hatchery buck in beautiful steelhead colors.

Each hole Ryan guided me to he mentioned “it seems like if we don’t hit a fish in the first 3-4 casts we won’t hit one in the hole”. This proved to be very true throughout the morning.

After moving a couple holes downriver I had saw Ryan’s float disappear from sight. Giving him an alert “bobber down”, he quickly turned and hookset a solid buck, this one much bigger, in the 5-6 pound range. Playing the fish through multiple runs Ryan did a tail-catch and brought the fish to shore to be kept for him and his girlfriend’s dinner. Thanking God for the fish and perfect morning, we continued downstream.

The next drift was just begging to hold a steelhead. It was a classic fast headwater leading to a deep slot against brush and treed shoreline, and ending in a log jam 30 yards downriver. We made several drifts with nothing to show for it. I decided to take a chance with my float and let it drift right up to the edge of the log that lay sideways to the current. “You’re a risk taker Mike”, Ryan said – and just then the float went down and I felt a solid fish shaking its head at me. I set the hook and the fish leap high into the air, twisting and flipping around. At this instant my bail decided to pop open - a most inopportune time! I closed the bail quickly but it was enough slack time to give this fish its freedom. Sometimes the best memories aren’t of the fish we catch, but the ones we loss. This fish encounter was the highlight of the mornings fishing trip.

That was it for our morning of fishing. Each of us was one for two and we carried out a couple nice fresh steelhead to be enjoyed for dinner.

If you ever have the opportunity to fish with Ryan Hung do it! He knows his fishing and was a pleasure to fish with. He is very generous with information and good company to share a river with. Hiring a guide for streamside angling is a different concept for a lot of us – “where’s the boat”? I would dare say I learned more in the four hours shore fishing than on most of my guide boat trips.

Ryan can be reached at (425) 420-6049, and his web site is http://reelpriorities.com/

Thanks Ryan!

*Underwater shot with a REEL Camera HD Slayer in underwater mode.

---