Great pics
From what buddies are telling me it's been very slow

Dandy santiam.👍

Not many fish around,

Santiam:

If that is you in the boat, you're not as cute as your avatar.

Way to go, envious of a great fish, and glad to see it's a keeper. Been a rabid steelheader for near 50 years, but given the numbers status I've not fished for about 18 months. I gravitated to fly fishing many years back when one might get 6 or 7 tugs/hookups in both morning and evening sessions. Twenty+ banked in a week was a regular deal. The last couple week-long trips it was 2 or 3 fish, and in both instances they came from a single run in a 20-minute interval. While it's simply great to be out, I want the occasional bonus of a fish, and it doesn't even need to be a keeper.

I am praying I did not live through the best of times, and that they will recover. I'm sort of surprised they've not been put on the T & E list.

Do chime in now and then and let us know how the runs are shaping up.

Thanks for posting.

Great Pic, and I can only imagine the excitement in that boat while fighting the fish and the current..

Casting lures or spawn sacs or what type of presentation?

So you don't think that's me in the avatar pic.. Hmmm?

Steelhead fishing around here is slowly going down the drain..Really sucks!

Kenneth, my preferred method is back trolling plugs..Just get off on waiting for the slam..

Nice fish

some of the best to catch
Hank

There's nothing like a good plug bite. Salmon or Steelie

looks like the last one i caught. in 1988. just north of downtown Mill City. very nice.

Great fish, Santiam!

I just got off a two day trip on the Nestucca.
That's a great river and new to me.

We whiffed both days and we were FAR from alone.
Even the guides that fish almost every day were having a tough time scrounging up a bite.

My home water is the Rogue - it's been super slow, too. I plan to drift it on Thursday and see if I can't find one.

That is a Nestucca fish and we felt damn lucky to get one..

Here are some of my takedowns..These are mostly summer steelhead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8QL4Z-Knwk&t=102s

Caught my first a few weekends back in Erie. Technically not steelheads bring lake run but I’ll not wade into that. I went solo running a Centerpin having never even cast one. I bought a Kingpin Imperial and other than trying to unfreeze by dunking it into 35 degree water with 17 degree temps it performed flawlessly.

I happened down a trail on day two and found a group of old guys looking at a mostly frozen pool. I had already fallen through ice upriver so I obliged them and burnt the first morning wading in that frigid mess up to my chest breaking ice dams. One particularly nasty “Iceberg” went from ice crust to an upside down pyramid of slush that took a 20’ branch weighing 100 lbs by the end to break up.

At one point I felt something hitting me and turned to see the oldest guy had wasted no time and was hooked to a fish now bumping my back!! I left them to it and hiked out. I saw quite a few fish so decided not to leave. The old guys adopted me pretty quick and I crossed the river to give them space and fished the far bank in a long sleeve tee soaking wet the rest of the day. The next morning I met them having decided to try one more day to get my first. They’d all caught 5-8 or more each the prior day. I landed 2 and lost 2 including a brute I shouldn’t have after a 30 min fight. He ultimately sawed through the 4 lbs flouro after recovering from being all but beached one time.

Three key learnings, it’s a thrill having one on a Centerpin that uses no drag only your palm, they don’t wear out like kings do they recover instantly and the fight starts all over, lastly I’m hooked in a big way and plotting not only the 11 hr round trip to
Erie but a few drift boat trips in Pulaski or anywhere around lake O before May. I’ve heard the west coast fish are monsters but seems there aren’t as many from reading the posts here. I think much of what I see is tribal lands as well.

If I figure out how to host photos in a larger size here I’ll post a few.

Too big for gallery so just threw in Imgur.


https://imgur.com/a/O7KBikm

Always like your videos.

Great steelhead!