We woke up to a beautiful morning in Hell's Canyon. Cool with a mist clinging to the canyon walls, perfect for Steelheading. The cooler weather has lowered the river temp. into the 58* range, and fishing above the Snake/Clearwater confluence is getting good, the next three months will be excellent Steelhead fishing.

At noon we launched the boat at a rock/gravel launch above Buffalo Eddy. Pointed the bow upriver and headed for a good drift a couple of miles below Billy Creek. pulled the boat off plane and started the little Honda, engaged the TR-1 Autopilot, applied scent to the plugs, then started a slow backtroll. not even a bump for the first thirty minutes, at the end of this drift there is a deep hole, about 17', then it shallows up to about 8' quite rapidly, the steelhead like to hold in the area where the water shallows.

At this point Barb's rod takes a violent jerk, she yells, "I've got one", then wrestles her rod out of the holder. We have three rods out (Id. two pole permit), I reel in the center rod, then pick my rod up. Wham, a Steelie hits like a ton of bricks, we now have a double. I have a very heavy fish on, it gives a big head shake and the leader knot fails, I reel in a limp line while Barb is playing her fish. After about ten or fifteen minutes I slide the net under a beautiful Buck Steelhead (hatchery), we then head upriver to start another drift.

We get the lines in the water, Barb pours us a cup of coffee, we are still pretty excited about the fish we had just tied into. Not more then fifteen minutes pass when my rod bends double, and I'm into another fish, this one comes out of the water three times, makes several good runs before Barb nets a beautiful Hen, took a quick picture then watched her swim away.
Have drifted down river quite a ways playing this fish, so we head back up for another pass.

Get everything set up for another pass and start a very slow backtroll, we are about half way through the drift when Barb's rod goes down again. This on on hits, and starts strippin line out headed downriver, it's pulling so hard she has a little trouble getting her rod out of the holder.
This Steelhead jumped several times and put up a good fight, it was a wild hen, about nine pounds, very bright, gorgeous fish.

We have been out for about four hours and decide to give the fish a rest, and pack it in. Could not have been a better day, river temp. was 57.6*, water was clear, some clouds and calm. A lot of good scenery, today we saw Deer, Bighorn Sheep, and a flock of Wild Turkeys. We give thanks for every trip we make on this beautiful river.

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