I hope everyone is enjoying the summer.
In my whole life I have only caught ONE steelhead on a dry fly. My memories of the incident are as clear as a bell. Was God playing a trick on me? I only signed up to fish for trout. This was to be the quickest fishing trip I ever had.
I was young married and my wife was not my fishing partner but she was with me this day, lucky for me.
I drove purposely 30 miles up the Clackamas river from Estacada. I was headed to one of my secret spots. The river this far up is more like a big creek. The Clackamas was a difficult place for me to learn how to fish because it was a mountain stream and not a spring creek, so there were minimal hatches.
I made the decision to use a size 12 Bucktail Caddis. I seemed to have good luck with caddis or hopper flies. The trick was to find protected holding water on a river that was devoid of it. This is why I drove so far up the river, to find some cover.
I waded half way across the river to fish a single hole that rested up against some big firs. This water looked FISHY.
I started casting on the outer seam and was going to work my way across the hole. I made three casts and no sign of any fish. On my fourth cast I thought I saw a fish come up to look at my fly. Then I felt my line tighten and I saw the WHITE BELLY of a seven pound steelhead as it rolled to head downstream.
Panic gripped me because the line was rapidly LEAVING my reel. I new that my only option was to wade after the fish and I yelled to my wife to follow me. I was lucky that the fish trapped itself in a small pool. My wife got part of the trout net on the tail end and I took control and lifted the fish against my chest for the trip back to the car.
I was very young and had not learned to catch and release yet so I killed it and drove right home to show everyone in my family.
I was fortunate to have used my first graphite fly rod, a Orvis Allrounder.
I would love to hear from any of you on this subject.
Please reply or E-Mail me.
Thanks,
Doug