Well it looks like I will be without my fishing partner Barb today, can't understand why a baby shower would take priority over a day on the river fishing for Steelhead.

Launched the boat at Couse Creek off the gravel (see photo), then went down river to the first drift. Applied Mike's Shrimp Oil to the plugs and started a slow backtroll, everything looked perfect, river temp. is 40*, ambient temp. 32*, no wind, and a spot of sunshine now and then, just knew I was going to get one on any time. Spent about a hour at this location without a bump, this is the second time in a row that I have fished this spot without getting a fish, pulled the lines in and headed up river past Buffalo Eddy to a nice stretch of water.

This stretch af water looks really good, have not fished it much, but have caught Steelhead here before. I get everything set up and start a slow backtroll, this drift has a bottom structure that is irregular, with a lot of big rocks that make for good Steelhead holding spots. at the start it is around 14' and tails out to about 5', and is about 1/4 mile long.

I get the lines in ( Idaho two pole permit ), and start the backtroll, in about five minutes my rod takes a violent hit and a big silver Steelhead burst out of the water sixty feet behind the boat, it is on for about five minutes and the line goes limp, boy is it ever exciting to fish for these beautiful creatures. I pull the line in and start to apply scent to the plug, then the other rod bends double with a Steelhead on, this is great, I don't have to deal with the other line in the water. This one jumped several times and put up a good fight, it was a wild beauty.

Went back to the start of the drift and did a repeat with another wild one that went around eight pounds, then caught a small hatchery Steelhead ( see photo ) that put up a good battle. After the last fish I decided to tuck it in and call it a good day of fishing in Hell's Canyon.

Ken

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