Northwest Fishing Reports

Went steelheading on a three day trip with my dad in some low water conditions, surpassingly we got into some phenomenal steelheading.
This is what steelheadig is all about

First fish by a buddy was a nice 7-8lber, I tailed it for him

second my dad got a 3lb jack,

Third was a 6lber by me,

Then was a 13-14lber by me,

then a 11lber by me,

then a 13-14lber by me,

next was a 9lber by my dad,

Then anouther 10lber by my dad,

plus we lost about 4 other nice one's

All fish were c&Red safely.

You should post a report if you haven't already done so...nice fish!

lol not tellin where that river is.

Not trying to flame you but if these fish were caught in Washington waters your aren't allowed to remove wild steelhead out of the water or drag them ashore. Just to let you know, the WDFW checks this site, fishnislife got in trouble for hosting a fun little multi species tourney...

Nice fish though!!!

oregon steelhead, fish weren't removed from the water for more that 3 or 4 seconds.

btw my biggest steelhead was the last one of me with a fish.

Derrick-k wrote:oregon steelhead, fish weren't removed from the water for more that 3 or 4 seconds.

Sam, do you know Oregon regs on removing wild steelies from the rivers? I would say the same...you shouldn't remove the fish from the river and have them on the bank/sand like that...you need to be gentle with these native fish and barely touch them...if at all possible. You'd actually be surprised at the amount of fish that do die from people hauling them aboard to measure the fish (on Puget Sound for Blackmouth)...or hauling them on shore and having them flop this way and that way...good job on catching these beautiful fish...just exercise extreme care when handling all your fish...native or hatchery...but especially native fish...because as Sam said WDFW does read this and they should...because many people on our rivers in WA do exactly what Sam alluded to and it ends up with fish that re-enter the river system and then die...which is truly sad.

Sam -- do you have the link of that forum for where fishnislife got in trouble with the WDFW for the contest... or was that thread deleted?

Trust me I did everything in my power to limit touching of the fish, I'm confidant they all survived.

Derrick-k wrote:Trust me I did everything in my power to limit touching of the fish, I'm confidant they all survived.

But that second picture down it shows the fish pushed up on the sand. Is that limiting the touching of the fish? You may be confident that they ALL survived, but that may not be the case. Steelies in Washington waters are protected like you won't believe. When I accidently hook them on the Cedar in June, I'm very careful releasing them and never put them on the sand or even lay a finger on them...just the tweezers to remove the fly.

Well that was my dad before I could say anything he had the fish in the sand, steelhead are tougher then you think.

Congrats. Those are beautiful fish. BTW, I like the old Quantum reels, too.

cutthroatkiller wrote:

Derrick-k wrote:Trust me I did everything in my power to limit touching of the fish, I'm confidant they all survived.

But that second picture down it shows the fish pushed up on the sand. Is that limiting the touching of the fish? You may be confident that they ALL survived, but that may not be the case. Steelies in Washington waters are protected like you won't believe. When I accidently hook them on the Cedar in June, I'm very careful releasing them and never put them on the sand or even lay a finger on them...just the tweezers to remove the fly.

You put some pics of some really nice fish and you get pounced on by the catch-and-release police.
I would not want to post a report or pic if I was a new visitor to this site.

lskiles wrote:

cutthroatkiller wrote:

Derrick-k wrote:Trust me I did everything in my power to limit touching of the fish, I'm confidant they all survived.

But that second picture down it shows the fish pushed up on the sand. Is that limiting the touching of the fish? You may be confident that they ALL survived, but that may not be the case. Steelies in Washington waters are protected like you won't believe. When I accidently hook them on the Cedar in June, I'm very careful releasing them and never put them on the sand or even lay a finger on them...just the tweezers to remove the fly.

You put some pics of some really nice fish and you get pounced on by the catch-and-release police.
I would not want to post a report or pic if I was a new visitor to this site.

It's a steelhead lskiles. In most waters you aren't allowed to even so much as remove them from the water, and you are required to release them in may rivers. To post steelhead getting dragged up on shore isn't exactly the smartest thing. Just because a fish swims off doesn't mean it is going to live. Most fishermen will call you out on the rivers if they see you dragging a steelhead up the bank...

lskiles wrote:

cutthroatkiller wrote:

Derrick-k wrote:Trust me I did everything in my power to limit touching of the fish, I'm confidant they all survived.

But that second picture down it shows the fish pushed up on the sand. Is that limiting the touching of the fish? You may be confident that they ALL survived, but that may not be the case. Steelies in Washington waters are protected like you won't believe. When I accidently hook them on the Cedar in June, I'm very careful releasing them and never put them on the sand or even lay a finger on them...just the tweezers to remove the fly.

You put some pics of some really nice fish and you get pounced on by the catch-and-release police.
I would not want to post a report or pic if I was a new visitor to this site.

Remember we're in the best interest of the fish, not the seasoned member. People in general don't know how to handle their fish, and this needs to be exploited more than it has been in months past. Furthermore, a report would have been awesome, but he doesn't want to "give up his hot spot." Like we'd go down there anyways. Like I said, great fish, awesome stuff, but just be judicious when it comes to C&R...and I think YOU are for the most part. If I saw someone drag a trout or steelhead or salmon up on the bank for a C&R routine...I'd call them out, you bet. Good job though on the catching part!

The only one dragged up on the bank was the small jack. Believe me I don't want to kill any natives.

Note to self: do not post pics of fish I've caught on the Internet

Shad_Eating_Grin wrote:Note to self: do not post pics of fish I've caught on the Internet

We aren't here to cut him down for catching fish. All I'm saying is that in most washington waters, what he is doing in some of these pictures is illegal. We simply tried to inform him about it....

Sam Kafelafish wrote:

Shad_Eating_Grin wrote:Note to self: do not post pics of fish I've caught on the Internet

We aren't here to cut him down for catching fish. All I'm saying is that in most washington waters, what he is doing in some of these pictures is illegal. We simply tried to inform him about it....

That's exactly right. Try not to take it out of context. Some people would come on here as guests or even members and extrapolate that to Washington waters and then we'd have fines being written left and right...Game Wardens being called and people forgetting their regs. Oregon is Oregon and Washington is Washington. I'd just hate to see someone get into trouble with the Game Department because of roughing a fish...especially a native, which are dear to our hearts up here in Washington State at least.

Sam Kafelafish wrote:

Derrick-k wrote:The only one dragged up on the bank was the small jack. Believe me I don't ant to kill any natives.

The last pic looks like it has been drug up the bank and has some sand on it???:-"

For god's sake let it go, there was water right underneath it.
I finally get into some good steelheading and all that happens is people start trowing out accusations.

It isn't going to kill a fish if it is out of the water for 2 seconds!!!!!!!!!!!