In response to friends complaining about the lack of hook ups in winter.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I have fifteen or twenty days in this winter fishing and do not have an adult to hand other than fishing the Trinity and Klamath, which I count differently from the coastal streams. Too many cast to count. Monday I make the same cast, manipulate the line and fly like so many others before and anticipate something happening on the swing. I feel something midway through the drift. Is it the fly rubbing bottom? It happens again. Now I know it is a fish. Finally it grabs solidly and pulls off twenty or thirty feet of line and comes loose on the first jump. I am charged up. Make five more cast and the same thing happens, soft pluck, another and a hook up. Fish runs way down river and running line get tangles on a snag. Hand the rod to my partner and wade out and lucky enough to get the line off the branch. Fish is still there but way down stream, fortunate enough that it could take line while engaged with the snag. Land the fish, ten pound bright hen. Go back to the part of the run I was at make three more cast and have another hook up, loose it on the first jump. Time to go home. So I make eight to ten cast and have three takes after making a thousand or so that is what keeps me coming back for more.

Bruce S

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

This email above is from a good friend who lives up in Eureka and a life long Steelheader.

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After the huge drought we had in California in the late 1970s our Steelhead were at a serious low point in numbers.

Today I still promote Fall (Sept/Oct/Nov) for Steelheading on longer rivers with a fly rod using classic methods.

Winter Steelheading has always been tough with a fly, especially using classic methods.

My friend Mike McCune, who has been a full time fly fishing guide for his entire life, said that the winter run Steelhead were the best bet to catch large wild fish.

At 73 I don't feel too much like going for the winter runs on shorter coastal rivers but I do have my memorizes of that cold lonely world.

I hope some of the younger crowd would keep up the tradition though.

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