The steelhead season is upon us!!!

So, it is finally here.... after a summer that included about a ton of rain, plenty of cold temps, and great water levels, the bets were in on an early run. Then late August and September hit... Weeks of no rain... Hot temps.... Creek mouths completely sealed off... (I am looking at you 20 mile) Now we can leave it all behind us...

So, here is my buddy Mike with a nice little brook trout.
Mike goes fishing with me when we are on camping trips, and always does pretty good. I have not, however, converted him over to steelhead yet. So we got all this rain, and I had to go and check things out. I called Mike up to see if he wanted to go. He had some time, so I swung over and picked him up on my way to the creek. We were fishing the east side PA tribs, and there were tons of cars and people, but we found a nice little section and got in with the masses. I proceeded to hook up and lose fish like a pro (yup, going 0 for 3.... pre season bassmaster style hooksetting is always cool, after all, if you don't almost fall on your back when setting the hook, you are doing it wrong... please note heavy sarcasm), and Mike got one on and lost it.

At this stage, we decided to go and check out the pocket water. We checked a nice little hydraulic out with no success and moved down to the next one. It was there that Mike hooked into a nice fish! He kept the pressure on, and it really tried to go back at the lake. We went after it (not too far, but far enough to keep it exciting) and it came to hand after about a 5 minute fight. Here are the results:

So I really have to apologize.... after his experience... I think there is going to be one more steelheader on the water.... Again, my sincerest apologies! Tight lines and see you on the water. I am about to go have a beer to cheers the official start to the season, at least in my book!!!
-Steve B