I checked off another adventure to a new fishing location from my bucket list, this time fishing for steelhead on the Snake River with guide Adam Hocking of Steel Dreams Guide Service.

The drive is long, but well worth it. Especially once I reached the Palouse area. Those rolling wheat fields are beautiful.

We met Adam at the Heller Bar launch and were set up for side drifting small egg clusters with a small yarnie, trailing a single bead. The first drift just at Heller bar is prime water and Adam had us work the hole several times. We missed a couple steelhead, and then I hooked into a huge sturgeon that came out of the water. It was “game on” as I fought the fish for about ten minutes, hoping to get another view of him, but it was not to be. I decided battling this fish for an hour would be unfair and counter-productive to our stated target, so I pointed the rod at the fish and bid him “farewell”.

Unencumbered by the huge sturgeon, we went back to work on the steelhead, and also, it turns out, a healthy return of chinook salmon. In the Snake river chinook and steelhead must be clipped to keep, and for Washington anglers we are not allowed to remove unclipped fish from the water. Adam was very careful with the fish we caught all day, making not the greatest photo ops, but healthy fish safely played and returned to the water.

We fished until around 3pm and had pretty steady action, hitting various holes and picking off a fish or two at each stop. We ended up with around a dozen “fish ons” and amazingly, only one keeper steelhead that Aaron hooked.

The lack of fish in the box was unusual. According to Adam the ratio is normally around 50%. No matter to us, the action was good, the scenery amazing, and the guide first rate. If you ever get a chance to visit this river don’t hesitate. It’s like nothing we have over here on the west side of the state, and the steelhead action is really good. They were in good shape for how far they had to come, by the way.

You can contact Adam at Steel Dreams Guide Service at 509-869-9694.

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