I just returned from 2-1/2 days of steelheading on the Clearwater. My record for this season is still intact. I haven't landed any of what few steelhead I have hooked. The first fish saturday afternoon was definitely a big male. I never saw it. It simply took all my speyline and a good piece of my backing and hunkered down in the middle of the river and shook it's head. It felt like a dog shaking a bone. When I gave it sideways pressure, it moved upriver across from me and shook it's head some more. When I gave it some more pressure, it screamed downriver again but this time he stopped straight down from me. I swear, I had a mad dog on the end of my line, because he just shook his head some more. I think he finally wore a hole in his jaw large enough for my fly to slide out. The second fish was in the same run, same spot, same time, but 24 hours later and on the same fly. This time, we saw that it was good-sized hen because she jumped three times before she handed me back my fly. In between, we tried to cross a side channel over to an island so we could fish the main river on the other side. We couldn't cross but I had a feeling that there could be at least one fish in the channel. It wa composed of three short runs with the middle run being the deepest and longest. Michael chose the top run and when he finished it, he climbed up the embankment to the road and walked down to where I was still fishing. I didn't know it, but the angle of the sun gave him a perfect view of the bottom of the river. He happened to glance down just as my fly was straightening below me. He saw a large silver flank turn down and away from my fly. He told me I had rolled a fish and that all he saw was the tail and it was huge. He said it looked like it belonged to a fish of at least 15 pounds, maybe bigger. I repeated the same cast and Michael came unglued. It was huge buck and it rose up and followed the fly as it swung across the stream. When it stopped and hung, he turned and swam back to his lie. I rose him two more times and on one, I saw the dorsal and tail. When the sun clouded over, Michael lost sight of the fish. I tried four more flies with different presentations before we moved on. Damn, it's funny, the fish I hooked were good, but that's the fish I still think about. I'm going back again next weekend. It will be interesting to see if (A) He's still in the channel and (B) There's still fish in the same run, same place, and same time. I'm also tying some more of the same fly. Leland.
