First I want to thank all of you guys that have been submitting reports, I have really enjoyed reading them, but sorry to say that I have not been contributing. Barb and I have been going out about twice a week, and catching Steelhead on every outing, it has been very good fishing, and will try to get back into the report mode.

Today our goal was to get out early and quit fishing at 10:00am. We arrived at a gravel launch site at about 7:30am, Barb backed the boat off the trailer, and I got the Jeep parked. We then headed upriver to a location we call "Twin Pines", it is a beautiful drift that we usually score on.

We arrive at "Twin Pines", the water is glassy smooth, Barb holds the boat in position while I get the trolling motor started, prep the plugs with smelly, then engage the TR-1 AutoPilot to start a slow back troll, it is starting to sprinkle rain, and is very calm.

We have had our lines in the water about five minutes when my rod slams down hard, I jump up and take the rod out of the holder, the fish is making a run downriver stripping out a lot of line, I tell Barb it feels pretty heavy. I have steered the boat to the middle of the river, and shut off the trolling motor, The Steelhead surfaces about fifty feet behind the boat, and we see a large tail, I get it near the boat then it runs downriver again, when I get it back near the boat it comes to the surface and Barb slides the net under him. What a beautiful fish, a buck with a lot of color, weighs about 12 pounds, we take a picture then release him.

We had nosed into a sandbar to take a picture, it is so nice there that we decide to relax, have a coffee and a Costco muffin.

It's back to the start of the drift, to complete this drift takes about a hour. About forty five minutes into the drift Barb tells me one is playing with her lure, the rod pulls back about a foot, then goes back to normal, then it goes back again stripping out about six feet of line, before she can get it out of the holder it's gone, she said "maybe it will come back", then the rod gives a violent jerk back, and she has a Steelhead on. This turns out to be another big buck, with a lot of color, she played the fish very well and after about 20 minutes I net it for her. It is a gorgeous Steelhead, around sixteen, or seventeen pounds, we take a picture then watch him swim away.

It's approaching 10:00am, so we decide to quit fishing at this point, it has been a great morning on the river, the canyon walls are beautiful, with just a little snow on top. Ken & Barb

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