Ice-out lured me to the river for my first steelies of 2013

Then a lull… awaiting opener…

I spent opener day getting out-fished by Ken =).

My landing ratio needed some work, as I was losing 4x the number of fish I was hooking.  In hindsight, old line was to blame.

Returning for more action on Monday, I learned that steelhead will go out of their way to chomp on a spinner

My favourite fish of them all:

Some more:

And a male sucker in spawning colours:

As the fish thinned, more walking was required to find fish, but fish we did find.

Whipping a spinner through a pool, laying eyes on aggressive steelies chasing your lure down only to demolish it never gets old.  On 15 lb line and 9 ft salmon rod the fights were furious and  the splashing cooled me down in the beating sun.

My record time for landing a steelhead was 3 seconds: 1) Fish chomps on spinner 2) Fish jumps straight up 3) Fish is pulled out of the air and onto the bank!

This was definitely two weeks to remember!  21-23 fish landed and countless lost. Being only my 2nd trout opener, I have a lot to look forward to.  Fabulous fighters, beautiful fish. Will miss them… and can’t wait for next year.